Dec. 7: Pearl Harbor Remembered

"A date which will live in infamy"
The attack on Pearl Harbor remembered 65 years later:

RESOURCES, IMAGE COLLECTIONS

U.S. DoD Pearl Harbor Special
Pearl Harbor Attack 65 Years Ago Presents Parallels, Lessons for Terror War

Pearl Harbor Raid, 7 December 1941
Overview and Special Image Selection
(DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY) -- The 7 December 1941 Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was one of the great defining moments in history. A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion. America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant.

Pearl Harbor Attack, Index of Action Reports

Pearl Harbor Attack, Additional Action Reports

Remembering Pearl Harbor
(National Geographic) -- Multimedia Map and Time Line: Photos, footage, firsthand accounts, and narration bring the attack on Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii, to life—moment by moment, target by target.

USS Arizona Memorial
(National Park Service) -- Oil droplets bubble to the surface of Pearl Harbor above the USS Arizona, creating a vivid link to the past. On a quiet Sunday morning December 7, 1941 a Japanese surprise air attack left the Pacific Fleet in smoldering heaps of broken, twisted steel. Here, peace was interrupted and paradise lost. In hours, 2,390 futures were stolen, half of these casualties from the battleship Arizona.

Pearl Harbor Memorial Panorama

Pearl-Harbor.US
Pearl Harbor. Dawn, 7 December 1941. More than half of the United States Pacific Fleet, approximately 150 vessels and service craft, lay at anchor or alongside piers in Pearl Harbor. All but one of the Pacific fleet’s battleships were in port that morning, most of them moored to quays flanking Ford Island. By 10:00 a.m. the tranquil Sunday calm had been shattered, 21 vessels lay sunk or damaged, the fighting backbone of the fleet apparently broken. Smoke from burning planes and hangers filled the sky. Oil from sinking ships clogged the harbor.

Death was everywhere.

Attack At Pearl Harbor, 1941
(EyeWitness to History) -- The surprise was complete. The attacking planes came in two waves; the first hit its target at 7:53 AM, the second at 8:55. 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.

National Museum of the Pacific War

Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund

Pacific Avation Museum, Pearl Harbor

Locally, DC Metro

National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, 2006
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America
The White House
Sixty-­five years ago, more than 2,400 Americans lost their lives in a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. On National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, we think of those who died on December 7, 1941, and honor all those who sacrificed for our liberty during World War II.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim December 7, 2006, as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. I encourage all Americans to observe this solemn occasion with appropriate ceremonies and activities. I urge all Federal agencies, interested organizations, groups, and individuals to fly the flag of the United States at half staff this December 7 in honor of those who died as a result of their service at Pearl Harbor.

National World War II Memorial

National Park Service: National World War II Memorial

NEWSBYTES

Survivors Honor Pearl Harbor Victims
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) -- Nearly 500 survivors of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor were here Thursday to honor those who died in the surprise attack 65 years ago.

Pearl Harbor Survivors Gather
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) -- This will be their last visit to this watery grave to share stories, exchange smiles, find peace and salute their fallen friends.

One Last Mission for Ship Sunk in Pearl Harbor Attack
Scientists in Md. Hope Arizona Stability Study Might Aid Others
(Washington Post) -- For 65 years, the wreck of the USS Arizona has been leaking oil from its grave at the bottom of Pearl Harbor, staining the water, visitors often say, as if it were the ship's blood.

Survivors return to Pearl Harbor for final reunion
(USA Today) -- For decades after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, survivors returned to retell their stories and recite their mantra: "Remember Pearl Harbor."

"We're getting to be fewer and fewer in numbers," says Lee Soucy, 87, of Plainview, Texas. Soucy recalled treating injured sailors who jumped from flaming ships during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet. He was in Hawaii this week for the last time.

Former Pearl Harbor Enemies Meet
HONOLULU (KITV) -- When they last encountered each other 65 years ago, one was standing on the USS West Virginia, and the other was dropping the torpedoes that helped sink it.

Damn the torpedoes!: Pearl Harbor shattered conventional thinking
(Navy Times) -- Three U.S. events led to the development of naval aviation — the weapon Japan used so effectively Dec. 7, 1941 — and all three shared a connection with Hampton Roads, Va.

Pearl Harbor, 65 years later
ARLINGTON, VA. (CSM) -- On this day in 1941, the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was attacked. The bombing killed 2,388 Americans, put much of the Pacific fleet out of commission, and came while the Japanese ambassador in Washington was preparing for a diplomatic appointment at the State Department. Among the losses was the battleship Arizona, which went down with nearly all hands on board. It is still there as a national shrine.

News Wirephotos

Pearl Harbor Vets Reconcile in Hawaii
HONOLULU (AP) -- Sixty-five years ago, Takeshi Maeda and John Rauschkolb tried to kill each other at Pearl Harbor. This week, now both 85, they met face-to-face for the first time _ and shook hands.

Congress Votes to Save Internment Camps
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Notorious internment camps where Japanese-Americans were kept behind barbed wire during World War II will be preserved as stark reminders of how the United States turned on some of its citizens in a time of fear.

Kenneth Taylor; Flew Against Pearl Harbor Raiders
(Washington Post) -- Kenneth M. Taylor, 86, an Army Air Forces pilot who managed to get airborne under fire near Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and shot down at least two Japanese attacking aircraft, died Nov. 25 at an assisted living residence in Tucson. He had been ill since hip surgery two years ago.

Ken Taylor: The Reluctant Hero

MULTIMEDIA

Pearl Harbor Memories


Tora Tora Tora: The Real Story of Pearl Harbor


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