Pearl Harbor and 9/11

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I will be comparing the surprise attacks of Pearl Harbor and 9/11. These two attacks caused major damage to America’s home lands. The attacks are similar because both happened without warning, but there somewhat different also. For example, 9/11 was to scare America and Pearl Harbor was a strategic attack. Both I think backfired somewhat because they caused America to come together and fight the enemy. On a calm Sunday morning on December 7, 1941, the Japanese shocked the world by bombing the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. The bombing happened because the U.S. Pacific Fleet based in Pearl Harbor could foil their plans to attack the American mainland. As insurance, the Japanese navy undertook an operation to cripple the Pacific Fleet by a surprise air attack. It succeeded. In two waves lasting two long hours, they killed or wounded over 3,500 Americans and sank or badly damaged 18 ships. All 8 battleships of the Pacific Fleet and over 350 aircraft were destroyed or damaged. However, they did not sink any of the Pacific aircraft carriers and they left most of the fuel that was needed to win the war in the Pacific. Japanese planes were spotted by radar before the attack, but they were assumed to be a flight of American B-17s due in from the West Coast. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. Congress approved his declaration with just one dissenting vote. It was a calm normal day on September 11, 2001 when two commercial jets flew into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers. 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers, killing everyone on board and many others working in the buildings. Both towers collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others on their

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