Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, pulling the U.S. into World War II
On this day · 7 December 1941
A surprise dawn raid on Hawaii crippled the Pacific Fleet and ended American neutrality overnight.
Early on December 7, 1941, 353 Japanese carrier aircraft swept over the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in two waves. The first bombs fell at about 7:55 a.m. local time, with no declaration of war preceding them.
In under two hours the raid sank or damaged all eight battleships moored along Battleship Row, destroyed scores of planes on the ground, and killed 2,403 Americans. The USS Arizona alone lost over 1,100 sailors and Marines when its forward magazine exploded.
The attack missed two things that would prove decisive: the fleet’s aircraft carriers, away at sea, and the base’s fuel depots and repair yards. The next day President Franklin Roosevelt asked Congress to recognize a date that would “live in infamy,” and the United States declared war on Japan.
A divided, isolationist nation became, almost in a morning, fully committed to total war.
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