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.

Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

October 18, 2016 ·  
Pearl Harbor was the beginning of World War II for the United States, an attack on the unsuspecting island of Oahu while peace negotiations between America and Japanese were still in session.  The Japanese sent a two page message, declaring war upon the United States but it did not reach the Americans until Pearl Harbor […]
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Why did the US set up at Pearl Harbor?

October 15, 2016 ·  
The history of the Hawaiian Islands is clear, and the historical presence of its people is known to date back as far as 124AD, depending on which history book you read it from. The original Hawaiians were of Polynesian origin and came from the Marquesas Islands. The Islands were run under their own monarchy for […]
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8 Things You Didn’t Know About Pearl Harbor

October 10, 2016 · Chris 
You might have watched the movie, or you could have read our blogs – and guaranteed you know plenty about the attack on Pearl Harbor if you’ve done either of these. But there is much more to what happened on that fateful day, and afterwards, that is not as publicized. As the anniversary of the […]
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World War II Monument Iowa

October 05, 2016 ·  
American history was changed forever in December 1941, when Japanese airplanes launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, killing 2,403 soldiers and civilians in the area. The US navy took a critical hit that morning and miraculously survived the invasion with just enough resources to gather their strength and fight back. With this attack on […]
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Pearl Harbor Specifics

August 07, 2016 ·  
Everyone knows about Pearl Harbor, whether through film or high school history, it is remembered as the day that spurred America into action and changed the tide of World War II. Less well-known are the particulars, the details of one of most significant days in United States history. If the finer points of this historic […]
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Pearl Harbor Visitor Center – History, Renovations, and Now

July 12, 2016 · Jason Alghussein
On December 7th, 1941, Hawaii, along with the country as a whole, was dealt a terrible blow with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Commemorating that fateful day when over 2,400 American lives were lost, the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument at Pearl Harbor is one of the most-visited sites in Hawaii, with well over one million people coming […]
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DNA Helps Identify Victims of the Pearl Harbor Attack

July 08, 2016 ·  
USS Oklahoma Sailor Accounted for Decades Later A total of 16 million Americans served in the military during the Second World War. Of these millions, 400,000 died and 79,000 of them remained unaccounted for. In the attack on Pearl Harbor alone, 2,335 heroes gave their lives in a single day. While the unidentified troops were […]
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FDR's Day of Infamy

July 04, 2016 ·  
24 hours with the President As far as President Franklin D. Roosevelt knew when he woke up on December 7, 1941, the negotiations between the United States and the Empire of Japan still held a hope of averting war between the nations. The talks were beginning to languish, but they had not yet fallen through—or […]
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Wounded Warrior Games - Pacific

June 29, 2016 ·  
The first Wounded Warrior Pacific Invitational was held in Honolulu, Hawaii. Hosted primarily at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, this competition attracted a total of 150 participants. The Wounded Warrior Pacific Invitational was the largest joint-service competition, after the annual Warrior Games. At the event, service members from the Special Operations Command, Army, Coast Guard, Navy, Air Force and Marines took […]
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View of the Washington Monument and World War II Memorial (Pearl Harbor Dedication)

June 29, 2016 ·  
The National World War II Memorial is located between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Located at the east end of the Reflecting Pool, the memorial is open to all, at any time of the day or night. From 9:30 AM to 10 PM, park rangers are available to answer visitors' questions. […]
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