Warplanes of Japan: IJN attack on Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941
Pearl Harbor
On 07:48 on Sunday morning, 7 Dec 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a carrier borne air attack in two waves against the USN warships and USAAF aircraft and installations based on the island of Oahu including Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Japanese General Staff variously named the plans for the attack as the “Hawaii Operation”, “Operation AI” and “Operation Z” by the Japanese was a surprise military strike on the morning of 7December 1941.
The object of the attack was to disable the American Pacific Battle Fleet and to prevent or delay American intervention against Imperial Japanese Navy operations planned for the territories of the British, Dutch and French colonial empires in Southeast Asia. There were simultaneous Japanese attacks on the US-held Philippines and on the British forces in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Aichi D3A Vals from the IJN Carrier Akagi. (IJN Photos)
Mitsubishi A6M2 Model 21 Zero-Sen (Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter), codename “Zeke”, IJN carrier Akagi, 7 Dec 1941. (IJN Photo)
Nakajima B5N2 torpedo bomber, code-named Kate. (IJNAF Photo)
The US naval base at Pearl Harbor was attacked by 353 Japanese aircraft including Mitsubishi A6M2 Zeke fighters, Aichi D3A Val dive bombers and Nakajima B5N Kate torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six IJN aircraft carriers.
Four US Navy battleships were sunk and four others damaged. Three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship and one minelayer were also sunk or crippled. The Japanese air attack also concentrated on surrounding airfields, where 188 US aircraft and hangers were destroyed. Casualties on the ground were calculated at 2,402 men killed and a further 1,282 wounded. The Japanese lost 29 aircraft and five midget submarines, with 65 servicemen killed or wounded. One Japanese sailor was captured.
The attack on Pearl Harbor immediately propelled the United States into conflict with Japan and its Axis allies, both in the Pacific and in Europe.
Photograph from a Japanese plane of Battleship Row at the beginning of the attack. The explosion in the center is a torpedo strike on the USS Oklahoma. Two attacking Japanese planes can be seen: one over the USS Neosho and one over the Naval Yard. (IJNAF Photo)
Photograph taken from the air by another Japanese aircraft during the attack on Pearl Harbor. (IJNAF Photo)
(USN Photo)
Mitsubishi A6M Zeke wreckage being recovered from Pearl Harbor, one of the 29 IJNAF aircraft shot down during the 7 Dec 1941 attack.
Mitsubishi A6M Zeke wreckage found after the attack on Pearl Harbor, one of the 29 IJNAF aircraft shot down during the 7 Dec 1941 attack. (USN Photo)
Mitsubishi A6M Zeros are covered in detail on a separate page on this website.
Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero Model 52 in IJNAF service. (IJNAF Photos)
Axis Warplane Survivors
A guidebook to the preserved Military Aircraft of the Second World War Tripartite Pact of Germany, Italy, and Japan, joined by Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia; the co-belligerent states of Thailand, Finland, San Marino and Iraq; and the occupied states of Albania, Belarus, Croatia, Vichy France, Greece, Ljubljana, Macedonia, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Manchukuo, Mengjiang, the Philippines and Vietnam.
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