Attack on
Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941
By Ashley Potoukian
and
Leah Vincent
Timeline courtesy of
National Geographic
Pearl Harbor
Before Attack
December 7, 1941
6:10 a.m.
• Already in flight,
Comdr. Mitsuo
Fuchida, who will
lead the Japanese
air attack on Pearl
Harbor, sees the
Japanese aircraft
carriers rocking on a
choppy sea.
• As the carriers pitch
and roll, waves
crash across on the
flight decks.
Crewmen cling to
the aircraft to keep
them from going
over the side.
CAPT. MITSUO FUCHIDA
• Fuchida was the
air-strike leader of
the Japanese
carrier force that
attacked Pearl
Harbor.
• Considered one of
Japan’s most
skillful fliers, he
had gained combat
experience during
air operations over
China in the late
1930s.
December 7, 1941
6:10 a.m.
• The carriers turn
into the wind,
and the first
wave of planes—
183 fighters,
bombers, and
torpedo planes—
roar into the sky.
• Pilots reconfirm
their navigation
by using a
Honolulu radio
station’s music as
a guiding beam.
December 7, 1941
7:02 a.m.
• One of two privates on
duty at the new Opana
Mobile Radar Station
on Oahu looks at the
radar oscilloscope and
can’t believe his eyes.
He asks his buddy to
take a look—and he
confirms the sighting:
50 or more aircraft on
a bearing for Oahu.
• The privates call the
Fort Shafter
information center, the
hub of the radar
network.
December 7, 1941
7:20 a.m.
• Army Lieutenant
Kermit Tyler gets the
Opana radar station
report. By now the
planes are about 70
miles away.
• The lieutenant believes
that the radar had
picked up a flight of
U.S. B-17 Flying
Fortress bombers
heading from
California to Hawaii.
For security reasons,
he cannot tell this to
the radar operators.
All he says is, “Well,
don’t worry about it.”
December 7, 1941
7:33 a.m.
• President Franklin D.
Roosevelt and Gen.
George C. Marshall,
Army Chief of Staff,
learn that Japanese
negotiators in
Washington have
been told to break
off talks.
• Believing this may
mean war, Marshall
sends a warning to
Lt. Gen. Walter C.
Short, commander of
U.S. Army forces in
Gen. George C. Marshall Hawaii.
December 7, 1941
7:33 a.m.
• Because atmospheric
static blacks out
communications with
Hawaii, Marshall’s
message to Short
goes via commercial
telegraph.
• It will reach Short’s
headquarters at 1145
hours. He will not see
it until about 1500
hours.
Gen. William C. Short
December 7, 1941
7:40 a.m.
• Planes of the first
wave take off
from the
Japanese
carriers—49 high-
altitude bombers,
51 dive-bombers,
40 torpedo
planes, 43
fighters.
• They fly through
clouds, wondering
if Pearl Harbor
will be visible.
December 7, 1941
7:40 a.m.
• Then, as they near
Oahu, the attack
commander hears a
Honolulu weather
report: “Clouds
mostly over the
mountains. Visibility
good.”
• The clouds break.
The fliers see “a long
white line of coast”—
Oahu’s Kakuku
Point.
December 7, 1941
7:55 a.m.
• At the Command
Center on Ford
Island, Comdr.
Logan C. Ramsey
looks out a window
to see a low-flying
plane. A reckless
U.S. pilot, he
thinks.
• Then he sees
“something black
fall out of that
plane” and realizes
it’s a bomb.
December 7, 1941
7:55 a.m.
• Ramsey runs to
a radio room
and orders the
telegraph
operators to
send out an
uncoded
message to
every ship and
base: AIR RAID
ON PEARL
HARBOR X THIS
IS NOT DRILL
December 7, 1941
7:55 a.m.
• The coordinated attack
begins as dive-
bombers strike the
Army Air Forces’
Wheeler Field and
Hickam Field. The
Japanese, wanting
control of the air, hope
to destroy American
warplanes on the
ground.
