12/07/2021
80 years ago, on the morning of December 7, 1941 at 7:55 local time, Japanese bombs began to fall on the airfields of Pearl Harbor. Bombs and torpedos also targeted the ships at anchor in the harbor, particularly the US battleships. Within 15 minutes, the USS Arizona's forward magazine would be ignited by a Japanese bomb, and over 1100 sailors would be lost in the blast, fire, and violent sinking of the vessel.
As bad as it was, though, it could have been worse.
Among the casualties on ‘Battleship Row’ on December 7th, the Arizona and Oklahoma were the only ships damaged beyond repair. Of the 2,026 American sailors and marines killed in the attack, 1,606 had been aboard these two ships.
The California, West Virginia, and Nevada sank upright in the shallow water of the harbor and were ultimately able to be salvaged. Tennessee and Maryland were damaged but back in service by February 1942, and the Pennsylvania received only one bomb hit while in drydock and returned to service as scheduled.
Also, Japan was so focused on destroying the battleships that they passed up other targets of opportunity. Had they targeted the navy repair yards and oil tank farms, they could have caused the entire fleet to have to retreat to the west coast of the American mainland, setting back Pacific Theater operations for months if not years.
Admiral Hara Tadaichi summed up the Japanese result by saying, “We won a great tactical victory at Pearl Harbor and thereby lost the war.”
