Attack on Pearl Harbour
USS SHAW exploding Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbour was a surprise military strike by Japan against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941.
Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the US Pacific Fleet from interfering with its planned military actions in Southeast Asia.
Over the course of seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the US-held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan.
Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was later judged in the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime.
Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the US Pacific Fleet from interfering with its planned military actions in Southeast Asia.
Over the course of seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the US-held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan.
Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was later judged in the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime.
Attack on Pearl Harbor adapted from Wikipedia and licensed by The Cultural Me under CC BY SA 3.0