US Know-How for Japanese Aircraft Makers

On the morning of December 7, 1941, more than 300 Japanese carrierbased airplanes attacked the military base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Exactly two hours later and more than 10,000 kilometers away, Japanese long-range bombers started their first air raid on Singapore.¹ On December 10, Japanese bombers attacked and destroyed the British warships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse off the Malayan coast. For the first time in naval history, capital ships were hit and sunk solely by aircraft on the open sea. Japan’s aggressive assaults met with international indignation. There was also widespread astonishment that their allegedly backward