Pearl Harbor Attack Remembered
Dec. 7, 2011
Veterans and their families gathered at Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet by Japanese military forces in 1941. About 120 of the few remaining survivors of the attack attended the ceremonies. In announcing the attack to the country, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt called December 7 “a date which will live in infamy.” The next day, Congress declared war on Japan, bringing the United States into World War II (1941-1945), which was already raging in Europe and parts of Asia. “Remember Pearl Harbor” became the rallying cry for the country.
The attack on Pearl Harbor began at about 7:55 a.m., as the first of two waves of Japanese warplanes began bombing the U.S. Fleet. The chief targets were 8 battleships among the 180 American vessels anchored in the harbor. The attack killed 2,388 people at Pearl Harbor and wounded about 2,000 others. It destroyed or damaged 21 U.S. ships–most of the nation’s Pacific fleet–and more than 300 planes. Many of the dead were aboard the U.S.S. Arizona, which remains where it sank. A memorial was constructed over the sunken battleship, which entombs lost members of the crew. The Japanese lost 29 aircraft in the attack on Pearl Harbor. The attack was a success for Japan. But bringing the United States into the war proved disastrous for the Japanese Empire and its citizens.
Additional World Book articles:
- Back in Time (United States, Government of the, 1942)
- Japanese American internment
- Miller, Dorie
- Nimitz, Chester William
- World War II (The war in Asia and the Pacific)
- Yamamoto, Isoroku