The attack on Pearl Harbor was conducted by two waves of Japanese aircraft—353 planes in all—taking off from six aircraft carriers. For two hours, the planes rained bombs and torpedoes on eight U.S. battleships in Pearl Harbor, as well as on four destroyers, three cruisers, and dozens of planes parked on nearby airfields. In the end, 2,403 U.S. personnel were killed, making Pearl Harbor the worst naval disaster in American history.
Yet the attack shouldn’t have come as a complete surprise. For more than a decade, a militaristic Japan had expanded into neighboring territories. By 1942, much of Asia was under Japanese occupation, including the Philippines; what is today Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos; and large swaths of mainland China. Japan justified its actions by arguing that it needed natural resources like oil, and as a regional power had a right to dominate the continent. The U.S., with help from Britain and the Netherlands, responded by imposing an embargo that cut off 90 percent of Japan’s oil, jeopardizing its economy.
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the Harvard-educated commander of the Japanese fleet, persuaded Japan’s leaders that a single decisive strike like the one on Pearl Harbor would force the U.S. to end the embargo.
Instead, the devastating blow unified America for an all-out fight. President Roosevelt, a former secretary of the Navy, knew how unprepared the U.S. was militarily, but he inspired Americans to bear down and build a war machine. The result was a breathtaking mobilization that produced enough planes and ships to ultimately defeat the Japanese.
In August 1945, Roosevelt’s successor, Harry S. Truman, ordered the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki—a controversial decision that is still debated today. On August 15, the Japanese announced their surrender.
After the war, General Douglas MacArthur and his staff shrewdly sent in shiploads of food to a decimated Japan. They allowed Japan to keep its emperor but downgraded him to a figurehead without real political power. Closely studying Japan’s sociology and politics, they worked diligently to reshape the nation’s militaristic mind-set. They helped write a parliamentary constitution that renounced war and prohibited “land, sea, and air forces,” though it permitted civilian-controlled “Self-Defense Forces.” The difference between offense and defense can be murky, yet Japan hasn’t sent a soldier into combat since 1945, and unlike some other industrialized nations, hasn’t developed nuclear weapons.