THE ATTACK
The morning of 7 December 1941 was an inauspicious one for the island of Oahu. A clear Hawaiian sky hung over Pearl Harbor, broken only with a few smudges of clouds. Among the 130 vessels stationed there were nine battleships, seven of which were concentrated along Battleship Row, on the southeastern coast of Ford Island, sailors snoozing atop still waters.
These were tense times, with vague rumblings of an imminent Japanese attack, one that always seemed but a few steps away. Though the Japanese appeared to lack the capacity for a direct assault, sabotage by the island’s local Japanese residents was a distinct possibility, and Americans had arranged their aircraft in groups across the Kaneohe Bay, Hickam, Wheeler and Bellows airfields.
Little did they know, 260 miles north a storm was brewing; a gargantuan Japanese fleet of 33 ships approached. As dawn cracked across the sky, the Zero fighters departed from their carriers amid a hail of bravado and began circling overhead. Standing on the Akagi carrier, Commander Mitsuo Fuchida wrapped a hachimaki band around his head emblazoned with “Certain Victory” and readied to lead 183 planes in V-formation towards Hawaii. The crew were enraptured. This was their moment; the Empire of Japan was crossing the Rubicon.
At 6.45am, USS Ward spotted the
