Just like at Pearl Harbor, Japanese aircraft attacking the Panay flew so low on their bombing runs that cameramen aboard the (clearly identified) gunboat captured the pilots’ faces on film. To quell a diplomatic crisis, Roosevelt had Universal Pictures edit out those sequences before broadcasting newsreels of the attack.
Pearl Harbor was just the beginning.
Exactly one hour after the bombs landed on Pearl Harbor, Japanese soldiers splashed ashore at Kota Bharu, beginning the Malayan Campaign. Other units invaded Thailand, which capitulated after five hours. Japanese aircraft in Formosa attacked the Clark Air Base in the Philippines, destroying Macarthur’s Far East Air Force on the ground. Japanese planes also bombed Guam, Hong Kong, Wake Island, and Singapore. This was all on the first day.
As the days became weeks, the Allies suffered from disaster after disaster. Japanese aircraft intercepted and destroyed the British warships Repulse and Prince of Wales. Yamashita’s elite infantry rampaged down the Malayan peninsula, boring down on Singapore for Britain’s worst defeat since the Somme. The Japanese landed on Luzon and Borneo, seized Hong Kong, Guam, and the Western Settlements in China. The Allies continued to give ground in Malaya, the Philippines and the East Indies.
Then came Bataan, the Java Sea, the fall of Singapore, and Burma.
Japan’s rampage would only be checked at Midway, and the tide would only turn after the vicious attrition on Guadalcanal and New Guinea.
But the carriers were at sea and they missed the fuel storage.
It would take a decade or more for our ships to recover from something like that today. They worked miracles to get so many of them ready for action.
Thanks for another amazing post OP! By far the best poster on this sub
If Hawaii was lost, would that have set them up for an attack on the homeland?
What exactly would have made Hawaii “lost”? What was their objective, and just how close were Japanese to achieving their objective?
Why were there actually so many sailors on board if the ships were docked in the harbor?
Somebody should colorize these! Amazing photos.
They sank the wrong ships.
The era of the battleship was over, and Pearl Harbor was the proof.
The Japanese didn’t get a single carrier that day, and this would be to their doom.
Keep up the quality posts OP
Here’s a video of the attack that includes some of the same photos, but seeing them really puts it all into perspective. It paints a much clearer picture of how everything unfolded, definitely the best portrayal I’ve seen so far.
That I can’t view them in the UK without a VPN is despicable.
Not safe for work*
Really?
To read a Japanese pilot’s account of the attack search for ‘The Miraculous Torpedo Squadron’.
Cool photos but the text captions are weirdly sensational and almost sound like Japanese propaganda.
“The Japanese have achieved total surprise: Tora Tora Tora. The shocked Americans are completely unprepared.” lol OK, but lets not forget who won in the end.
edit: you can do better than that…how about “The **mighty and superior** Japanese have achieved total surprise. The **dumb, fat** Americans are too shocked to do anything.
My grand father on my dads side was stationed here as a plane mechanic when it happened, unfortunately I never got to meet him
“We won a great tactical victory at Pearl Harbor and thereby lost the war.”
17 comments
[2,008 sailors. ](https://preview.redd.it/pearl-harbor-v0-7bjx3nry2kvd1.png?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=117be2bdd871b784ebdf1ccf210d32368e2f7e3c)[218 soldiers. ](https://www.warhistoryonline.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/64/2022/12/mass-grave-pearl-harbor-75276.jpg)[109 Marines.](https://preview.redd.it/pearl-harbor-v0-yyxycgsy2kvd1.png?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=d8825778983fddaa69f4abde0e989b16b958605d)[68 civilians. ](https://preview.redd.it/pearl-harbor-v0-7d1ephry2kvd1.png?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=d949886c4031445bacc7e1d04eb53dabf1a18325)[2,403 total. ](https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTkqJS8FhysKnGH7Qcn_fNtMNjQ-KTm-3ZIpfFuMgA8wG0qJxQk)
55 Japanese pilots from [29 downed planes](https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2015-12/7/13/enhanced/webdr12/original-16760-1449513762-3.jpg?downsize=600:*&output-format=auto&output-quality=auto).
