Attack on Pearl Harbor 1941
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 7 December 1941 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1941 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | United States | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Oceania | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | South-East Asian theater of World War II | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Chūichi Nagumo, Empire of Japan, Husband E. Kimmel, Isoroku Yamamoto, Mitsuo Fuchida, United States | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 21.3650, -157.9500 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Empire of Japan launched a surprise military attack on the US Pacific Fleet at its naval base at Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. At the time, the US was a neutral country in World War II. The air raid on Pearl Harbor, which was launched from aircraft carriers, prompted the US to declare war on Japan the next day. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, and as Operation Z during its planning.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was preceded by months of negotiations between the US and Japan over the future of the Pacific. Japanese demands included that the US end its sanctions against Japan, cease aiding China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and allow Japan access to the resources of the Dutch East Indies. Japan dispatched its naval attack group on November 26, 1941, just before receiving the Hull note, which stated the US desire that Japan withdraw from China and French Indochina. Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, planned the attack as a pre-emptive strike on the Pacific Fleet, which had been based at Pearl Harbor since 1940 in order to prevent it from interfering with Japan's planned actions in Southeast Asia.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Attack on Pearl Harbor (revision 1380997506), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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