20 Facts About Pearl Harbor That the Average American Doesn’t Know

In 1925, a British journalist named Hector Bywater wrote a novel titled The Great Pacific War, in which he predicted a Japanese surprise attack in the Pacific. Japanese naval officers, including Isoroku Yamamoto, read and studied it. The book became their blueprint for action, even though Bywater died in 1940, just before his fiction became reality.

U.S. intelligence agencies believed that Japan could not attack Hawaii because its ships did not have enough fuel. The Japanese had secretly mastered the art of refueling at sea during the 1930s, and their fleet traveled more than 4,000 miles without being detected.

In early 1941, Great Britain and the United States discussed the possibility of splitting their naval forces to counter Japan in Southeast Asia. This plan would have involved withdrawing ships from Hawaii to protect Atlantic convoys. This strategic realignment left Pearl Harbor more vulnerable than anyone had imagined.

In July 1941, Roosevelt sent 25% of U.S. forces to Iceland to protect Atlantic shipping from German submarines. The battleships and cruisers set course northward, while the sailors traded the Hawaiian sun for the icy winds of Iceland. As a result, Pearl Harbor’s defenses were considerably weakened.

Two weeks before the attack, a strange advertisement appeared in The New Yorker, showing dice displaying the numbers 12 and 7 alongside images of air raids. Someone paid for it anonymously in cash. The FBI investigated the possibility of Japanese espionage but never solved the mystery of this strange coincidence.

At 3:42 a.m. on December 7, the USS Condor spotted a periscope near the harbor entrance and reported it. The crew searched the area but found nothing in the darkness. They concluded it was a false alarm, but it was actually a Japanese miniature submarine.

A Catalina patrol plane spotted another submarine periscope at 6:30 a.m. and dropped a smoke marker to indicate the location. Radio interference delayed the transmission of the alert to command. The alert was never relayed to wake up the entire port.

Two Japanese seaplanes flew over Pearl Harbor at 6:45 a.m. to confirm the absence of American aircraft carriers. Radar detected them, but the operators assumed they were friendly aircraft. The reconnaissance was ignored because radar technology was still in its infancy.

The USS Ward sank a Japanese miniature submarine at 6:45 a.m., more than an hour before the air raid began. Lieutenant William Outerbridge was on his first day of duty when he ordered the attack. His superiors did not believe the report until 2002.

Japan launched five small 46-metric-ton submarines to infiltrate the harbor and torpedo the battleships. All five failed due to navigation problems and American countermeasures. Nine of the ten crew members died without managing to hit a single target.

Admiral Husband Kimmel was supposed to play golf with General Walter Short that morning. He canceled the round at 7:00 a.m. after learning of the presence of submarines and rushed to headquarters. Both men were subsequently relieved of their duties despite Kimmel’s swift response.

The attack lasted only 75 minutes, from 7:55 a.m. to 9:10 a.m., with two waves of 353 planes. Japan unleashed maximum destruction in a shorter period of time than most movies. This brief attack spared key facilities that helped the United States recover quickly.

The sailors trapped aboard the USS West Virginia jumped into burning oil slicks to escape their sinking ship. Many swam through the flames and suffered horrific burns while trying to reach safety. The fires, fueled by the oil, turned the water itself into a deadly obstacle.

The USS Nevada attempted to escape from the harbor despite being hit by a torpedo and five bombs. Its crew deliberately ran the ship aground at Hospital Point to avoid blocking the entrance to the channel. This bold decision allowed the ship to be repaired and return to service during the war.

Japanese engineers converted 16-inch battleship shells into armor-piercing bombs specifically for this raid. One of these modified weapons blew up the USS Arizona’s ammunition magazine in a catastrophic explosion. They used this repurposed ammunition only at Pearl Harbor.

The Japanese pilots never targeted the 4.5 million barrels of oil stored at Pearl Harbor. Their orders prioritized sinking ships over destroying infrastructure. The undamaged fuel allowed the U.S. fleet to recover and resume operations within a few weeks.

Commander Mitsuo Fuchida sent the radio message “Tora! Tora! Tora!” at 7:53 a.m. to confirm that the attack had taken the Americans completely by surprise. The word means “tiger” in Japanese and comes from an ancient poem. It signaled to the fleet that the American defenses had been caught completely off guard.

Japan lost only 29 aircraft, five midget submarines, and 64 men, compared with 2,403 American deaths. These lopsided figures reflect just how much the element of surprise worked in their favor. One submariner, Kazuo Sakamaki, survived and became the first Japanese prisoner of war of the war.

An alert telegram from the War Department arrived after the attack had begun, because it had been sent via the Western Union commercial service. Due to delivery delays and non-urgent processing, the commanders never saw it in time. The message was decoded, but delivered with a considerable delay.

It is believed that Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto opposed the attack and warned that it would “awaken a sleeping giant.” He was outvoted by other officers who rejected diplomacy. Even Prince Takamatsu feared that the Japanese navy would collapse within two years.