“I reached the deck of the boat and our anti-aircraft guns were in full swing and firing very quickly. (…). I could hear shrapnel or fragments hissing in front of me. As soon as I reached the first platform, I saw Second Lieutenant Simensen lying on his back with blood on the front of his shirt. I leaned towards him, taking him by the shoulders, and asked him if there was any. had something I could do. He was dead. "

On December 7, 1941, Corporal EC Nightingale was on the USS Arizona, in the American base at Pearl Harbor located on the island of Oahu - the third largest in the Hawaiian archipelago, in the Pacific -, when hell befalls him. As gunfire rains around him and a fire has just broken out, this Marine Corps soldier tries his best to leave his ship. “There were charred bodies everywhere. I walked over to the dock and started to take off my shoes, when suddenly I found myself in the water. I think the shock of a bomb was in me. propelled ", he had told in the book of Vice-Admiral Homer N. Wallin entitled" Pearl Harbor: why, how, fleet salvage, and final appraisal "and published in 1968.

The battleship USS Arizona on fire after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Its fire lasted three days. AP

Miraculously, the corporal managed to survive, unlike 1,177 other sailors from the USS Arizona. This battleship is part of the American fleet targeted by a surprise attack by the Japanese army. In less than two hours, 2,403 American soldiers were killed. In the United States, the emotion is great. Franklin D. Roosevelt immediately engaged his country in World War II alongside the Allies. “Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date that will forever be remembered in history as a day of infamy - the United States of America was deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Japanese Empire. The United States was at peace with Japan and was even, at the request of that country,in talks with his government and his emperor on the conditions for maintaining peace in the Pacific, "said the 32nd US President in a speech to Congress. 

President Franklin Roosevelt during his address to the United States Congress on December 8, 1941 in Washington.

AP

A regional rivalry 

Before the attack, relations between the two countries were strained, but it was still time for diplomacy.

"These relations of rivalry began at the end of the XIXth century", summarizes the historian Hélène Harter, author of "Pearl Harbor. December 7, 1941" (ed. Tallandier).

"They never ceased to prosper in the interwar period against a backdrop of rivalry over who was the regional organizing power in the Asia-Pacific zone. They particularly deteriorated between 1939 and 1941", specifies this specialist in American history, professor at the University of Paris-1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

In the 1930s, Japan, which lacked natural resources and was hit by the Great Depression, accelerated its expansionist policy.

He invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931, then the rest of the country in 1937. Three years later, he signed a tripartite pact with Germany and Italy, and joined the military alliance known as the "Axis".

The Americans then decide to react.

"They set up a boycott system on a certain number of products, in particular oil. There is then an acceleration of tensions. On the eve of Pearl Harbor, the two parties are however negotiating while knowing that finally the two camps are unable to find a solution ", describes Hélène Harter.  

An ideal target 

The United States and Japan are at an impasse. While American opinion is not ready, for its part, to go to war, the Japanese empire decides to go on the offensive. "The Japanese are convinced that if they want to win the war in the medium or long term, they must deprive the Americans of their fighting force by hitting hard and doing as much damage as possible", summarizes the historian. The target is all found: Pearl Harbor, where the American naval forces in the Pacific are concentrated. 

As explained to France 24 the American historian Craig Nelson, author of "Pearl Harbor, From Infamy to Greatness" (ed. Scribner, not translated), the surprise is total: "The Japanese have managed to mount this operation in the greater secrecy. The Americans could not believe that Japan would be able to accomplish such an operation. At the time, the person in charge of the military intelligence in charge of the Far East had however returned to Washington while warning on the dangerousness Japanese fighters, but he was told, 'What? These funny little people?' " 

The plan is a success.

The assault was launched simultaneously on the two air bases and on the roadstead of Pearl Harbor.

In addition to the heavy human toll, the American fleet is greatly damaged.

From a tactical point of view, the Japanese are winning.

"Their last military success against a great power dates back to Tsushima in 1905, against the Russians, but at Pearl Harbor, it was even more important," said Craig Nelson.

"This attack indeed destroyed many battleships, a whole logistics apparatus of management, holds to repair the boats, places to store, and put out of action a certain number of soldiers, but it is not a strategic victory ", tempers Hélène Harter. 

American planes destroyed in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. AP

A turning point in WWII

Despite the losses, the base remains operational and the Japanese armada has failed to destroy the aircraft carriers patrolling off the coast.

But the effect is above all devastating.

This attack is seen as a betrayal.

In a few hours, the American people, isolationist and who remember the memory of the First World War and its soldiers who died in Europe, radically change their opinion.

"He wants revenge for this attack and go as far as the unconditional surrender of Japan. He is now ready to go to the end and put all means in the battle," says the French historian.  

Americans read the news about the attack on Pearl Harbor in Times Square in New York on the evening of December 7, 1941. AP - Robert Kradin

This date marks a turning point.

In the hours which follow, the United Kingdom in turn declares war on Japan, then Nazi Germany and fascist Italy do the same against the United States.

The balance of military forces in the Pacific, but also in Europe, is upset.

Sixteen million American fighters were then mobilized.

A little over 405,000 of them will lose their lives during this conflict in which the United States will emerge victorious.  

Eighty years later, the memory of December 7, 1941 is still very much alive. "When there were the attacks of September 11, the first parallel was made with Pearl Harbor. If you say that name, it is rare to find an American who does not know what we are talking about," says Hélène Harter. If proof were needed, the Pearl Harbor Memorial is still one of the most visited places in the United States today. “It was built right above the wreckage of the battleship Arizona, where the remains of the sailors still rest. On the same memorial route, you also have the USS Missouri, the building on which the Japanese surrender was signed in 1945 in Tokyo Bay. This is the strength of the symbol: in the end, we won. "

The USS Arizona Memorial, established in 1962, is visited by more than one million people each year.

It is only accessible by boat, since it straddles (without touching) the hull of the sunken battleship.

Caleb Jones, AP

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