How did Japanese planes fly to the United States during the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor?

First, Pearl Harbor is not on the continental United States, but on the Hawaiian Islands, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Even then, it was difficult for planes to fly from Japan to Hawaii at that time, and even less so for fighters. Japan sent a mixed fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Nagumo Nakaichi, and on November 26, a fleet of six aircraft carriers left Japan for Pearl Harbor. On the way, the fleet maintained complete radio silence.

In addition to these six aircraft carriers, the Japanese fleet included two battleships, three cruisers, nine destroyers and three submarines. In addition, eight tankers and two destroyers sailed to the North Pacific to wait.

On the morning of 8 December, the fleet's planes bombed all U.S. airfields on Oahu and many ships anchored in Pearl Harbor, including the battleships there. Almost all the aircraft on the ground were destroyed, and only a few were able to take off and return fire. 12 battleships and other ships were sunk or damaged.

188 aircraft were destroyed, 155 aircraft were damaged, and 2403 Americans were killed. Thousands of people died when the battleship Arizona alone sank.

At that time, Japan not only had aircraft carriers, but also the Combined Fleet assembled six large aircraft carriers and carried 425 carrier-based aircraft to attack Pearl Harbor.

The aircraft carrier was carried to 220 nautical miles north of Oahu, and then the carrier-based aircraft took off to attack Pearl Harbor.

The carrier flew near Pearl Harbor and took off at dawn from above.

The submarine was going straight to Pearl Harbor.

Take-off on **, of course. Take off from Pearl Harbor.

A total of 189 planes served as the first wave of attack missions during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, including 45 Zero carrier-based fighters and 21 Carrier-based fighters manufactured by Mitsuki Meiling, 90 Type 97 carrier-based torpedo bombers manufactured by Nakajima, and 54 Type 99 carrier-based dive bombers manufactured by Aichi, but during the take-off process, 2 Zero, 1 97, and 3 99 were completely sold off, and 183 actually took off.

At 7:15, 168 planes of the second wave of Japanese attack began to take off, including 80 Type 99 dive bombers, 54 Type 97 torpedo bombers, and 36 Type 21 Zero fighters.

Because Japan needed to wage a war in the Pacific, and the U.S. Navy was an adversary that it had to face, according to the pre-war naval disarmament agreement, the total tonnage of the Japanese Navy was probably controlled by 5 to 3 compared with the United States.

Japan is at a disadvantage, and Yamamoto knows the real industrial strength of the United States, so he wants to gamble and let Japan have the advantage of maritime control within half a year to a year by eliminating the main force of the US Pacific Fleet, and seize the resources of the South Seas, and it is best to deter the United States.

And the reason why Japan launched the Pacific War was because there were no resources, and the US sanctions were like playing a game, there were no mines, and they could only grab them.

Related Purposes

The purpose of the attack on Pearl Harbor was to (at least temporarily) eliminate the main forces of the US Navy in the Pacific. Isoroku Yamamoto, the mastermind of the attack on Pearl Harbor, himself believed that a successful attack would bring a strategic advantage for only about a year.

Japan was at war with China from 1931, after the Japanese occupied Manchuria. From January 1941, when Japan began planning an attack on Pearl Harbor to gain a strategic advantage, and after some discussion and controversy within the Navy, the Japanese Navy began to conduct rigorous training for this operation from mid-year.

Japan's wars in China and Southeast Asia were met with oil embargoes and economic sanctions imposed on Japan by the United States, Britain, China and the Netherlands. Japan could not eliminate and occupy the United States, and he needed to make concessions from the United States through victory in local wars.