Pearl Harbor
Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam is a United States Navy and United States Air Force base in the U.S. state of Hawaii, on the south lagoon shore of Oahu. The navy base was started in 1899 and merged with the air force base in 2010. It is 8 miles (15 km) west of downtown Honolulu.
The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, which was a surprise. The attack led to America’s fighting in World War II. The reason the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor was to destroy the U.S. Navy (Seventh Fleet), and prevent the U.S. from stopping the Japanese expansion in Asia.
Written for younger readers
Pearl Harbor, in simpler words
This version comes from Wikijunior, a set of books written for children aged 8 to 11. It is shorter and uses plainer language than the article above.
From Wikijunior: World War II
The attack of Pearl Harbor (or the Hawaii operation, as it was called by the Imperial General Headquarters) was a surprise military strike conducted by the Japanese navy against the US Navy on December 7 1941.
On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor (and other places between Honolulu and San Francisco) was attacked by the Japanese. About 2,403 people were killed, 188 airplanes destroyed, and 8 battleships were either destroyed or seriously damaged.
Although the US was neutral during the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US was helping China by giving money and shipping oil to them. As a result, Japan no longer got certain resources such as oil and rubber that they really needed. The Empire of Japan saw this embargo (an order from government that stops trade between countries) as a threat and started to prepare to attack. In doing this, Japan hoped that they could make quick advances in the Pacific while the American Navy was damaged, and then build up defenses causing America to sign a peace treaty.
The US declared war on Japan the day after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Japanese-Americans were forced out of their homes to live in “War Relocation Camps” because of the wide discrimination of Japanese-Americans in the US that sparked after Pearl Harbor. Days later, U.S. forces in the Pacific were defeated in the Philippines, as the British also lost island territories in the Pacific to the Japanese.
Where this page comes from
The article above is adapted from “Pearl Harbor” on Simple English Wikipedia, by its contributors. We removed reference markers, navigation boxes and tables, expanded measurement templates into readable numbers, and kept the prose otherwise intact. The simpler version is adapted from Wikijunior on Wikibooks.
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