Today America remembers the 81st anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. This remembrance is particularly meaningful to the U.S. Navy. But it has the greatest significance to our Submarine Force, because it was their selfless contributions to the Second World War that suggest that December 7th, 1941 was actually the day that Imperial Japan won a battle, but lost the war.
World War II provided some of our greatest challenges, our greatest successes, our greatest heroes, and also our greatest sacrifices. And here in Pearl Harbor, we can actually see the most visceral reminders of the complete cycle of the war: it's opening salvo, the seeds of our eventual victory, and even the war’s conclusion. That makes Pearl Harbor unique – where else in the world is there such a singular vantage point for the breadth of such a major conflict?
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"A day which will live in infamy."
That was how President Franklin Delano Roosevelt described Dec. 7, 1941, as he one day later asked Congress to declare war against the Empire of Japan.
In a surprise attack that began at 7:48 a.m. that sunny Sunday December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, led by Japanese Captain Mitsuo Fuchida, attacked the Naval Station Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii. Without caution and without a declaration of war, the Japanese Navy killed 2,403 American non-combatants and injured 1,178 others. We also lost four U.S. Navy battleships; destroyed 188 U.S. aircraft; and three destroyers, one minelayer, an anti-aircraft training ship, and three cruisers were sank or damaged.
It is believed that the Japanese military had hoped that this attack on Pearl Harbor would prevent the United States of America from increasing its influence in the Pacific. However, this attack on Pearl Harbor actually led to the escalation of World War II. On December 8, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan; Congress approved his declaration. The United States declared war on Japan and so entered World War II. In a speech to Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called the bombing of Pearl Harbor "a date which will live in infamy.". Shortly afterwards, Germany also declared war on the United States. America would never be the same!
Ten days after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, submariner and then Rear Admiral, Admiral Chester Nimitz was selected by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to be commander-in-chief, United States Pacific Fleet (CINCPACFLT). He was promoted to the rank of admiral, effective December 31, 1941. He immediately departed Washington for Hawai'i and took command in a ceremony on the top deck of the submarine USS Grayling (SS 209). The change of command ceremony would normally have taken place aboard a battleship, but every battleship in Pearl Harbor had been either sunk or damaged during the attack.
"When I assumed command of the Pacific Fleet on 31 December, 1941; our submarines were already operating against the enemy, the only units of the Fleet that could come to grips with the Japanese for months to come. It was to the Submarine Force that I looked to carry the load until our great industrial activity could produce the weapons we so sorely needed to carry the war to the enemy. It is to the everlasting honor and glory of our submarine personnel that they never failed us in our days of peril." Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief, United States Pacific Fleet.
In a letter by Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Japan’s mastermind of the Pearl Harbor attack, to a fellow admiral following their success at Pearl Harbor, he said, "This war will give us much trouble in the future. The fact that we have had a small success at Pearl Harbor is nothing. The fact that we have succeeded so easily has pleased people. I do not think it is a good thing to whip up propaganda to encourage the nation. People should think things over and realize how serious the situation is."
The Big Mistake
But one thing the Japanese didn’t think to take out was Pearl Harbor Submarine Base (circled) – a decision that would prove costly to them by the end of the war.
The U.S. had a relatively small submarine force in the Pacific, so that could be why the Japanese didn’t strike Pearl Harbor Submarine Base. But that was a decision they likely regretted. U.S. subs were quickly able to take the war back to Japan’s homeland, sinking ships all along its shoreline.
Even though the U.S. Submarine Force represented only 1.5 percent of the U.S. Navy, by the end of the war, it was credited with destroying 1,314 vessels in the Pacific, including eight aircraft carriers, a battleship and 11 cruisers. U.S. subs sank 1,200 Japanese merchant ships carrying nearly 5 million tons of supplies – 60 percent of Japan’s merchant losses.
Submarine successes during the war meant the U.S. was able to completely cut off Japan’s supply lines to the Indies and Southeast Asia, drastically reducing its ability to wage war.
USS Bowfin (SS 287) - “Pearl Harbor Avenger”
Launched one year to the day after the Oahu attack on December 7, 1941, the submarine USS Bowfin, nicknamed the “Pearl Harbor Avenger” by its factory workers; fulfilled its name and become one of the most decorated submarines of World War II. The USS Bowfin completed nine successful war patrols before eventually arriving at her final, peacetime berth in the waters of Pearl Harbor.
Like her namesake – a scrappy, mean looking fish with powerful jaws, sharp teeth and a voracious appetite - the USS Bowfin proved a formidable underwater adversary, sinking 44 enemy ships during WWII. The Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee (JANAC) of 1947 credited Bowfin with sinking 67,882 tons of enemy warships.
USS Bowfin Battle Flag
The Pearl Harbor Memorial - USS Arizona (BB 39)
The Pearl Harbor memorial, otherwise known as the USS Arizona Memorial, is a National Monument located at the site of the sunken battleship USS Arizona (BB 39) in Pearl Harbor. Commemorating the 1,177 crewman who lost their lives in the attack on Pearl Harbor, it’s a tribute to World War II valor in the Pacific.
We Shall Never Forget!
On this 81st anniversary of December 7, President Roosevelt’s words still resonate as we commemorate National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day and remember the “Unconquerable Spirit” of the United States during World War II.
Without the attack on December 7, 1941, there’s no telling where the course of World War II might have led. Maybe the United States would have stayed out of the physical conflict long enough for Germany and Japan to gain an advantage over the Allies. If that had happened, Germany and Japan may have been the victors even if the U.S. had entered the war later on. It’s important to keep in mind the events of the past, as they help write the future even as they move ever further back in time.
Pearl Harbor touched many lives, both military and civilian. Although decades have passed since that ill-fated day in December of 1941, it remains as important today as it was over 81 years ago.
