Japanese Bombers Attack the U.S. Fleet Stationed at Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941
- Catholic Textbook Project
- Dec 2, 2024
- 3 min read
This text comes from our book, Light to the Nations, Part II.
Many people living in lands that had suffered under the Soviets or who were threatened by Stalin’s power welcomed Hitler’s invasion of Russia. These included Finland, Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria. As for Spain, Franco had declared his country neutral in the war; but, to pay Hitler back for his help in the Spanish Civil War, Franco allowed Spaniards to enlist in the German army—as long as they would be used only to fight on the Eastern Front, against Communists. Thousands of young Spanish men, many of them eager to join in an anti-Communist crusade, joined the “Blue Division,” so named because the official uniform was a red Carlist beret, khaki trousers, and the blue shirt of the Falange Española.
Yet, German victories against the Russians did not have the effect on Great Britain that Hitler may have wanted them to have. Though Stalin was a brutal Communist dictator, Winston Churchill said he would help him against Hitler. “Any man or state who fights against Nazidom will have our aid,” Churchill declared. “Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe . . . We shall give whatever help we can to Russia and the Russian people.” The invasion of Russia, moreover, made Hitler new enemies. Communists in France, who had been pro-German and had opposed war, now supported resistance to German rule. Communists in the United States, who had opposed U.S. entry into the European war, now demanded that the U.S. government actively aid Great Britain and Russia in their struggle against Hitler.
But the U.S. president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, did not need any Communist encouragement. Despite strong opposition to war in the country and Congress, Roosevelt had seen to it that the U.S. government sent military aid to Great Britain, as well as foodstuffs and other services. In 1940, he and Congress began preparing for war by building a two-ocean navy and instituting the first peacetime draft in the history of the United States. Following Hitler’s invasion of Russia, Roosevelt extended aid to the Soviets as well.
Germany was not the only country that worried Roosevelt; he was wary of Japan as well. Encouraged by Germany’s invasion of Russia, Japan began her own campaign to establish an empire in the western Pacific and East Asia. Japan had already been at war with China, but now she turned her attention to the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indochina. When Japanese forces seized French Indochina in the summer of 1941, Roosevelt took steps to defend the nearby Philippines. Along with Great Britain, Roosevelt cut off Japan’s ability to borrow money and blocked her from obtaining rubber, scrap iron, and fuel oil—materials Japan desperately needed to carry on her wars. When the Japanese government demanded that the United States remove these restrictions, Roosevelt resolutely refused.
Roosevelt knew that his refusals would likely inspire Japan to some warlike act against the United States. He was not wrong. At 6 a.m. on December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a squadron of bombers and winged fighters from a fleet anchored 275 miles north of the U.S. Pacific naval base of Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands. About two hours later, the Japanese squadron struck the U.S. fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor, sinking two battleships, severely damaging several others, and destroying 149 airplanes. Of the American soldiers, sailors, and civilians at Pearl Harbor, 2,403 were killed and 1,178 wounded.
Roosevelt called December 7, 1941, the “day that shall live in infamy.” U.S. citizens, most of whom had opposed their nation’s entry in the war, now called for vengeance. On December 8, Congress, at the urging of President Roosevelt, declared war on Japan. Three days later, true to their alliance with Japan, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.
The entry of the United States turned what had been a war between European powers into a true worldwide war. It linked Japan’s war in the Pacific and Germany’s war in Europe into one struggle that pitted democratic nations and the totalitarian Communist regime of Josif Stalin against the totalitarian and militaristic governments of Germany, Italy, and Japan. Though Japan still had victories to win in the Pacific, in Europe the days of Hitler’s great offensive victories were over. From now on, Hitler had to fight a defensive war on two fronts against enemies that would only grow stronger—while Germany’s ability to wage war grew weaker and weaker before, in the end, it utterly collapsed.
