This infographic concerns the Japanese attack of December 7, 1941, on Pearl Harbor, the base of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Below a large frontal image of a Japanese military aircraft, flanked by small U.S. and Japanese flags, the infographic displays a quotation from U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech to Congress on December 8, 1941: “Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” The infographic then presents a timeline of key events, a chart enumerating Japan’s aerial attacking force, maps of the attack, and charts on its aftermath.
Timeline
The infographic provides a timeline of key events on the morning of December 7, 1941, related to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
At 3:42 AM (Hawaiian time) the minesweeper USS Condor sights what may be a submarine periscope near the entrance to Pearl Harbor.
At 6:10 AM the first wave of planes, numbering nearly 200, takes off from aircraft carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Pearl Harbor Strike Force, which is positioned some 275 miles (440 km) north of Oahu.
At 6:45 AM the destroyer USS Ward fires on a Japanese submarine. These are the first shots fired by the United States in World War II.
At 6:53 AM the captain of the Ward radios the headquarters of the Fourteenth Naval District, responsible for defending the Hawaiian Islands, “We have attacked, fired upon, and dropped depth charges upon submarine operating in defensive sea area” near Pearl Harbor. The district commandant, assuming this to be an isolated incident the Ward and a relief destroyer can handle, takes no action. The commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet decides to await confirmation before acting.
At 7:02 AM a U.S. Army radar operator on Oahu spots a large formation of unidentified aircraft heading toward the island.
At 7:20 AM an army lieutenant disregards this radar report, believing that it indicates a flight of U.S. planes, possibly B-17 bombers scheduled to arrive that day.
At 7:40 AM the first wave of Japanese aircraft reaches Oahu.
At 7:49 AM the first wave’s commander orders the attack on Pearl Harbor to proceed.
At 7:55 AM the coordinated attack on Pearl Harbor begins.
At 8:10 AM the battleship USS Arizona explodes.
At 8:17 AM the destroyer USS Helm fires on and sinks a Japanese submarine at the entrance to the harbor.
At 8:54 AM the second wave of Japanese planes, numbering nearly 170, begins its attack.
At 9:30 AM the destroyer USS Shaw explodes in dry dock.
At 10:00 AM the Japanese planes head back to their carriers, which will ultimately return to Japan.
Japan’s aerial attacking force
The infographic provides a chart showing a block of red aircraft icons, each representing a single torpedo plane, high-level bomber, dive bomber, or fighter in the Japanese attacking force. According to the chart, a total of 353 planes were involved in the attack. Of those, 29 planes, shaded dark red on the chart, failed to return to their carriers after the attack.
The chart also notes that the Japanese navy’s Pearl Harbor Strike Force consisted of some 67 ships (6 of them aircraft carriers). Most of them were positioned more than 200 miles north of Oahu during the attack. Finally, the chart notes that only one Japanese ship that participated in the attack survived till the end of World War II.
Maps
The infographic presents three maps to aid in visualizing the Pearl Harbor attack, including the dispositions of the attackers and their targets.
Hawaiian Islands
The first map locates Oahu, the site of the U.S. Naval Station at Pearl Harbor, among the major islands of the Hawaiian chain.
Oahu
The second map shows the routes that the first and second waves of attacking Japanese aircraft flew over Oahu—the first wave in red, the second in white. In addition, this map locates the targeted U.S. airfields on Oahu, marked by white airplane icons. Most of the flight paths converge on a cloverleaf-shaped inlet at the center of the island’s southern coast. This is Pearl Harbor. Within a quarter of an hour of reaching the harbor, Japanese dive bombers and fighters in the first wave had subjected the various airfields to savage attack. As an anti-sabotage measure, the U.S. military aircraft were packed tightly together at the Naval Air Station on Ford Island and nearby Wheeler and Hickam fields, and most of those planes were destroyed on the ground by Japanese bombing and strafing.
Pearl Harbor
Japanese flight paths
The third map focuses on the harbor itself, showing the directions from which swarms of Japanese planes in the first wave swooped in: mainly from the northwest over Pearl City, from the northeast over Aiea Bay, and from the south over the submarine base. Most of the Japanese pilots seem to have concentrated their attack on “Battleship Row,” seven heavy warships moored close together off the southeast side of Ford Island, in the south-central part of the harbor. Of even greater strategic value were the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s aircraft carriers, whose two berths also lay off the island. However, to the disappointment of the Japanese, neither of those ships was there that morning.
South of Ford Island on the map is an area of land labeled U.S. Naval Station. This was the Navy Yard—the nerve center of the base—including administrative buildings, machine shops, and dry docks. At the yard’s east and west ends, the map locates the base’s oil storage tanks. This fuel supply was vital to Pearl Harbor’s ability to function as a major naval base, and yet the Japanese pilots failed to target, much less destroy it. Because the machine shops were also spared, ship repairs could begin soon after the attack.
U.S. ships
The map of Pearl Harbor locates the U.S. ships present during the attack and names those that were hit. The extent of damage that each ship suffered is indicated by the ship’s color—dark blue for total loss, light blue for damage later repaired, and white for no damage.
According to the map, the vessels deemed a total loss were the battleships Arizona and Oklahoma and the former battleship and then target ship Utah. Silhouettes of those ships are shown beside the map, along with that of the battleship West Virginia, which, though damaged and sunk, was eventually repaired and returned to service. As noted above that vessel’s silhouette, the West Virginia was the only ship attacked at Pearl Harbor that was also present during Japan’s formal surrender on September 2, 1945.
The other U.S. Navy vessels damaged and later repaired, according to the map, were the battleships California, Maryland, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee; the light cruisers Helena, Honolulu, and Raleigh; the destroyers Cassin, Downes, and Shaw; the repair ship Vestal; the seaplane tender Curtiss; and the minelayer Oglala.
Aftermath
Deaths
To aid in visualizing the human toll of the Pearl Harbor attack, the infographic presents a chart showing nearly 50 squares, each representing 50 people killed. Of those squares, 48 represent a total of 2,404 American military personnel and civilians who died. Within that set, 23½ gray squares stand for the 1,177 officers and seamen killed aboard the USS Arizona, and 1⅓ dark blue squares represent the 68 civilians killed. The chart juxtaposes those losses with total Japanese losses: 1¼ red squares, representing the 64 fliers and submariners killed (in addition, one submarine captain was taken prisoner).
Awards
The infographic concludes with a chart representing the number of U.S. military personnel who were officially recognized for their distinguished conduct during the Pearl Harbor attack: 15 received the Navy Medal of Honor, the service’s highest award for heroism in combat, and 51 received the Navy Cross, the service’s second highest award for heroism. In addition, the infographic notes that the Pearl Harbor Commemorative Medal was later given to all military veterans of the attack.