Pearl Harbor Stats
DATE: December 7, 1941
LOCATION: Island of Oahu, Hawaii Territory
DURATION OF ATTACK: Approximately 90 minutes
STRENGTH OF JAPANESE FORCES: 6 carriers, 2 battleships, 8 tankers, 9 destroyers, 23 submarines, 5 midget submarines, approximately 390 planes
AMERICAN SHIPS SUNK: 4 battleships, 1 harbor tug, 4 midget submarines
JAPANESE AIRCRAFT DESTROYED: 29
KILLED: 2,335 military, 68 civilians
WOUNDED: 1,143 military, 103 civilians
Timeline of the Pearl Harbor Attack
Q&A About the Attack on Pearl Harbor
Q. Why was Pearl Harbor attacked?
A. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor as a preemptive measure to keep the navy’s Pacific Fleet from interfering in maneuvers they had planned in Southeast Asia. Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese attacks were recorded in US-held countries, including Guam and the Philippines.
Of course, the attack backfired. Rather than cripple the US Navy and keep America out of the war, Pearl Harbor brought America into the war, which ended when they dropped an atomic bomb on Japan in 1945.
Q. Was Battleship Row the only site of the attack?
A. No. Japanese planes also bombed nearby Hickam Field and Wheeler Field, both US airfields, to cripple any sort of air response by American personnel. Several places in Oahu were also shot and destroyed, though some of this damage was caused by friendly fire from Americans who didn’t know where the attack was coming from.
Q. What led up to the attack?
A. By December 1941, the war in Europe and Asia had reached a critical peak. Adolf Hitler, ruler of Germany and leader of the Nazi Party, had already taken over Czechoslovakia, Poland, and France. He was rounding up people he considered inferior to Germans—Jews, homosexuals, and black people, as well as other groups—and sending them to ghettos and eventually concentration camps. By 1941, the Nazis had begun bombing cities in Great Britain.
Meanwhile, the Empire of Japan, seeking more wealth and international power, had taken part in several vicious conquests in Asia. In 1940, Hitler signed a three-part pact with Italy and Japan, creating what was known as the Axis.
During this time, the United States stayed out of the war. In fact, many Americans argued that the war was none of America’s business. The bombing of Pearl Harbor changed all of this, bringing the US into the war whether they wanted to or not.
Q. Were the characters in the book all actual people?
A. Some, but not all of them. Certain characters, like Captain Mervyn Bennion and Lt. Commander John Harper, were actual sailors on board the West Virginia. Joe, Danny, and Skipper are fictional, though Joe’s father, Marcus, is based on an actual hero of Pearl Harbor named Dorie Miller.
Q. Who was Dorie Miller?
A. Doris “Dorie” Miller was an African American mess attendant on board the USS West Virginia during the attack. Miller manned an antiaircraft gun when its crew was disabled, and he is believed to have shot down over twenty Japanese planes. He is also credited as having gotten Captain Bennion to safety during the attack and saving several sailors who had been injured or had been thrown overboard.
For his heroics, Miller was the first African American to be awarded the Navy Cross. More important, he helped change the navy’s mind on whether or not to allow black sailors in combat positions.
Before Pearl Harbor, mess attendant or steward was about as high up that a black sailor could go in the navy. After Miller’s story reached the world, and thousands of young black men began enlisting, the navy decided to change its policy. Though it remained divided by race, it allowed enlistment of all qualified personnel in 1942.
Q. Were mascot dogs really a part of the navy?
A. Absolutely! Both the United States Navy and British Royal Navy have a long history of dogs joining ships’ crews. Sometimes these dogs were just pets that the sailors on board considered good luck, like Dogo, who lived on a freighter that traveled 160,000 miles between 1941 and 1942 without being harmed. Others, like Blackout, the mascot dog of a coast guard–manned Landing Craft Infantry ship, saw action on the beaches of Sicily and Normandy.
Perhaps the most famous sea dog of all time was Judy, an English pointer who was stationed aboard the HMS Grasshopper. The Grasshopper was bombed by Japanese planes, and Judy and her sailors were marooned on a desert island. Judy led them to fresh water and helped them find food on the island. When the sailors were captured by the Japanese and placed in a prisoner of war camp, Judy intervened when angry guards attempted to beat them. When the men freed the camp, Judy fended off wild animals, including tigers and crocodiles! For her bravery, Judy was awarded the Dickin Medal, considered the Navy Cross for animals.
Q. What kind of weapons were onboard the USS West Virginia?
A. The USS West Virginia’s weapons, or “armament” in military language, were extensive. The ship had eight sixteen-inch, .45 caliber Mark 1 guns located in four twin gut turrets on the fore and aft of the ship; sixteen five-inch, .51 caliber guns; four five-inch, .25 caliber guns; and two twenty-one-inch torpedo tubes.
