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.

How Many Pearl Harbor Deaths Were There?

June 14, 2016 · J. Owen
President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared December 7, 1941, the "date that will live in infamy." For the many Pearl Harbor deaths, this statement rang true. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was the largest attack on U.S. soil in modern history. It was the attack that launched the U.S. into World War II, and every […]
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Doris “Dorie” Miller

June 12, 2016 ·  
Doris “Dorie” Miller was one of the bravest men who ever lived, and was the first African-American man to receive the Navy Cross in history for courage under fire. Born In Waco, Texas in 1919, Miller worked on his father’s farm until age 19. With dreams of becoming a military man, Miller enlisted in the […]
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WWII Bombs Hit Japan With Japanese Medals of Peace Strapped on

June 06, 2016 ·  
James H. Doolittle Leads Air Raid on Japanese Homeland Before World War II began, the Japanese awarded medals of friendship and peace to several people in the United States. At the time, these medals were intended to be symbolic of the cooperation, friendship and good relationship held between the United States and Japan. Following the […]
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The Opana Radar Station

June 02, 2016 ·  
How we almost knew about the Pearl Harbor attack before it happened. If U.S. planes hadn’t been coming in the same morning... If they would have had more practice using radar technology... If they had known about the Japanese submarine that had been spotted… Could Pearl Harbor have been saved? How often we look back […]
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Meeting in the Air: American Pilots at Pearl Harbor

May 28, 2016 ·  
Most Americans know that attacking Japanese planes surprised Pearl Harbor early in the morning of December 7, 1941, but not nearly as many people know about the Americans who took to the skies that morning. That weekend, Sgt. Henry C. Blackwell, Cpl. Clyde C. Brown, and Sgt. Warren D. Rasmussen had taken leave from the US […]
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Japanese Internment: A People Locked Away

May 20, 2016 ·  
A five-year-old sat on a train with his family. He was on an adventure, not understanding why the people around him were crying. As far as he knew his family was on a vacation to a place called Arkansas. Being on an adventure, he didn’t worry when his family arrived at the barbed wire fenced-in […]
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How Women During the Attacks on Pearl Harbor Inspired Women Across the Country

May 07, 2016 · Chris 
Before the start of World War II, there was much controversy over the place of women in the armed forces. The US military believed that women were more suited to non-combat roles such as nurses, mechanics, drivers, and telegraphers. In Honolulu, servicewomen were living through tense times, and the country felt on the brink of war. But they were making the […]
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How Much of the Film Pearl Harbor is Accurate?

April 29, 2016 ·  
The 2001 film Pearl Harbor was met with a mixed reception at the time of its release. Although it was the most expensive movie ever filmed up to then, critics considered it to be an average film at best and a poor film at worst. Audiences generally enjoyed it, with the exception of some survivors and veterans […]
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Elvis’ Fundraiser Performance in Honolulu for the Arizona Memorial

April 25, 2016 · Jason Alghussein
Shortly after eight o’clock in the morning on December 7, 1941, an armor-piercing bomb struck the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor and caused the nearly-instantaneous loss of more than a thousand brave men on board. Others were injured and lived on, but the battleship sank to the bottom of the harbor. Today, the beautiful Arizona Memorial rests […]
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USS Pennsylvania - The Day the Music Died

April 20, 2016 ·  
On Saturday night, December 6, 1941, a rousing musical competition, the Battle of Music, entertained many U.S. sailors and their guests in the Bloch Arena at the Pearl Harbor Naval Station. Twenty-one-member bands were competing in the semi-finals to see who would face off against the bands of the USS Arizona and the Marine Corps Barracks. The […]
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