![]() ![]() The following year, this conquered territory was transformed into a Japanese puppet state, Manchukuo (1932–1945), under the nominal leadership of the last emperor of China, Pu Yi. Japanese aggression began with the seizure of Manchuria from China in September 1931. The United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and the Republic of China, represented significant obstacles to this expansion. Since the 1930s, the Japanese government had increasingly come under the influence of right-wing military leaders seeking to create a larger Japanese empire on the Pacific Rim. Background: Why did the Attack on Pearl Harbor Happen? Japanese Territorial Expansion in the 1930s It is located on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Pearl Harbor was, and still is, the most important American naval base in the Pacific and home to the US Pacific Fleet. This unprovoked attack brought the United States into World War II, as it immediately declared war on Japan. Roosevelt claimed would “live in infamy,” the Imperial Japanese Navy conducted a surprise aerial assault on Pearl Harbor. On March 1, 1959, she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register and sold for scrap on July 10.On December 7, 1941, a date that President Franklin D. Nearly 30 years old, the battleship was assigned to the reserve fleet in 1946 and decommissioned on February 14, 1947. Over the course of the war, she fired 9,347 14-inch shells from her main battery, 46,341 5-inch shells from her secondary guns, and more than 100,000 rounds from her anti-aircraft batteries. Tennessee went on to fight across the Pacific from the Gilbert and Marshall Islands all the way to the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. The overhaul took nearly a year and she sailed to join the Aleutian Islands campaign on May 22, 1943. She returned to service in February 1942 but was sent to Puget Sound to be modernized alongside California in August. Tennessee received new hull plating and electrical wiring as well as new primary and secondary guns. She was finally towed out on December 16 and received repairs at Pearl Harbor before sailing for Mare Island Naval Shipyard on December 20. Her wreck was discovered 65 nautical miles southwest of Pearl Harbor on May 11, 2020.Īlthough Tennessee was only lightly damaged, she remained trapped where she was moored by sunken battleships. She was later used in the Bikini Atoll atomic experiments in 1946 and was sunk as a target ship in 1948. Nevada provided fire support at Iwo Jima and Okinawa before the war ended. There, she was refitted with guns from Arizona and sailed for the Pacific. Nevada then provided fire support for Operation Dragoon, the amphibious landings at Toloun in southern France, before sailing for New York. She was the only battleship present at both Pearl Harbor and D-Day. During the Normnady invasion, Nevada shelled German positions on the Cherbourg Peninsula with extreme precision, sometimes just 600 yards in front of friendly positions. Afterwards, she began Atlantic convoy duty until she sailed for the UK in preparation for D-Day. In June, Nevada sailed to Norfolk for further modernization. Nevada sailed for Alaska to provide fire support for the capture of Attu from May 11-18, 1943. ![]() Repairs and a modernization overhaul were complete in October 1942. On February 12, 1942, Nevada was refloated and temporary repairs were made before she sailed for Puget Sound. West Virginia was struck from the Naval Vessel Registry on Mabefore she was sold for scrap. She helped ferry troops home from the Pacific before she as decommissioned on Januand assigned to the Pacific Reserve Fleet. Although she missed much of the war during her reconstruction, West Virginia earned five battle stars during WWII. The ship fought at Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. West Virginia returned to Hawaii on September 3 where she joined Battleship Division 4. She was fitted with air-search radar, fire-control radars, and an improved anti-aircraft weapons suite. ![]() Limited drydock space and priority on the reconstructions of California and Tennessee meant that West Virginia was not complete until July 1944. Afterwards, West Virginia departed for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Washington for a thorough reconstruction. The remains of her crew who died aboard were removed and temporary repairs were made to make the ship seaworthy. West Virginia was later pumped dry and refloated on May 17, 1942. ![]()
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