- Pearl Harbor is in Honolulu, the capitial of Hawaii. Its name comes from the pearl oysters that once grew in its waters. The Hawaiian name for the area is Wai Momi.
Pearl Harbor still serves as a naval base and headquarters for the United States Pacific Fleet. All of Pearl Harbor became a National Historic Landmark in 1965.
- Commander Mitsuo Fuchida led the Japanese air attack on the US fleet. The first wave comprised of 183 fighters, bombers and torpedo planes.
Pilots used a Honolulu radio station's music as a beacon to home in on.
- The first US casualties of the war against Japan came after a 500lb bomb hit a barracks dining hall at the Army Air Forces' Hickam Field, killing 35 men having breakfast.
- Japan's six aircraft carriers were: Akaga, Kaga, Hiryu, Soryu, Shokadu and Zuikaku. In the war that followed, the US sank every one of the Japanese aircraft carriers, battleships and cruisers that made up the December 1941 force.
- At least seven torpedoes hit the warship West Virginia. Among her 105 dead were three men who survived for two weeks in a sealed compartment. They lost their lives when the air in their watery grave finally gave out.
- The USS Arizona was the hardest hit, struck by one torpedo and eight bombs. One pierced the forward deck, setting off more than a million pounds of gunpowder and killing 1,177 men. A sailor on the torpedoed battleship Nevada saw the Arizona "jump at least 15 or 20 feet upwards in the water and sort of break in two." In nine minutes the Arizona was on the bottom.
- Eighteen ships were damaged or destroyed, 177 planes lost and there were 2,403 human casualties.
But apart from the Arizona, Utah and Oklahoma, every ship sunk or damaged in the attack was recovered, repaired and sailed again.
- More than 250,000 rounds of ammunition were fired at the Japanese, bringing down 29 planes. The attack lasted just over two hours. By 10am, the air strike was over.
- The Japanese navy used five midget submarines in the raid, launched near the entrance to Pearl Harbor before the attack. One was sunk trying to enter the harbour before dawn. But at least one of the midgets was able to enter the harbour and was sunk there by USS Monaghan.
- Fifteen men received Medals of Honor for their heroism. Today (5 June 2001), only machine gunner John Finn, 91, survives. Hit FOUR times by shrapnel, he continued to engage the enemy and it wasn't until the second and final wave of the attack had subsided that Finn finally sought medical help.
- BONUS INFO : America did not believe in reports from their own RADAR station that many unidentified aircraft were heading for Pearl Harbor. British Sources knew and might have warned the USA about three days prior to the attack (maybe failed to do so, realising that such an attack would bring the USA into the war).
- Another BONUS : The first shots of the Pearl Harbor raid were fired by the USA at a mini-submarine which was actually sunk.
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