Where Is Pearl Harbor?
Where is Pu?uloa?
The Pearl Harbor (known to Hawaiians as Pu?uloa) is a lagoon harbor located on the island of O’ahu Hawai’i on the west of the island of Honolulu in the Pacific Ocean. It houses a naval base of the United States Navy and it is also the headquarters of the United States Pacific Fleet. The harbor is well known because of an attack on 7 December, 1941 by the Imperial Japanese Navy, which almost eliminated the whole of the US Pacific Fleet.
The native folks regarded the area as the home of the shark goddess, Ka’ahupahu. The natives believed that the goddess lived there with her son Kahi’uka. The local legends say Keaunui, a northern Hawaiian chief and the head of the powerful Ewa chiefs, cut the channels which made the bay accessible to navigation. The natives had a kingdom of their own until the Americans started arriving to establish a coaling and repair station for their ships and to start profitable sugar plantations. The United States governments made the locals sign many treaties on the pretext of defending a few Americans already working at Pearl Harbor. It cleared the way for the US Navy to establish naval bases in the area. The Hawaiians leased the harbor to the United States for a specific period of time, but, within months, the United States, on finding the right opportunity, immediately captured it.
During the Second World War, the Americans were clandestinely helping the Britain against Germany and its ally Japan. The Japanese tried to teach the United States a lesson. Six Japanese aircraft carriers under the guidance of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto launched a devastating air attack aimed at wiping out the whole of the US Pacific Fleet. Luckily for the Americans, their aircraft carriers were not docked at the harbour at the time; else even these ships would have been destroyed too. A lot of military analysts consider the Japanese air offensive as a very successful attack.
Category: Geography