Pearl Harbor & Honolulu City Tour

At the beginning of your private Pearl Harbor tour, our guides will play a lecture done by a historian with details and insights of why the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor on December 7 of 1941. At your arrival to the Pearl Harbor visitor center our guide will give you an explanation with facts of the surprise attack and the best most effective way to navigate the visitor center to have a memorable experience. You will watch a 23minute-documentary movie with real footage of the attack, visit two indoors museums and walk around the outdoor displays.

The Japanese military forces had been training their pilots for months and “Operation Hawaii” was a very big secret in Japan. For a long time, the Japanese lacked a bomb that could penetrate the thick armor of U.S. battleships. However, they set their engineers to fix the problem. Over 140 Nakajima B5N2 torpedo bombers were used in the raid. In addition to an airborne attack by Japanese deck aviation, the Hawaiian Islands were also subjected to an attack by submarines deployed near Oahu. They were ready to destroy any U.S. ship that attempted to flee from the harbor during the aerial attack.

Pearl Harbor was attacked by 353 Japanese aircraft in two waves from six aircraft carriers. A third wave was planned but never executed. The Japanese objective was to bomb the American fleet so that it could not fight back. Most of the battleships were docked in the harbor and sustained damage from the Japanese planes that filled the sky. Although the raid only lasted 75 minutes, the Japanese damaged several American battleships, along with three cruisers, three destroyers, and an anti-aircraft training ship. A bomb smashed through the deck of the USS Arizona and caused the ship to explode and sink. Almost 200 American aircraft were destroyed, 2,403 Americans were killed, and 1,178 suffered severe injuries. The Japanese lost 29 aircraft, five midget submarines, and 64 servicemen. Even with the element of surprise, the Japanese failed to destroy the Pacific Fleet entirely. Most of the American aircraft carriers were away from the base, and most of the shipyards and submarine docks were left intact.

Not only did Pearl Harbor led to U.S. involvement in the Second World War, but it also ultimately led to the first and only use of atomic weapons in history. On August 6th, 1945 the US dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima and three days later dropped Fat Boy on Nagasaki. The ensuing unprecedented devastation precipitated the Japanese surrender on September 2nd, 1945.