"Lest We Forget"

     Seventy-three years ago today, at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time, the Imperial Japanese Navy bombed the Pacific Fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor.  Using six aircraft carriers, three-hundred-fifty-three fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes the Japanese attack was a preventive action to keep the U.S. fleet from interfering with Japanese plans to invade overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States in Southeast Asia.

Battleship Row:  U.S. Navy Photo

    The attack damaged all eight of the U.S. Battleships anchored in the harbor.  Four of those battleships were sunk; all but the Arizona was raised and refitted.  Six of the eight battleships were returned to active duty.  In addition to the battleships the Japanese sank or damaged 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers, 1 anti-aircraft training ship and a minelayer.  188 aircraft were also destroyed, but the biggest loss was that of 2,403 American lives.  1,177 men were lost on the USS Arizona alone.

The USS Arizona Memorial, located at Pearl Harbor 

in Honolulu, Hawaii.  Over one-thousand sailors were killed when 

their ship sank during the attack on December 7, 1941

(photo from: http://pblproject.com)

    The surprise attack plunged the United States into WWII.  On December 8, the United States declared War on Imperial Japan. The war with Japan lasted 3 years, 8 months and 27 days, until the signing of the unconditional surrender document aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945.

I used the following sources for the information in this post:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor

http://www.history.com/news/5-facts-about-pearl-harbor-and-the-uss-arizona

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_over_Japan_Day

http://pblproject.com