Pearl Harbor Remembr

DECEMBER 7,1941

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory. In the morning of December 7, 1941. One hundred eighty-eight U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. The surprise attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War. The Japanese attack had several major aims. First, it intended to destroy important American fleet units, thereby preventing the Pacific Fleet from interfering with Japanese conquest of the Dutch East Indies and Malaya and to enable Japan to conquer Southeast Asia without interference. Ninety minutes after it began, the attack was over. 2,008 sailors were killed and 710 others wounded; 218 soldiers and airmen (who were part of the Army until the independent U.S. Air Force was formed in 1947) were killed and 364 wounded; 109 marines were killed and 69 wounded, and 68 civilians were killed and 35 wounded. In total, 2,403 Americans died and 1,178 were wounded. In the hours before the attack, the Japanese attack force stationed itself approximately 230 miles north of Oahu.The memorial, built in 1962 and is visited by more than two million people annually.