(Kimmel and Short)
The prelude to the attack was by far the most interesting part. It discussed the Japanese forming the more than ambitions plan, getting the plan approved and then figuring out how exactly they would execute said plan. They simply had to figure out how to fuel their ships while at sea, how to modify torpedoes to perform in the sallow waters of the harbor, train their pilots to fly at low altitudes to drop said torpedoes, vastly improve their high altitude bombing accuracy and figure out exactly when and where the American ships would be during the attack. That last part turned out to be the easiest due to their superb espionage network on the island lead by Takeo Yoshikawa).
(Takeo Yoshikawa - Superspy)
(Yamamoto and Genda - The Planmasters)
Meanwhile the Americans just replaced their General and Admiral, thoroughly prepared themselves for a ground attack, had poor communication between the Army and Navy, had even worse communication with Washington who controlled the flow of surprisingly good code breaking information, moved their ships in a easily deciphered pattern, kept all their ammo under lock and key, arranged their planes to avoid espionage which made them difficult to launch during the attack and were severely under supplied.
The Japanese were ambitious, daring, inventive, detailed oriented and extremely disciplined. Where as the US was dismissive, weighed down by bureaucracy, preoccupied with Europe, and preparing for a battle that was not going to come because it was already a relic. It basically boiled down to the Army failed in their job to protect the Navy, the Navy was going through the motions and Washington was doling out information as they saw fit. Simple things like torpedo netting was not in place. They didn't have the available planes to patrol the island's perimeter. Which was a problem because their whole defense plan was set on early detection of the enemy fleet. But in their defense, how were they supposed to know that the Japanese were making the technological breakthrough which made the attack plausible let alone possible.
The Imperial Japanese Navy were able to secure six carriers and traveled across the Pacific in complete radio silence, communicating only in light signals. They took the route to attack from the north that was not patrolled (even more not patrolled than other routes). Not to mention that all this went off with nearly ideal weather conditions (light fog to decrease any patrol planes visibility). Roughly 360 planes in two groups attacked Pearl Harbor on a Sunday morning. The base was basically asleep. A radar operator thought he saw something but there was nobody to report to. When he finally found someone, he was told that it was just some incoming B-17's and to not worry about it.
When the Japanese planes started to attack artillery was under lock and key so there was a scramble to get ammo boxes opened. Basically, the Americans were fish in a barrel. The Japanese new almost every ship in the harbor and went about plucking them off one by one. Oh, with the help of the two person mini-subs which were also in the harbor. (Side note: the mini-subs were one of the Japanese's biggest concerns headed into the conflict and in fact one of the American vessels saw and sunk a sub before the attack began). (Side note Side note: could you fucking imagine being in a two person submarine? Good god). The Japanese basically destroyed at will with an steady attack from low flying torpedo men, high flying bombers and continuous strafing of the airfields, runways, barracks and other building. And that was just the first group.
The second group came about 30 minutes later and did face a stiffer resistance from the American but still inflicted massive amounts of damage. The Americans prepared for continued waives of attacks but they never came. The above ground fuel supply remained intact and since the ships were in shallow water, some could be salvaged. Genda and Mitsuo Fushida urged Nagumo to strike out with successive waves but instead they turned back.
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