Pearl Harbor

By Stephanie Fitzgerald

President Franklin D. Roosevelt called December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy." Early that morning hundreds of Japanese fighter planes unexpectedly attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. More than 2,000 Americans were killed and the battleships of the Pacific Fleet lay in ruins. The brutal attack launched the United States into war, a conflict that engulfed the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
• Release date: May 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9780756565169

Stephanie Fitzgerald

Stephanie Fitzgerald has been writing nonfiction for children for more than 10 years. Her specialties include history, wildlife, and popular culture. Stephanie is currently working on a picture book with the help of her daughter, Molly.

Book preview

Eyewitness to World War II: Pearl Harbor by Stephanie Fitzgerald

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER

TITLE PAGE

CHAPTER ONE: SURPRISE ATTACK

CHAPTER TWO: THE ROAD TO PEARL HARBOR

CHAPTER THREE: PLANS FOR THE ATTACK

CHAPTER FOUR: BEFORE THE ATTACK

CHAPTER FIVE: TORA, TORA, TORA

CHAPTER SIX: NOT A DRILL

CHAPTER SEVEN: STRIKING THE AIRFIELDS

CHAPTER EIGHT: AFTERMATH

CHAPTER NINE: A DAY THAT WILL LIVE IN INFAMY

TIMELINE

GLOSSARY

FURTHER READING

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

SOURCE NOTES

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

COPYRIGHT

BACK COVER

picture

CHAPTER ONE

SURPRISE ATTACK

Dave Smith woke up at about 7:30 the morning of December 7, 1941. Smith was a navy seaman apprentice serving aboard the battleship USS Utah. The ship was docked at Pearl Harbor naval base on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Wearing only his boxer shorts, Smith left his room and walked up to his locker on the old gun deck. He started to get dressed, but he never got the chance.

picture

The USS Shaw exploded after it was bombed by Japanese pilots during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Smith was surprised to hear the sound of an airplane. It was Sunday morning, and most of the sailors and pilots stationed at the base weren’t working that day. He looked out a porthole and saw a plane flying toward him, just above the ocean surface. Smith figured the pilot was taking part in a training drill. Just then, a torpedo dropped from the plane and slammed into the ship. As the plane climbed, Smith could see a large red circle under both of its wings. Suddenly he understood. This was no training exercise—the plane was Japanese, and Pearl Harbor was under attack!

picture

The USS Utah was one of five U.S. battleships sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Utah wasn’t the only battleship at Pearl Harbor that morning. Ford Island, which was the site of the Naval Air Station and patrol and utility plane hangars, is in the center of the harbor. The waters off Ford Island are deep. That area, known as Battleship Row, is where the USS California, USS Maryland, USS Oklahoma, USS Tennessee, USS West Virginia, USS Arizona, and USS Nevada were positioned. The Utah was across the harbor on the west side of Ford Island. Another battleship, the USS Pennsylvania, was in the navy yard’s dry dock for repairs. Two destroyers, the USS Cassin and the USS Downes, were also in dry dock.

Smith yelled a warning to his fellow sailors. He decided to go up to the main deck, one deck above the gun deck. He crawled up the ladder and then made his way on his hands and knees to where he could see the harbor. I could see the battleships on the other side of Ford Island taking hits, blowing up and burning. Commander [Solomon] Isquith was there and said for everyone to put on a life jacket and prepare to abandon ship,¹ he said later.

Smith saw fuel pouring from the Utah’s damaged fuel tanks into the harbor. He decided to swim underwater to Ford Island to try to avoid the oil. He took off his life jacket, slid down the side of the capsizing ship, and swam for his life. When I reached the island and looked back, he said, "all I saw was the bottom of the Utah."²

Smith was fortunate—he survived the terrible attack, which lasted less than two hours. But 2,403 other Americans, including 68 civilians, weren’t so lucky. They were killed in the attack. Among them were 58 sailors aboard the Utah. Another 1,178 military members and civilians were wounded. It was one of the deadliest days in navy history. Twenty-one ships were sunk or damaged, 188 aircraft