Air Raid On Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7

This week we remember an important anniversary.

On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. Hawaii, killing more than 2,300 Americans. The U.S.S. Arizona was destroyed and the U.S.S. Oklahoma capsized. A total of twelve ships sank or were beached in the attack and nine additional vessels were damaged. More than 160 aircraft were destroyed and more than 150 others damaged.

A hurried dispatch from the US naval officer in Pearl Harbor, Admiral Kimmel, Commander in Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet, provided the first official word of the attack: It said simply: AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NOT DRILL.

The next day, in an address to a joint session of Congress, President Franklin Roosevelt called December 7, 1941 “a date which will live in infamy.”

Congress then declared War on Japan, abandoning the nation’s isolationism policy and ushering the United States into World War II.

Within days, Japan’s allies, Germany and Italy, declared war on the United States, The US began its rapid transition to a wartime economy. This included building up armaments in support of military campaigns in the Pacific, North Africa, and Europe.