70th anniversary of Pearl Harbour Day
U.S. commemorate Pearl Harbour attack. December 7th 2011 will be the day of 70th anniversary of Japanese attack to Pearl Harbour. Let’s remember the Pearl Harbour Day!!!!!
“A Day That Will Live In Infamy” – Pearl Harbor, 70 years on…
This Wednesday, December 7th, 2011 marks the 70th anniversary of the Japanese surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, an event that brought the United States into the Second World War and opened up the so called ‘Pacific War’.
Japan had been engaged in a war of expansion into China since the mid 1930s and the 1940 invasion of French-Indochina to cut off supplies. This act resulted in the United States to embargo oil exports, cutting off the Japanese Navy. In order to secure oil supplies, the Japanese turned their attention to the Dutch East Indies, and the Philippine Islands, an American territory and sure to provoke an American response.
Rather than wait and react to America, the Japanese High Command instead decided to launch a pre-emptive strike on the US Pacific Fleet, stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The attack, code named Operation AI, involved a total of six aircraft carriers and more than 300 aircraft, and their escorts. The Attack began at approximately 7:48 local time on the morning of December 7thand achieved total surprise. A total of four battleships, three cruisers, three destroyers and anti-aircraft training ship and one minelayer were sunk, two of the battleships would never be re-floated, with a further 4 battleships suffering damage. One hundred and eighty eight US aircraft were destroyed and more than 2400 Americans killed, with a further 1282 wounded. The Japanese lost only 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 65 servicemen killed or wounded.
On the day following the attack, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his now famous “Day of Infamy” speech and the US declared war on Japan and entered the Second World War on the side of the Allies.
Today, the still submerged wreck of the battleship USS Arizona is marked as a memorial to the attack. The battleship USS Missouri (BB63), the ship aboard which the Japanese signed their surrender to the Allies is permanently moored 460m from the Arizona. (http://ttglibrary.wordpress.com)
