On the morning of December 7th, a peaceful tranquil exploded from the surprise attack of Japanese planes that came in two waves; the first at 7:55 AM, the second at 8:55. Along with the ships in Pearl Harbor, the air stations at Hickam, Wheeler, Ford Island, Kaneohe and Ewa Field were attacked. For two hours and twenty minutes, Japanese aircraft bombed and strafed these military targets. By 9:55 it was all over. By 1:00 PM the carriers that launched the planes from 274 miles off the coast of Oahu were heading back to Japan.

Behind them they left chaos: 2,335 dead servicemen, 1,178 wounded, 640 unaccounted for, 48 civilians killed. 188 planes had been destroyed and 18 ships of different sizes had been sunk or damaged, including 8 damaged or destroyed battleships. Only 29 Japanese aircraft were shot down by American return fire, most during the attack of the second wave.

Word of the attack reached President Roosevelt as he lunched in his oval study on Sunday afternoon. Later, Winston Churchill phoned to tell him that the Japanese had also attacked British colonies in southeast Asia and that Britain would declare war the next day. Roosevelt responded that he would go before Congress the following day to ask for a declaration of war against Japan. Churchill wrote: "To have the United States at our side was to me the greatest joy. Now at this very moment I knew the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death. So we had won after all!.... Hitler's fate was sealed. Mussolini's fate was sealed. As for the Japanese, they would be ground to powder."

On Monday, FDR signed the declaration of war granted by Congress. One day later both Germany and Italy, as partners of Japan in the Tripartite Pact, declared war on the United States.



LET'S NEVER FORGET PEARL HARBOR

PERSONAL THANKS AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL OUR VETERAN HEROES OF WWII