The attack on Pearl Harbor came as a complete surprise. Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes and bombers flew to Pearl Harbor and attacked. The bombers dropped bombs and torpedoes on the warships, while the fighter planes attacked the US fighter planes on the ground so they could not take off and fight back. There were two waves of attacks and by the end of the second wave several US ships were destroyed.
On June 3, 1942, The Japanese formulated a plan to sneak up on U.S. forces. They hoped to trap a number of the U.S. aircraft carriers in a bad situation where they could destroy them. However, American codebreakers had intercepted several Japanese transmissions. The Americans knew the Japanese plans and prepared their trap for the Japanese.