Pearl Harbor Remembered

At 7:48am Hawaiian Time on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, sailors were just beginning their day when the first bombs fell from Japanese aircraft on the American military bases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. As the Japanese aircraft returned to their carriers just over an hour later, Pearl Harbor reeled from the surprise attack. All eight of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet battleships at anchor there that morning were damaged and four were sunk, including the USS Oklahoma BB-37 which rolled at her berthing trapping many inside. Three cruisers and three destroyers were also damaged.

As fires burned throughout the harbor and shellshocked rescuers scrambled to save as many lives as they could, there was little that could be done for the crew of ravaged USS Arizona BB-39. The over 600 foot-long, 31,000 ton Pennsylvania-Class Battleship, was home that morning to over 1,500 men. The ship was broken almost in half from an explosion in her forward magazine by Turret II at 8:06am, destroying the massive vessel and killing 1,177 of the 1,512 crew on board that morning, many of which would never leave the ship… entombed for all time within her hull. Today, the Arizona remains in the spot where she came rest 79 year ago.

With the Arizona accounting for nearly half of all deaths that day, when the smoke cleared… 2,335 service members had been killed with another 1,143 wounded. For nearly sixty years, the attack remained the single greatest loss of life on American soil… until the morning of September 11th, 2001.