• Most U.S. planes have
been parked wingtip-
to-wingtip in neat rows
to make it easy to
guard them against
sabotage. Most are
destroyed.
December 7, 1941
8:10 a.m.
• An armor-piercing
bomb, dropped by
a high-altitude
bomber, pierces
the forward deck
of the Arizona,
setting off more
than a million
pounds (450,000
kilograms) of
gunpowder,
creating a huge
fireball, and killing
1,177 men.
December 7, 1941
8:54 a.m.
• The second
wave—35
fighters, 78
dive-
bombers,
and 54 high-
altitude
bombers—
meets heavy
antiaircraft
fire.
December 7, 1941
8:54 a.m.
• Bombers attack the
navy yard dry dock
and hit the
battleship
Pennsylvania.
• Another bomber hits
oil tanks between
the destroyers
Cassin and Downes.
Onboard
ammunition
explodes, and the
Cassin rolls off her
blocks and into the
Downes.
December 7, 1941
8:54 a.m.
December 7, 1941
8:54 a.m.
• Bombs hit the
light cruiser
Raleigh, which
had been
torpedoed in
the first wave.
Crewmen
jettison gear
to keep her
from
capsizing.
December 7, 1941
10:00 a.m.
• Japanese fighters
rendezvous with bombers
off Oahu and follow them
back to the carriers.
• Exultant Japanese pilots
urge a third strike. If the
gasoline tanks at Pearl
Harbor are hit, they
reason, the Pacific Fleet
will be out of action for
weeks.
• But superiors, saying the
attack has been
successful, rule out a
third strike. One reason:
the whereabouts of the
U.S. carriers is still
unknown.
December 7, 1941
10:30 a.m.
• From the ships and
airfields come the
wounded—some
horribly burned,
others riddled by
bullets and shrapnel.
• At some hospitals
casualties are laid
out on lawns. Medics
convert barracks,
dining halls, and
schools into
temporary hospitals.
December 7, 1941
10:30 a.m.
• For many severely
wounded and dying
men, all nurses can
do is give them
morphine. They then
put a lipstick M on
their foreheads to
indicate the
painkilling drug.
• Trucks become
ambulances and
hearses. The death
toll eventually
reaches 2,390.
December 7, 1941
1:00 p.m.
• The Pearl Harbor strike
force turns for home.
• In the 44 months of
war that will follow, the
U.S. Navy will sink
every one of the
Japanese aircraft
carriers, battleships,
and cruisers in this
strike force.
• And when Japan signs
the surrender
document on
September 2, 1945,
among the U.S.
warships in Tokyo Bay
will be a victim of the
attack, the U.S.S. West
Virginia.
December 7, 1941
2:30 p.m.
• CBS Radio
interrupts its
Sunday
afternoon
programming
to announce
the attack on
Pearl Harbor.
December 8, 1941
12:29 p.m.
• The President, still on
his son’s arm, enters
the Chamber of the
House, is introduced
briefly by Speaker Sam
Rayburn, and receives a
thunderous ovation.
• For the past nine years,
Republicans had shown
little enthusiasm toward
the President when he
addressed a Joint
Session of Congress.
This time, the
Republicans join in,
signifying the nation’s
sudden unity.
December 8, 1941
12:29 p.m.
• Solemnly, he
begins his speech
requesting a
declaration of war:
“Yesterday,
December 7,
1941—a date
which will live in
infamy—the United
States of America
was suddenly and
deliberately
attacked by naval
and air forces of
the Empire of
Japan.”
Losses from Pearl Harbor
Personnel United States Japan
Killed
Navy 1998 64
Marine Corps 109
Army 233
Civilian 48
Personnel United States Japan
Wounded
Navy 710 Unknown
Marine Corps 69
Army 364
Civilian 35
Losses from Pearl Harbor
United States Japan
Ships
Sunk or
beached 12 5
Damaged 9
Aircraft
Destroyed 164 29
Damaged 159 74
Remember Pearl Harbor!