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The Attack On Pearl Harbor Essay

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On Sunday Morning, 7 December 1941, the course of the United States (U.S.) was forever changed. At approximately 07:48 Hawaiian Time the morning calm was broken as the first of two waves consisting of 353 Imperial Japanese fighter aircraft, bombers, and torpedo planes originating from six Japanese aircraft carriers, stationed strategically 230 miles north of the Island of Oahu, commenced the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hickam Air Base, Wheeler Field, and Naval Air Stations Barbers Point and Kaneohe Bay. The onslaught continued for almost 90 minutes. In jeopardy, was a majority of the Pacific Fleet that had recently been moved there earlier in the year from the Naval Base at San Diego, California as part of a power projection plan instituted by the Roosevelt administration to deter Japanese expansion in the Pacific. At the end of the attack, the U.S. Pacific Fleet lay crippled almost pier side as they were moored at the time of the attack. As a result of the attack the U.S. incurred the loss of 2403 American lives with an additional 1178 being wounded. The U.S. had sustained extensive damage to all eight of her battleships with four being sunk, and three cruisers, three destroyers, one anti-aircraft training vessel, and a minesweeper were severely damaged. The U.S. Army Air Corps and naval aircraft losses were just as dramatic with the loss of 188 aircraft of all types. Miraculously, the U.S. Carriers the USS Lexington, USS Saratoga and the USS Enterprise were at sea at the

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