Today we honor those lost during the attack on Pearl Harbor, which occurred on this date 75 years ago. At 7:55am local time, Japanese fighter planes began strafing, torpedoing, and bombing the Pacific Fleet. The attack would continue for 110 minutes. A total of 2,403 U.S. servicemen were killed, and 1,178 were wounded. Eighteen ships would be damaged, although—amazingly—fifteen of them would eventually return to service. Of the 402 American aircraft in Hawaii, 188 were destroyed and 159 damaged, 155 of them on the ground.
The first indications of the attack came via radar on Pearl Harbor, where the first wave of Japanese aircraft was misidentified as a group of US Air Force bombers arriving from the mainland. Additionally, several Japanese midget submarines began to enter the area around the island in the early morning hours, with the destroyer Ward sinking one sub at 6:37am.
The attack would mark the entry of the United States into World War II. On December 8th, President Franklin Roosevelt asked for Congress for a declaration of War on Japan, which it made almost unanimously.