9 crew from the doomed [midget submarines](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Ko-hyoteki_class_submarine.jpg).
[64 total.](https://preview.redd.it/pearl-harbor-v0-adcttzry2kvd1.png?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=8c85c446a0db445225d60f7895c177bd6da735e8)
The Japanese pilot who led the torpedo bombers against Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor, [Shigeharu Murata](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigeharu_Murata), had bombed American ships before. He had led the attack against the American gunboat [USS Panay four years prior](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Panay_incident) on the Yangtze River, during the 1937 Battle of Nanjing.
Just like at Pearl Harbor, Japanese aircraft attacking the Panay flew so low on their bombing runs that cameramen aboard the (clearly identified) gunboat captured the pilots’ faces on film. To quell a diplomatic crisis, Roosevelt had Universal Pictures edit out those sequences before broadcasting newsreels of the attack.
Pearl Harbor was just the beginning.
Exactly one hour after the bombs landed on Pearl Harbor, Japanese soldiers splashed ashore at Kota Bharu, beginning the Malayan Campaign. Other units invaded Thailand, which capitulated after five hours. Japanese aircraft in Formosa attacked the Clark Air Base in the Philippines, destroying Macarthur’s Far East Air Force on the ground. Japanese planes also bombed Guam, Hong Kong, Wake Island, and Singapore. This was all on the first day.
As the days became weeks, the Allies suffered from disaster after disaster. Japanese aircraft intercepted and destroyed the British warships Repulse and Prince of Wales. Yamashita’s elite infantry rampaged down the Malayan peninsula, boring down on Singapore for Britain’s worst defeat since the Somme. The Japanese landed on Luzon and Borneo, seized Hong Kong, Guam, and the Western Settlements in China. The Allies continued to give ground in Malaya, the Philippines and the East Indies.
Then came Bataan, the Java Sea, the fall of Singapore, and Burma.
Japan’s rampage would only be checked at Midway, and the tide would only turn after the vicious attrition on Guadalcanal and New Guinea.
But the carriers were at sea and they missed the fuel storage.
It would take a decade or more for our ships to recover from something like that today. They worked miracles to get so many of them ready for action.
Thanks for another amazing post OP! By far the best poster on this sub
If Hawaii was lost, would that have set them up for an attack on the homeland?
What exactly would have made Hawaii “lost”? What was their objective, and just how close were Japanese to achieving their objective?
Why were there actually so many sailors on board if the ships were docked in the harbor?
Somebody should colorize these! Amazing photos.
They sank the wrong ships.
The era of the battleship was over, and Pearl Harbor was the proof.
The Japanese didn’t get a single carrier that day, and this would be to their doom.
Keep up the quality posts OP
Here’s a video of the attack that includes some of the same photos, but seeing them really puts it all into perspective. It paints a much clearer picture of how everything unfolded, definitely the best portrayal I’ve seen so far.
[https://youtu.be/f6cz9gtMTeI?si=pqVR8EMLOeFBzJb9](https://youtu.be/f6cz9gtMTeI?si=pqVR8EMLOeFBzJb9)
That we have these photos is incredible.
That I can’t view them in the UK without a VPN is despicable.
Not safe for work*
Really?
To read a Japanese pilot’s account of the attack search for ‘The Miraculous Torpedo Squadron’.
Cool photos but the text captions are weirdly sensational and almost sound like Japanese propaganda.
“The Japanese have achieved total surprise: Tora Tora Tora. The shocked Americans are completely unprepared.” lol OK, but lets not forget who won in the end.
edit: you can do better than that…how about “The **mighty and superior** Japanese have achieved total surprise. The **dumb, fat** Americans are too shocked to do anything.
My grand father on my dads side was stationed here as a plane mechanic when it happened, unfortunately I never got to meet him
“We won a great tactical victory at Pearl Harbor and thereby lost the war.”
– Rear Admiral Chuichi Hara
Comments are closed.