The USS Arizona Memorial is fully open following the completion of preservation work

The Attack on Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy.
Just before 8 a.m. local time on Sunday, December 7, 1941, 353 Japanese aircraft launched from six carriers struck the U.S. Pacific Fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor. Within two hours, eight battleships were damaged or destroyed, 188 aircraft lay in ruins, and 2,403 Americans had been killed. The first wave hit at low altitude with torpedo bombers; the second arrived twenty minutes later with high-level bombers and fighters strafing what was left.

The articles in this collection examine the attack from every angle: the diplomatic breakdown that preceded the first wave, the radar warning, the strikes on Battleship Row, and the strategic miscalculations the Japanese command made before, during, and after the raid — including the fateful decision not to launch a third wave against the harbor's fuel tanks and dry-dock facilities. Whether you're researching the chain of events, the human toll, or the immediate aftermath, you'll find primary-source accounts, ship-by-ship damage reports, and historian-led analysis here.

When you're ready to walk the harbor itself, book a guided tour of the USS Arizona Memorial and Battleship Missouri — the two sites that bookend America's entry into and victory in the Pacific War. For visitors short on time, the Pearl Harbor Excursion short tour covers the essentials in a single morning, with round-trip transportation from Waikiki.

The attack reshaped the twentieth century in under 110 minutes, drawing a divided isolationist America into the largest war in human history. The articles below help explain how, and why, those minutes still matter.

Road to War: The Lead-Up to Pearl Harbor

April 19, 2017 ·  
What causes a nation to attack an unsuspecting naval base filled with men simply going about their day? How do the leaders of a country justify the killing of thousands, in a nation it’s not even at war with? These are questions that many people pose when they look at the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on […]
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Keeping History Alive: Remembering Pearl Harbor

April 17, 2017 ·  
It's a sad fact that as time passes, the memories of some of the most important days in history will eventually fade. Will we be able to keep these memories alive and ensure that these momentous days in our past never fade away? Nothing is guaranteed, but for Pearl Harbor, the World War II Valor in […]
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All-in-One Pass to Pearl Harbor

April 14, 2017 ·  
Over 75 years ago, the United States mainland was waking up to news that Japan had attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor. Panic set in and speculation spread throughout the nation; most importantly, a sense of patriotism erupted across the country. Back at Pearl Harbor, over 2,400 American sailors had died and multiple battleships had […]
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Survivor George Allen Celebrates 95th Birthday

April 13, 2017 ·  
At the age of 20, George Allen had been enlisted in the United States armed forces for over a year when he found himself sucked into one of the most devastating days in American history. On December 7th, 1941, the young soldier was assigned to kitchen patrol, an uneventful morning of peeling potatoes that started […]
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Why Visit Pearl Harbor? The Importance of Pearl Harbor Tours

April 12, 2017 ·  
Why do we sit through hours of lectures covering events that we weren’t even alive for? What’s the benefit of knowing how a certain conflict that may be hundreds of years old was resolved or why a certain nation may have pursued complete control of a region? The common answer is that history can repeat […]
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JRS-1 and The Daring Flight of Wesley Hoyt Ruth

April 11, 2017 ·  
Everybody had their jobs. For Wesley Hoyt Ruth, on December 7th, 1941, when the Japanese started bombing Pearl Harbor, his job was of the utmost importance: locate the Japanese fleet responsible for the incoming fighters and bombers. While sailors and Marines scrambled at the harbor to fight back and rescue the injured and trapped, Ruth […]
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USS Nevada - The Navy’s First Super-Dreadnought

April 11, 2017 ·  
On December 7th, 1941, eight battleships were moored in a grouping at Pearl Harbor, making up what’s become known as Battleship Row. The USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma, two of Pearl Harbor’s ill-fated vessels, were moored there and received the brunt of the Japanese attack, but they were far from the only tragedies felt that […]
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A Quiet Sunday Morning in December

April 09, 2017 ·  
When discussing the attack on Pearl Harbor, it’s easy to forget that just moments before the first bombs fell at around 0755, the sailors serving aboard the battleships and other vessels moored in the harbor were going about their business as normal. Nothing about that quiet Sunday morning gave any indication of what was to […]
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The Secret Mission After Pearl Harbor

April 01, 2017 ·  
After the smoke of the Pearl Harbor attack started to clear and the United States was able to get a bearing on its situation, government officials knew there was little time to regroup. Whether or not the Japanese would launch another attack or even a full-scale invasion was a question officials had no time to […]
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Uniting the States: America's Reaction to Pearl Harbor

March 30, 2017 ·  
Events like the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 have proven that in times of turmoil, citizens of the United States will band together for the good of the nation. While there are multiple instances throughout America’s history, the American reaction to Pearl Harbor after the attack on December 7th, 1941 is often […]
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