National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day is observed on December 7th to remember and honor the 2,403 Americans who were killed eighty-one years ago in the 1941 Japanese surprise dawn attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. As a result, the United States declared war on Japan and entered World War II. FDR called this “a day that will live in infamy’.
Japanese planes attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, with the intent to cripple the fleet and hinder U.S. intervention in other Japanese targets in the South Pacific. The Japanese military expected that Germany would defeat Great Britain and the Soviet Union, and that Japan would control the Pacific. Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto opposed the attack and a war with the United States. After the attack he said, “We have awakened a sleeping giant and have instilled in him a terrible resolve.” He was right.
Although airfields, port facilities, and warships were severely damaged and two battleships, the Utah and the Arizona, were destroyed, the attack mobilized the United States and signaled its entry into World War II. Twenty-one American ships were damaged or lost in the attack, all but three were repaired and returned to service. Today the battleship USS Arizona, still sunk in the harbor, is a memorial commemorating the loss of 1,777 lives onboard that day and it is also a national park.
Fly an American flag at half-staff in remembrance on December 7th, until sunset to honor those who died in the attack.