Bonjour! Vous avez envie d’améliorer votre anglais en vous amusant? Aujourd’hui, un petit article sur l’attaque de Pearl Harbor, comme le port a été attaqué le 07/12/1941 – il y a 70 ans. Enjoy !!
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Formations d’anglais pour enfants, adolescents et adultes en Seine et Marne (77), en Seine Saint Denis (93) et Val de Marne (94), préparation au TOEIC, DIF Anglais Anglais à Courtry, Anglais à Le Pin, Anglais à Chelles, Anglais à Villeparisis, Anglais à Torcy, Anglais à Gagny, Anglais à Bussy Saint Georges, Anglais à Coubron, Anglais à Pomponne, Anglais à Vaujours, Anglais à Marne la Vallée, Anglais à Chessy, Anglais à Lagny sur Marne, Anglais à Lognes, Anglais à Croissy Beaubourg, Anglais à Lognes, Anglais à Noisiel, Anglais à Noisy le Grand, Anglais à Montfermeil, Anglais à Bry sur Marne
It was December 7, 1941 — an ordinary Sunday morning in Honolulu, Hawai’i. Just before 8:00 a.m., amidst peace and quiet and without warning, Japanese aircraft filled the skies and attacked Pearl Harbor and other military bases on the island of O’ahu. Thousands of people were killed and the United States plunged into World War II. Why did the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor? Were there warning signs? Why were so many killed? In the 1930′s, Japan was overcrowded and needed more living space for its population of over 60 million people. The world was in an economic depression and Japan’s industries were in trouble. They needed natural resources such as steel, oil, and rubber.
They also needed farmland to grow food. To solve Japan’s problems, Japanese military extremists agreed that Japan needed to expand and take over countries like China to gain needed resources. In 1931, Japan invaded and conquered Manchuria, a region in northern China. Six years later Japan launched a full scale attack on China. Japan was quickly becoming a great military power and planned to control all of Asia. Although alarmed by this action, neither the United States nor any other nation with interests in the Far East was willing to use military force to stop the Japanese expansion. The American military was well aware that a surprise attack on Hawai’i was possible and they thought they were prepared. Army fighters at Wheeler Air Field guarded the sky while bombers at Hickam Field stood ready to strike an enemy fleet long before it could reach attack position. Military leaders believed that the greatest danger was not air attack but saboteurs. To make their aircraft easier to guard, they were parked wing-tip to wing-tip in the middle of the airfield.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, at 6:15 a.m., the first wave of 184 Japanese planes took off from the Japanese aircraft carriers. At 6:30 a.m., the destroyer Ward sighted a submarine in restricted waters off of Pearl Harbor and opened fire. She sank one of the 2-man midget submarines that were part of the Japanese attack force. Ward radioed naval headquarters, “We have attacked, fired upon, and dropped depth charges on a submarine operating in defensive sea area.” Minutes later, radar operators on the north coast of the island detected a large flight of incoming planes and notified the information center at Fort Shafter. The officer on duty there assumed that they were the American B-17 bombers due in that day from California. The radar had actually detected the Japanese strike force. At 7:55 a.m., the code word, “Tora! Tora! Tora!” was shouted over the radio and waves of Japanese fighters and bombers began to swarm over the island — their main target, Pearl Harbor. One hundred forty-five vessels of all kinds were docked at Pearl Harbor, from small boats to battleships.
The Japanese hoped that United States aircraft carriers were also in port at the time of the attack but they weren’t — the carriers Lexington and Enterprise were out at sea delivering aircraft to Wake and Midway Islands. The main targets then became the battleships that were lined up at Ford Island in the middle of Pearl Harbor — “Battleship Row”. The Japanese attack ended at 9:45 a.m. In just one hour and forty-five minutes, a horrifying scene of death and destruction covered the island. Most of the ships of the United States Pacific Fleet were sunk or damaged. More than 2,300 army, navy, air force, and marine corps personnel were killed, 960 were missing, and over 1,200 were wounded. Of the 394 aircraft on the island, 188 of the army and navy aircraft had been completely destroyed and over 150 were severely damaged. The fires on the military bases and on the damaged ships continued to burn for many days.
The rescue of the hundreds of men trapped inside their sunken ships went on day and night until all hope was gone. Of the 392 Japanese aircraft that had attacked Pearl Harbor, 324 returned to their carriers. A few had been lost in takeoff or landing while the others had been shot down by United States aircraft or anti-aircraft fire. Less than 60 Japanese airmen lost their lives. One Japanese squadron leader had deliberately crashed his burning plane into a hangar at an airfield. This was known as a kamikaze, or “divine wind,” suicide attack. Japan officially declared war on the United States at 11:40 a.m., December 7,1941, four hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor had started. Once the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor spread throughout the United States, the feelings of most Americans changed. Previously, many had thought that the war in Europe had nothing to do with them. They also thought that the Japanese wouldn’t attack the big and powerful United States. But on the afternoon of December 7, many Americans began to shout, “Remember Pearl Harbor!” and they were ready to go to war. The attack on Pearl Harbor did something the Japanese government did not plan on — unite America. Many Americans now began to look at Japanese Americans differently.
Japanese Americans whose families had lived in America for generations and were loyal American citizens were thought of as possible enemies. Within just a few weeks, plans were being made to send all Japanese Americans to internment camps where most of them would have to live until the war was over. America’s pride took a blow when Pearl Harbor was attacked. However, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander of the Pacific Naval force, said that the Japanese made one mistake that day. They attacked only once. A second and even a third raid on Pearl Harbor would have destroyed the entire United States naval power in the Pacific. Although eight battleships were lost or damaged during the attack, the war was not going to be won by battleships. It was going to be fought and won in the air. The fact that no United States Navy aircraft carriers were destroyed that day was crucial. New ones would have cost millions of dollars and taken years to build and by that time, the United States probably would have lost the war. Of equal importance, many important facilities were not damaged that day: the gasoline storage tanks, ammunition dumps, naval repair shops, and dry docks. On Monday, December 8, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called together the nation’s senators and congressmen. He asked them to declare war on Japan for an “unprovoken and dastardly attack.”
Although most Americans felt they should also declare war on Germany and Italy, Roosevelt did not, since there had been no direct attack on the United States by those two nations. The problem was solved, however, when Adolf Hitler of Germany and Benito Mussolini of Italy both declared war on the United States a few days later. Plans were being made to fight a war the United States had not wanted. Each year on December 7th, people throughout the country remember the day that will live in infamy – - – the bombing of Pearl Harbor. On that day, the survivors and the thousands whose lives were cut short on December 7, 1941 are honored and memorialized.
