Pearl Harbor, 67 Years Later

Today marks the 67th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the US naval installations at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

It was a day that will live in infamy.

Sadly, many of those who lived through, and fought at Pearl Harbor that Sunday morning, are no longer with us. The number of survivors of that day grows smaller by the day. Last year, a new memorial to the USS Oklahoma victims was dedicated. After the Arizona and the loss of 1,177 of the 1,400 sailors and Marines on board when Japanese bombs tore apart the ship's forward magazine, the Oklahoma lost 429 sailors and Marines — the second greatest loss of life among any of the battleships in Pearl Harbor.

The US Navy has a website with photos taken of Pearl Harbor before, during and after the attacks.



This year's commemorations at Pearl Harbor are focused not on the attacks per se, but on the US response to the attacks, including honoring those who participated in the Doolittle Raid on Japan four months after Pearl Harbor and the day that will live in infamy.



One of the most important things to remember about the attacks from a military and strategic perspective is that until that point, battleships were considered the dominant ship on the high seas. After Pearl Harbor, the primacy of the aircraft carrier was established and now provides the most visible and tangible means by which the US can project power around the world. A carrier battle group contains more firepower than most nations, and the US has 11 carriers in active service. Pearl Harbor changed the way that navies operate the world over.

UPDATE:
Charles at LGF points out there are still those who believe that the US is somehow at fault for the Pearl Harbor attacks and that if the US was more considerate of Japanese intentions the war could have been avoided. It's total nonsense.

What gets lost in the Pearl Harbor attacks is that the Japanese planned multiple attacks within a week of the Pearl attack; indeed multiple targets coinciding with the Pearl attack on the 7th:

December 7, 1941 - Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; also attack the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, Malaya, Thailand, Shanghai and Midway.
December 8, 1941 - U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan. Japanese land near Singapore and enter Thailand.
December 9, 1941 - China declares war on Japan.
December 10, 1941 - Japanese invade the Philippines and also seize Guam.
December 11, 1941 - Japanese invade Burma.
December 15, 1941 - First Japanese merchant ship sunk by a U.S. submarine.
December 16, 1941 - Japanese invade British Borneo.
December 18, 1941 - Japanese invade Hong Kong.
December 22, 1941 - Japanese invade Luzon in the Philippines.So, within two weeks of the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese attacked everywhere from Borneo and Hong Kong to Mayasia, Midway, Thailand, Borneo, Burma and the Philippines.

That's not the sign of a nation that is looking to avoid war, but one that was intent upon carrying out its plans regardless of what the US did. The range of targets was designed to take the Pacific in one fell swoop and to knock the Allies off kilter at a time when they were focused on the European theater.

Also keep in mind that the Japanese had been waging war in China since 1937. Japan was looking for primacy in the Pacific, and the US stood in its way. Sooner or later, Japan would have to confront the US, and the Japanese hoped to take the US Navy out of the equation in one fell swoop.

It failed. The rest is history.