World War II in a Nutshell
The early morning of Sunday, 7 December 1941, was sunny, warm, and peaceful in Honolulu, Hawaii. The nearby United States naval facilities at Pearl Harbor had started to stir but also had a sedate atmosphere. Suddenly, at 07:55, hundreds of Japanese warplanes attacked the anchored American Pacific fleet. Over the course of the next two hours, the Japanese assault resulted in twenty-one ships damaged and/or sunk.
The US lost eight battleships in this unprovoked attack: the Arizona, the California, the Maryland, the Nevada, the Oklahoma, the Pennsylvania, the Tennessee, and the West Virginia. Additionally, either sunk or damaged were four light cruisers, three destroyers, one training ship, and five auxiliary craft. The Arizona alone had 1,177 dead. The Oklahoma lost 429 sailors and marines.
Of the more than 350 planes launched from Japan's recently built fleet carriers (large aircraft carriers), fewer than 10 percent were destroyed. In contrast, the US lost almost 200 aircraft, mainly on the ground at Ford Island, Bellows, Hickam, and Wheeler Fields, as well as Ewa Marine Corps Air Station, Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station, and Schofield Barracks. A small number of Army Air Corps fighters did get off the ground and downed about a dozen of the 29 Japanese aircraft destroyed. The Japanese lost sixty-eight pilots and sailors, and five midget submarines were sunk or beached, resulting in the capture of a prisoner.
The old battleship Utah, used for training, was also sunk but not repaired. Because the Japanese did not attack the submarine base, the fuel oil storage facility, or the naval repair shops, experts and technicians were flown in from the mainland and repaired ships that had been sunk or damaged in the harbor's shallow water, readying them for action within a year. Two exceptions were the battleships Arizona and Oklahoma, which suffered mortal wounds.
In total, the US Navy, Army, and Marine Corps lost 2,335 men (2,008 sailors, 218 soldiers, and 109 marines). Additionally, 68 civilians died in the sneak attack, for a total American death toll of 2,403. Another 1,178 men were wounded.
As a result of the Japanese attack on the US armed forces, Congress declared war on Japan on 8 December 1941. Three days later, Germany declared war on the United States, and within hours, Italy had also declared war on the US. America reciprocated with declarations of war on the European fascist nations.
This Month's Major War News: Allies and European Axis
On 13 December 1941, Hungary and Bulgaria declared war on the US; the Americans declared war against these Axis partners six months later.
The Battle of Moscow raged throughout December 1941 as the Nazis threatened to seize the Soviet capital city.
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The Japanese also started hostilities at other American bases, the largest of which was in the Philippines. On 10 December 1941, the Japanese landed on Luzon, the Philippines' main island, and bombed its capital, Manila. They also bombed the US Army's headquarters at Fort William McKinley and Nichols Airfield, as well as the US naval base at Cavite, eight miles southwest of Manila. The decision to withdraw all troops on Luzon to Bataan and to evacuate Manila was circulated 24 December.
Around Christmas 1941, the Japanese landed another estimated 100,000 soldiers on Luzon and Mindanao, the second-largest island in the Philippines. The last day of 1941 saw Manila and Cavite evacuated after more bombings and Japanese troops and armor closing in on these cities. The US took a lesson from the Russians and destroyed their military supplies to avoid capture and use by the enemy. Manila took a beating, and even Manila's oldest section, the walled city of Intramuros, was bombed and burned by the Japanese.
This Month's Major War News: Allies and Asian Axis
The Japanese attacked Guam, Hong Kong, Malaya (present-day Malaysia), Siam (present-day Thailand), and Wake Island on 7–8 December 1941.
Great Britain, China, and the Free French declared war on Japan on 8 December 1941.
In December, the Japanese attacked the oil-rich Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia), which consisted of thousands of islands, including Borneo, Celebes, Java, New Britain, New Guinea, and Sumatra.
On 16 December 1941, the Japanese seized Victoria Point (present-day Kawthaung) and its airfield in the southeasternmost area of Burma's (present-day Myanmar) Tenasserim (present-day Tanintharyi) region.
The Japanese captured Wake Island during the last week of December 1941; Hong Kong also surrendered.