Pearl Harbor!

On a peaceful Sunday morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese planes attacked the American fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and plunged an unsuspecting America into World War II. Today, thousands of tourists each year visit the U.S.S. Arizona National Memorial on the island of Oahu to pay tribute to the 2,403 Americans who died in the attack, 1,777 of them aboard the battleship U.S.S. Arizona.


The Japanese attacked Peal Harbor because it was the major base of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet. Bombers and torpedo planes flying form Japanese aircraft carriers struck at “Battleship Row,” where seven American battleships were anchored. All seven were sunk or damaged. One bomb struck the Arizona’s forward magazine, where ammunition were stored, and set off an enormous explosion that broke the battleship in two and sent her to the bottom of the harbor.


The white bridgelike structure of the National Memorial marks the spot where the Arizona went down. Below, the sunken battleship can be seen through the clear waters of the harbor. This memorial is a somber reminder of the day in 1941 that President Franklin D. Roosevelt called “a date which will live in infamy.”


Of the seven battleships crippled in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, five were repaired. Only the Arizona and the Oklahoma could not be salvaged.


Follow this link to learn more about that fateful day.