Pearl Harbor Facts at a Glance

• Pearl Harbor was only one part of a coordinated attack by the Empire of Japan on the U.S. naval presence in the Pacific. To prevent America from entering the war, and to prevent them from interfering with invasions of other countries to obtain the resources the U.S. was no longer exporting, Japan had to make sure the U.S. Pacific Fleet was entirely disabled. Also involved in the surprise attack were the Philippines, Guam and Wake Island. Japan also attacked the British-held territories of Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

• In total, the coordinated attack on U.S. and European military assets in the Pacific lasted around seven hours.

• The intent to declare war before the attack was hotly debated. For years it was thought that it was simply an accident that the message wasn’t sent in time. It was only later that the Japanese army and navy pushed hard for the government to give no sign of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Unbeknownst to them, U.S. forces had already intercepted and decoded the message that was later sent through official channels, though there was no sign of an imminent attack inside.

• Aircraft carriers became a vital piece of the war effort that led to an Allied victory. As luck would have it, all of the American aircraft carriers in the Pacific Fleet were away from Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack.

• The Pacific War had been raging for years before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Empire of Japan and the Republic of China had been openly fighting since 1937. Even before that though, aggressions were flaring. As far back as 1931, Japan invaded and occupied the Chinese territory of Manchuria.

• Mere hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans were rounded up and placed into internment camps. Close to 120,000 people would live in the camps before the last one was finally closed in 1946, most of them were American citizens.

• A national memorial was built over the wreck of the USS Arizona in the 1960s. The site is operated by the National Park Service and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

• The 2001 film Pearl Harbor was universally panned by critics. The film starred Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale, and was directed by Michael Bay.

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