Since Sunday is December 7th, I thought I would spend these days leading up to that covering some terms/phrases related to the attack. So of course today we shall cover the location itself. Pearl Harbor is located on Oahu in Hawaii. The harbor gets its name from the native Hawaiians.

The harbor was known to them as Wai Momi, or Harbor of Pearl. The harbor was considered home to the shark goddess, Ka'ahupahau and her brother or say son Kahi'uka. According to Hawaiian legend Chief Keaunui first navigated the channel at the opening of the harbor. He is also given credit with widening the opening to allow canoes and larger vessels to enter the harbor. The marshy harbor held pearl producing oyster until the late 1800’s.

After the arrival of Captain Cook the harbor was mostly ignored as being too shallow for use by warships. However the United States had a different view of the harbor and of the Sandwich Islands in the 1800’s. During the 1800’s the US continued to strengthen its ties with the Hawaiian kings. Just after the Civil War and the purchase of Alaska the US claimed Midway Island. The US became more and more attached to the Island chain economically and soon began to eye Pearl Harbor as a perfect coaling station for its growing Pacific fleet.

The United Sates continued to press for stronger and stronger ties with the islands until the King signed the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 and its supplement in 1884. This treaty gave the US exclusive rights to Pearl Harbor. It also allowed for duty free trade between the countries. In 1898 Hawaii was annex to the United States. Soon after this the base was expanded to allow more warships and its name was changed from Naval Base Honolulu to Naval Base Hawaii.

The base was expanded and improved over the years. The harbor was dredged to allow larger warships to use the facility. Over time all the land surrounding the harbor was acquired by the US Navy to expand their presence on the island. Naval Ship yards were built. Naval Air Station Ford Island was created, the East Loch was expanded during World War II, refueling facilities were built, and much more.

The base was an important facility for supporting US interests in the Pacific, especially after World War I. Japan was given a good portion for the German holdings in the Pacific and the US felt it needed to keep watch over its own possessions. Japan continued to flex its muscles in the Pacific until it needed to expand into the oil fields of the Dutch East Indies. Knowing the US would never allow this to go unchecked the decision was made to attack the Pacific fleet in Pearl Harbor.

It was never planned to totally wipe out US forces in the Pacific, just hurt them long enough so that Japan could become so entrenched the US would not be able to dislodge them, but more on this as we continue the week.

Today Pearl Harbor is more remembered for December 7th 1941 than anything else. The Naval Base is on the Register of National Historic places. The runway on Ford Island still carries scars of the attack. The wrecks of the USS Utah and USS Arizona are war memorials. The USS Missouri stand silent sentinel along with the USS Bowfin as museum ships. The US 6th fleet still uses the facility as a forward deployed base.