The Attack on Pearl Harbor occurred on December 7, 1941, when the Empire of Japan launched a surprise military strike against the United States Pacific Fleet at its naval base on Oahu, Hawaii Territory. At the time, the United States was a neutral country in World War II. The attack was preceded by months of negotiations between the US and Japan over the future of the Pacific, during which Japan demanded that the US end its sanctions, cease aiding China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and allow Japan access to resources of the Dutch East Indies. Japan dispatched its naval attack group on November 26, 1941, shortly before the US issued the Hull note, which stated American desires that Japan withdraw from China and French Indochina.
The Japanese military leadership, under Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, planned the attack as a pre-emptive strike on the Pacific Fleet, which had been stationed at Pearl Harbor since 1940. The Japanese referred to the operation by multiple names: the Hawaii Operation, Operation AI, and Operation Z during its planning phase. The air raid was launched from aircraft carriers against the naval base.
The attack on Pearl Harbor prompted the United States to declare war on Japan the next day, marking America's entry into World War II. This surprise military strike transformed the United States from a neutral observer into an active combatant in the global conflict, with profound consequences for the war's trajectory and outcome.
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