Planes over Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor as seen from attacking Japanese plane

This picture was taken from a Japanese plane during the torpedo attack on ships moored on both sides of Ford Island during the Pearl Harbor Attack, December 7, 1941. View is toward the east. A torpedo plane can be seen to the left of the USS California and just above the USS Neosho. A shower of water can be seen to the left of the torpedo plane, likely from a torpedo strike on the USS Oklahoma. Interestingly, the Neosho was never targeted, even though she had a full load of aviation gasoline. The Japanese believed that the Americans had inexhaustible fuel supplies and the flyers were ordered not to target the tankers or the land based fuel storage tanks. Another reason was so as not to obscure the targets with smoke. Photo source #NH 50930.