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✠ The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise preemptive military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States (a neutral country at the time) against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. The attack led to the United States' formal entry into World War II the next day. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, and as Operation Z during its planning.
Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the United States Pacific Fleet from interfering with its planned military actions in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the course of seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
The attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time (18:18 GMT). The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese aircraft (including fighters, level and dive bombers, and torpedo bombers) in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but USS Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the power station, dry dock, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64 servicemen killed. One Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured.
Remember Pearl Harbor was a slogan or saying popular in the United States after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Commander Lewis Preston Harris first coined the phrase "Remember Pearl Harbor".
It was also the name of a song by artist Sammy Kaye, sometimes cited as "Let's Remember Pearl Harbor," recorded ten days after the outbreak of the war.
Another song of the same title was written by Frank Luther and performed by Carson J. Robison and his orchestra, recorded on Bluebird Records. A simple marching tune seeking to rile up patriotic fervor as part of American propaganda during World War II, the mostly tame song also contains a remarkable section of vehement xenophobic and racist exhortation. ✠
Lyrics:
History in ev'ry century
Records an act that lives forevermore
We'll recall, as in to line we fall
The thing that happened on Hawaii's shore
Let's REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR
As we go to meet the foe
Let's REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR
As we did the Alamo
We will always remember
How they died for liberty
Let's REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR
And go on to victory
Let's REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR
As we go to meet the foe
Let's REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR
As we did the Alamo
We will always remember
How they died for liberty
Let's REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR
And go on to victory
