Pearl 1941 December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy

Limited to 500 numbered timepieces

On December 7, 1941, at 7:48 a.m., the Pearl Harbor naval base was attacked by a Japanese air raid. This unexpected attack was and remains the largest invasion in American History.

In order to preserve the memory of these lost lives, Col&MacArthur unveals its new creation "Pearl 1941".

Unboxing

€1,799.00
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  • Includes luxury packaging and insurance coverage.
  • Worldwide delivery.
  • Return accepted up to 14 days after delivery (full refund).
  • Delivery within 10 working days
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Data sheet

Sexe
Unisex
Couleur
Black
Tranches d'ages
Adult

Historical context

On September 7, 1941, U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii was heavily bombed by Japanese forces. This mission was carried out with the target to destroy the “Pacific fleet” of the U.S Navy.

This unexpected attack precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II. But besides this, this was also the climax of decades of worsening relations between the United States and Japan. The Pearl Harbor attack played a pivotal role to the end of the war and was the basis for USA’s response at the Battle of Midway a few months later.

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The relationship between USA and Japan

Tensions started building when Japan extended its power over China in conquering the province of Manchuria in 1931. June 1939 marks another tipping point in their relation, as the USA announced that they would quit the trade and navigation agreement which had been signed in 1911. The real military tension started building in 1941 when Japan occupied the French territory of Indochina and joined Italy and Germany by signing the axis powers, which would form the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo axis.

In reaction to this, United States declared an embargo on petroleum and other essential good for the production of war materials. Negotiations in order to avoid an escalation of violence took place over the autumn of 1941, but only in November it became clear that finding an agreement would be a lost cause.

The attack

At 7:48 AM on December 7, 1941, the naval base was woken up by the sound of the first bomber plane approaching. This plane was part of the first attack wave, composed by over 200 planes. Within the first quarter of an hour of this first wave, the base was heavily bombed and 2/3 of the American planes were destroyed. Besides this attack on the infrastructure, the battleships were also the target of this first wave. Those weren’t only bombed; they were also attacked by torpedoes and hardly a vessel escaped undamaged.

At 8:50 AM, the second wave began. This was less successful than the first one however, this also caused heavy damages to the base.
A third wave had been planned by the Japanese forces but, this was cancelled seeing the performance of the American while defending the second wave and the preparation time of this wave, which would have been too substantial.

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The losses

In this attack U.S. Navy lost the USS Arizona, the USS Oklahoma and the USS Utah which have all been destroyed and sunken. 17 other vessels have been damaged but after few months of downtime, those have been reused by the U.S. Navy. Besides the vessels, 180 planes have also been damaged or destroyed. The number of causalities in the American camp amounts to 2404 death including 68 civilians.

On Japanese side, the losses were less important. From a material point of view, 5 submarines were sunk, and 29 planes were shot down. From a human point of view, the Japanese army lost 64 of its members.

Roosevelt’s message to the congress

After being informed on the happening of the morning of 7 December, the president of the United States Franklin Roosevelt addressed the congress. In this speech, he presented the attack on Pearl Harbor as a date which will live in infamy.

At the end of his speech, Roosevelt asked Congress to declare the state of war between the United States and Japan based on the unprovoked and dastardly attack, which will mark the entry into World War II.

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