Pearl Harbor : The attack that caused Japan's defeat and surrender

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the movement of the Japanese fleet led by Admiral Shoshi Nagumo towards Pearl Harbor in preparation for its attack, which caused America to enter World War II on the side of the Allies at the end of 1941, and Japan's defeat and surrender in 1945.

On November 26, 1941, Admiral Shoshi Nagumo at the head of the Japanese naval fleet moved towards the American port of Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean, where the sudden raid launched by the Japanese fleet on the port on December 7, 1941 ignited the Pacific War and entered America World War II against Japan and the Axis Powers.

The Japanese attack completely changed the course of human history and contributed to changing the course of the global war that was raging in Europe at the time in favor of the allies, after forcing the United States to enter the war with all its weight after it was satisfied with supporting the Europeans by selling weapons and granting financial loans to pay war bills This paved the way for the Allies to win the war in 1945.

As soon as the Americans entered the war in the Pacific, Washington began making plans and preparing to attack Japan and compel it to declare its surrender, which was actually achieved on August 14, 1945, after America targeted the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with two nuclear bombs, killing more than 200,000 civilians.

The road to Pearl Harbor

Although Japan was involved in a foreign war with China and its leaders realized that the attack on the American fleet in the Pacific would cause them to enter into a fierce war with the Americans, they decided to attack Pearl Harbor without any intention of occupying American lands. In the wake of the destruction of the American port, Japanese fighters and bombers returned to their aircraft carriers in preparation for their return to Japan.

Besides the common reason that the Japanese attack was a pre-emptive strike to keep the American fleet anchored in the Pacific Ocean from the war that Japan was planning to launch in Southeast Asia against Britain, the Netherlands and the United States, there is talk about other reasons that America used to blackmail Japan in order to find pretexts to enter World War II.

At a time when the majority of the American people rejected the involvement of their country in World War II, then US President Franklin Roosevelt was determined to enter the United States into the war on the side of the Allies, but he collided with an article in the American Constitution that prohibits the president from waging war on a foreign country before it happens On a declaration of war issued by Congress.

Therefore, when Roosevelt failed to blackmail Germany into attacking the United States, he turned his sights on Japan and began imposing a global oil embargo on it with the aim of paralyzing its ability to occupy China, so Japan attacked the American fleet anchored in the Pacific Ocean in order to paralyze America’s ability to intervene to stop Japanese military expansion Across Asia, Roosevelt got what he wanted and declared war on Japan.

Japanese attack

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor began at 7:48 am Hawaiian time, and was two air raids with the participation of 353 Japanese fighters launched from 6 Japanese aircraft carriers, in addition to several submarines that participated in the bombing of the American fleet anchored in the port and the destruction of American aircraft on the ground.

The Japanese attack ended 90 minutes after its start, and resulted in the sinking of 4 American warships and the destruction of 4 other battleships, and the sinking of 3 cruisers, 3 frigates, and a ship planting naval mines, in addition to the destruction of 188 American planes. The attacks resulted in the killing of 2,402 people and the injury of 1,282 others. While the Japanese losses were few and insignificant, as 29 Japanese planes crashed and 4 midget submarines sank, in addition to killing and wounding only 65 soldiers.

It should be noted that the second largest loss of the US Navy against the Japanese fleet was just two weeks before Japan announced its surrender, after a Japanese submarine sank the US Navy ship "Indiana Police" near the Philippine Islands on July 30, 1945, and most of its crew were killed. From one thousand and 195 sailors.

Loss of war

During World War I, the Japanese Empire managed to expand its territory towards Manchuria in 1931, through Jihul and Inner Mongolia, to China in 1937, and decided to enter World War II on September 27, 1940, after signing the Tripartite Agreement with Germany and Italy, in order to Combating the expansion of the Allies and America in the Pacific.

Contrary to the plan, the attack on Pearl Harbor failed to achieve its goal of completely destroying the American Pacific Fleet, as the Japanese attacks did not destroy fuel and ammunition tanks, maintenance facilities, and submarine docks, as well as the American aircraft carriers that left a few hours before the attack. Which enabled the United States to achieve a landslide victory in the Battle of Midway in June 1942, and change the tide of the war in the Pacific.

By the summer of 1944, the United States began carrying out intense strategic air raids on Japanese soil in an attempt to destroy cities and factories and destroy Japanese morale, and despite the killing of nearly 500,000 Japanese civilians during this bombing campaign, Japan did not surrender until the United States dropped two nuclear bombs. On the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in mid-August 1945, they killed about 200,000 civilians.