Remember Pearl Harbor!

I could have titled this either under flight since it was the first major naval attack using airplanes or I could have titled it under this day in history since it happened on December 7 but I decided to neither and title it Remember Pearl Harbor!, a slogan which quickly became popular immediately after the attacks. President Roosevelt's words the following day sum up quite simply and quite well (especially considering I am posting this on December 8) what happened that day "Yesterday, December 7th, 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." The Japanese had, completely unprovoked, a nation with which they said they were at peace. Early Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, the Japanese navy and air force attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Hawaii by launching over 400 planes from 5 aircraft carriers and using them to bomb and launch torpedoes. They sank 5 battleships and 4 other ships and damaged at least 14 other ships. 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 more wounded. 188 American aircraft were also destroyed. But why would Japan do such a thing, especially to a nation they were supposedly at peace with? The reason is this: they desperately needed oil and other raw materials for their war with China so to get these materials they decided to conquer many of the islands in the Pacific, on which these materials were readily available. They knew that their main opposition would come from the U.S.A. To prevent American interference they tried to wipe out American power in the Pacific in one blow, by attacking Pearl Harbor. They failed miserably. But why did they fail if they killed so many men and sank so many ships? Well first of all out of the five battleships they sunk, one was not being used anymore and two others were pulled back up and repaired. Second and more importantly, battleships were outdated at the time of Pearl Harbor. The most important ship was the aircraft carrier, not the battleship, and all the American carriers were at sea at the time and were unharmed. The U.S. then used these carriers to quickly strike back at the Japanese and take the islands back one at a time until after 3 years, 8 months and 24 days of war, the Japanese surrendered. The question then is why did the Japanese make such a suicidal and shortsighted attack? The answer to that question is that they did not understand the American ideology and philosophy. They believed that they could shatter American resolve and morale in one blow, but instead they strengthened American resolve so much that the U.S. decided they were going to defeat Japan no matter what the cost and no matter how long it took. As was said at the time "they awoke a sleeping giant".

These pictures are from top to bottom:

The USS Arizona burning.
A Japanese aerial photo of Pearl Harbor under attack.
The USS Maryland and the capsized USS Oklahoma.
An army airfield burning.
The USS Arizona exploding.
The USS Arizona burning.
Burning ships in Pearl Harbor dry docks.
USS Virginia burning.