The Attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941: Living in Infamy

The Pearl Harbor Memorial rests atop the sunken USS. Arizona

Facts About the Attack on Pearl Harbor

• 

  Japanese attack routes on Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii

  Although the aerial attack was very successful, the submarines failed to finish off any wounded ship inside the harbour.

• The attack’s success surprised the Japanese as much as the Americans.
• The last part of the decoded Japanese message stated that U.S. relations were to be severed.
• The Japanese attack force was under the command of Admiral Nagumo.
• Japansese force consisted of six carriers with 423 planes.
• At 6 a.m. the first Japanese attack wave of 83 planes took off.
• Nickname for Pearl Harbor is “Gibraltar of the Pacific.”
• Eighteen U.S. ships were hit.

• 

  Franklin Delano Roosevelt

  President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy,” in reference to the attack.

• Three prime targets escaped damage, the U.S. Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers, the Lexington, Enterprise and Saratoga. They were not in the port when the attack took place.
• Another target, the base fuel tanks also escaped damage.
• Casualties included 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians.
• 1178 people were wounded.
• The day after the attack the U.S. and Britain declared war on Japan.
• Pearl Harbor is the Naval Base for the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
• Pearl Harbor is the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
• Pearl Harbor has 10 square miles of navigable water.
• The harbour is on the southern coast of Oahu.

• 

  Naval vessel placement at Pearl Harbor during the attack

  The harbour is artificially improved.

• The attack was the climax of a decade of worsening relations between the U.S. and militaristic Japan.
• A U.S. embargo on necessary supplies for war prompted the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• The Japanese Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku planned the attack with great care.
• All of the planes on the Japanese ships were fully fueled and armed.
• The Japanese planes took off about 90 minutes from Pearl Harbor.
• The president at the time of the attack was Franklin D. Rooselvelt.
• The attack brought the United States into World War II.
• The Japanese fleet had 30 ships.

• The Japanese were interested in the Hawaiian islands since the islands were annexed by the U.S. in 1898.
• An admiral said, “leaving aside the unspeakable treachery of it, the Japanese did a fine job.”
• Japanese suffered just small losses.
• The attack crippled the United States fleet.
• The Japanese deceived the U.S. by saying false statements and expressed interest in continued peace.
• Americans think of the attack as very dishonorable.
• The attack was planned weeks in advance.
• The main reason for the attack was over economic issues.

• Because of the unpreparedness of the U.S. military, Admiral Husband Kimmel and General Walter Short were relieved of duty.
• The attack severely crippled the U.S. naval and air strength in the Pacific.
• Of the eight battleships, all but the Arizona and Oklahoma were eventually repaired and returned to service.
• On December 8, 1941, Congress declared war on Japan with only one vote against it. The vote against it was of Represenative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who had also voted against U.S. entry into World War I.
• Once the fleet was out of action, Japan would be able to conquest a great area.
• A U.S. Army private who noticed the large flight of planes on his radar screen was told to ignore them because a flight of B-17s from the continental U.S. was expected at the time.
• More than 180 U.S. aircraft were destroyed.

• 

  Pearl Harbor Memorial

  During the attack the USS Arizona sank with a loss of more than 1,100 men.

• A white concrete and steel structure now spans the hull of the sunken ship as a memorial.
• The memorial was dedicated on May 30, 1962.
• U.S. officials had been aware that an attack by Japan was probable, but did not know the time or place it would occur.
• Pearl Harbor was not in the state of high alert when the attack started, Anti-Aircraft guns were left unmanned.
• The Americans were taken completely by surprise.
• The main targets for the first wave was the airfield and battleships.
• The second wave targets were other ships and shipyard facilities.
• The air raid lasted until about 9:45 a.m.

 

 

 

Special thanks to  www.bigsiteofamazingfacts.com and www.absoluteastronomy.com

 

The Panama Canal: Connecting Two Oceans and Innovating Travel

Promotional Poster for the Canal

Fun Facts About The Panama Canal

• The canal opened on July 12, 1920.

• Ships traveling between New York and San Francisco save 7,872 miles by using the Panama Canal instead of going around Cape Horn.

• The Atlantic entrance to the Canal is 22-1/2 miles west of the Pacific entrance.

• More than four and half million cubic yards of concrete went in to the construction of the locks and dams.

• Material originally excavated to build the Canal were put on to a train of flat cars, it would encircle the world four times.

• The locks of the Panama Canal are seven feet thick.

• Each door of the locks weights 750 tons.

• Due to the reclining “S” shape of the Isthmus of Panama the sun rises from the Pacific and sets in the Atlantic Ocean.

• The average sea level for the Atlantic and Pacific entrance is virtually the same. But since the tidal variation at the Pacific entrance can be up to 18 feet, a sea level canal would be faced with the problem of a current running northbound when the Pacific tide was high and a current running south bound when the tide was low.

• On February 29, 1968 the most transits on a single day with an amount of 65 ships crossing the isthmus was recorded.

• In June 1979 the U.S. Navy hydrofoil Pegasus made the fastest transit ever when it crossed the Panama Canal in record time of 2 hours and 41 minutes.

• Approximately 7,300 or nearly 92 percent of the work force of the Panama Canal is Panamanian.

• The 13,700 transit in 1996 carried more than 198 million long tons of cargo to ports throughout the world.

• More than 60,000,000 pounds of dynamite was used to excavate and construct the Panama Canal.

• The dam constructed across the Chagres River in Gatun created Gatun Lake , the largest man-made lake in the world at that time.
  

  Gatun Locks

• The rock and soil excavated from Culebra cut was used to build the shell of the dam at Gatun on the Atlantic side.

• Since 1904 due to accidents and health problems, 5609 workers lost their lives, constructing the Canal. 80% of them were Black and 350 were white Americans.

• On August 23, 1928 Richard Halliburton transited the Canal swimming , paying a toll of 36 cents since his weight was 150 pounds.

• The cruise ship Rhapsody of the Sea established a toll record in 1997 when it paid $153,662.66 to cross the water-way.

• The San Juan Prospector was the longest ship to transit the Canal; it was 751 ft. (229 m.) in length with a 107 ft. (32.6 m.) beam.

• In 1963 the Panama Canal for the first time started operating on a 24 hour, round-the-clock schedule, thanks to the introduction high mass fluorescent lighting.

• The Panama Canal in 1974 raised the toll rates for the first time since they were not breaking even.

• Excavation of the Canal was equal to digging a 10 feet trench deep by 55 wide from California to New York.

Special thanks to  web.bryant.edu and www.panamatours.com