🎧 Pearl Harbor
🎧 American History Hit • 35m
On the morning of 7th December 1941, hundreds of Japanese planes took off from aircraft carriers and attacked Pearl Harbor, on Oahu island, Hawaii. They took out ships, bombed airfields and killed thousands of Americans. Japan intended to neutralise the US navy, to prevent it from interfering in the Pacific, where Japan was expanding its empire. But the effect was the opposite. America declared war on Japan, as well as Germany and Italy and entered World War 2. Don recounts the damage done in 90 devastating minutes. Eri Hotta tells Don about the negotiations between the US and Japan, explains why Japan decided to carry out the attack and the Japanese people's reaction to it.
Produced and mixed by Benjie Guy. Senior Producer: Charlotte Long.
Up Next in 🎧 American History Hit
-
🎧 Start of the Space Race
Space historian Jay Gallentine tells Don how World War 2 weapons paved the way for space rockets, igniting a space race between the USA and the USSR that would see the first projectiles, satellites and people leave Earth’s atmosphere.
-
🎧 Capturing Lincoln’s Assassin
On shooting President Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth fled Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC on horseback, eventually heading south. But Lincoln’s was not the only assassination planned that night. Michael Kauffman tells Don about the others - attempted and abandoned - on the evening of April 1...
-
🎧 The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
On the evening of 14th April, 1865, the Union was celebrating victory in the civil war, won 5 days earlier with General Lee's surrender at Appomattox. President Abraham Lincoln was watching a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC. But some Southern sympathisers still thought the Confederacy cou...