Today (December 7, 2009) is the 68th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. As a result of the attack there were 2,400 military personnel and even civilian casualties (2,403 to be exact). As many of us here in the history forum know this was 9/11 before there was a 9/11 and I just wanted to make this thread to reflect on the events and mourn for those lost. So I want to dedicate this thread to those lost in the Pearl Harbor attack and to all the military personnel who fought bravely that day and as a result throughout WWII. Link to some info: http://www.military.com/Resources/HistorySubmittedFileView?file=history_pearlharbor.htm
Major tactical blunder by the Japs to attack Pearl Harbor. Afterwards Yamamoto, I believe, said, "I'm afraid we've awoken a sleeping giant". Admiral Hara Tadaichi summed up the Japanese result by saying, "We won a great tactical victory at Pearl Harbor and thereby lost the war." 6 of the 8 battleships sunk or damaged were repaired and back in service before the end of the war and every ship in the Jap fleet that pulled off the attack was sunk before the end of the war. Two huge errors in the Jap strategy was ignoring the sub pens and not bombing the old HQ/admin bldg that housed the cryptanalytic unit, which we'd have not won at Midway without. Our subs did more by crippling Japan's transport ships than anything battleships did. Japan thought the naval war in the Pacific would be primarily a battleship war and hoarded battleships for a big deciding battle that never happened.