Q. What kinds of jobs were there on a US battleship?
A. A navy battleship was like a miniature city, with over a thousand sailors living on the average ship. These sailors were generally divided into several groups, most notably seamen, who were your everyday sailors; aviators, who focused on air combat from battleships and aircraft carriers; construction workers, who worked to build and repair the equipment on board a ship; engineers, who focused on the internal workings of the ship; and mess officers or stewards, who prepared the meals and kept the ship in order. But these are only some of the ranks included in the navy at large. There were also cryptologic technicians, who focused on codes and electronic messages; chaplains, who provided spiritual support to the sailors on board a ship; and even musicians, who played in navy bands!
Q. What kind of planes did the Japanese arrive in, and what kinds of weapons did they use?
A. The Japanese used a wide variety of planes and weapons to attack Pearl Harbor. The planes that hit Battleship Row and the USS West Virginia were Nakajima B5N Kate bombers armed with 800 kg (1,760 lb.) armor-piercing bombs, and B5N bombers armed with Type 91 torpedoes. These planes were also armed with machine guns used for firing on ships as they passed.
Q. How did radio broadcasts play into the attack on Pearl Harbor?
A. As the primary form of technological communication at the time, radio played a large part in Pearl Harbor. It was said that the Japanese pilots coming to attack Pearl Harbor only knew they were nearby when they began to hear hula music over their radios.
But the most famous radio broadcast about Pearl Harbor occurred the day after the attack, when President Roosevelt gave the “Pearl Harbor speech,” also known as the “infamy speech” because of its opening lines: “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 speech was the most listened to radio broadcast in history, with over 81 percent of Americans tuning in to listen. It also formally announced the United States as part of the growing war abroad, from which the United States had remained separate until then.
An Excerpt from Soldier Dogs #3: Capture the Island
A squadron of enemy soldiers ran toward the field hospital. Bullets whined past the hiding spot where Stryker the war dog was crouching.
A mortar shell exploded nearby, digging chunks out of the earth and throwing dirt against Stryker’s furry coat.
Stryker felt the urge to fight in his chest. He wanted to growl, but he’d been trained to stay quiet. His hackles raised as the enemy soldiers raced closer to him and the boy—and to the hospital behind them—but he didn’t move.
He stayed with the boy called Tasi.
Tasi hadn’t been trained. He didn’t know about enemies or sneak attacks. The boy wasn’t armed
with a weapon—or even with teeth and claws. That’s why Stryker needed to keep close.
Stryker felt his muscles tense. He’d wait here, hidden behind the fallen tree, until the enemy came near enough. Then he’d leap at them and show them what a war dog could do.
He felt Tasi trembling beside him. That was okay. Humans got scared. Even Marines got scared. Fear made humans’ hearts beat faster and their eyes widen. It made their senses sharp and alert—almost as sharp and alert as a Doberman’s.
Stryker was afraid that Tasi would stand and fight despite his fear. He needed the boy to run. That was the only way he’d survive. The moment that Stryker threw himself at the enemy, the boy needed to flee.
He needed to live.
Stryker nudged Tasi’s arm, telling him to get ready to move. Tasi could scramble through the hospital behind them, past the sickbeds and the bandaged patients—if he left now.
“Don’t worry, boy,” Tasi whispered. “I’m right here.”
Stryker nudged him again. He didn’t know what those words meant, but he knew the boy wasn’t getting ready to run.
“I—I’ll take care of you,” Tasi said, in a shaky voice.
Gunfire ripped into the other side of the tree, shredding the wood into splinters. Tasi ducked his head, his black hair short and silky.
Pain stung Stryker’s muzzle. He narrowed his eyes and gathered his rear legs to leap, tracking the enemy’s position with his pointy ears. Rifles cracked and big Navy guns boomed from the US ships off-shore.
Stryker heard a scuffle and the gasp of hand-to-hand fighting. He smelled bitter smoke and sweet gasoline.
The enemy was ten strides away before Stryker let himself make a sound. He snarled at the boy telling him to run!
Tasi grabbed a branch from the ground. “W-we almost made it,” he said. “We almost made it.”
Stryker growled. Get moving!
“You and me,” Tasi said, tears in his eyes. “Together till the end.”
About the Author
MARCUS SUTTER is a former military brat who collects model planes and ships from the WWII era. He lives on a ranch in the Midwest with his family and their three-legged mutt, Mike.
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Books by Marcus Sutter
READ ALL THE SOLDIER DOGS BOOKS!
#1 AIR RAID SEARCH AND RESCUE
#2 ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR
#3 CAPTURE THE ISLAND
#4 VICTORY AT NORMANDY
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Copyright
HarperFestival is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
SOLDIER DOGS #2: ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR. Copyright © 2018 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
Cover art by Mike Mayhew
Cover design by Rick Farley
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018947998
ISBN 978-0-06-288854-9 (trade bdg.) — ISBN 978-0-06-284405-7 (pbk.)
Digital Edition OCTOBER 2018 ISBN: 978-0-06-284406-4
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-284405-7
1819202122PC/LSCH10987654321
FIRST EDITION
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