Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor

On Sunday, December 7, 1941 at 8:00 am, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, the US Navy’s Pacific fleet base, in a surprise attack that would force the US into World War II and result in Japan’s eventual defeat.

At the time of the attack, the United States was not involved in WWII, though it opposed Japanese expansionism and seized Japanese financial assets in the United States in retaliation for Japan’s continued invasions into sovereign South East Asian countries. While the Japanese planned the attack, the United States actively negotiated with the island nation, hoping to encourage Japan to cease its militarization and expansionism. For its part, Japan did not have the natural resources to fuel its war effort and required the natural resources of South East Asia and Indochina in order to feed its military machine. Japanese Imperial offices believed that if they crippled the Americans in the Pacific, they could get the resources they needed unopposed.

Peal Harbor was not the only target on December 7, 1941. Attacks in the Philippines, Wake Islands, and Guam all struck US holdings, though none with as devastating an effect as the larger-scale attack in Hawaii. The attacks were meant to destroy or severely damage the US Pacific Naval Fleet, but because the attacks did not target infrastructure, the damage was short-lived and the fleet was able to quickly recover.

The attack left dead over 2,400 Americans, mostly Navy seamen, along with 68 civilians. Several battleships, cruisers, and destroyers were sunk while hundreds of aircraft (roughly half the air fleet) were destroyed and damaged. With infrastructure intact, including headquarters, refueling and maintenance centers, shipyards, and dry-docks, the Navy speedily rebounded from the attack, launching a devastating counterattack at Midway in June of 1942.