A Date Which Will Live in Infamy
PEARL HARBOR, 1941: On today’s date in 1941 the Japanese carried out a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. As of that date it was the deadliest one day attack by a foreign enemy on American soil in our nation’s history. 353 aircraft from six Japanese aircraft carriers attacked in an early morning raid that only cost lives of 65 Japanese.
The losses on Americans were significant. Four Navy battleships were sank and four more were damaged. Three cruisers, three destroyers, one minelayer, and 188 aircraft were destroyed. American casualties included 2,402 dead and 1,282 wounded. The very next day President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the day before as “a date which will live in infamy.” Within an hour of the speech Congress passed a declaration of war. That one day made all the difference. The war that followed lasted almost four years at a cost of 418,500 American lives. It freed the world of the most brutal regimes in history and prevented the deaths of millions while protecting American soil.
Sixty years later 2,976 died as a result of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s attack on the World Trade Center. Eight years later the families of New Yorkers are still waiting for justice. Read more…
