Day of infamy
PEARL HARBOR (Day of Infamy): President Franklin Roosevelt called December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy." On that day, Japanese planes attacked the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory. The bombing killed more than 2,300 Americans. It destroyed the American battleship U.S.S. Arizona and capsized the U.S.S. Oklahoma. The attack sank a total of twelve ships and damaged nine others. 160 aircrafts were destroyed and 150 others damaged. The attack took the country by surprise. The ranking US naval officer in Pearl Harbor, known as the Commander-in-Chief Pacific, sent this hurried dispatch to all major navy commands and fleet units. Most people knew what the attack meant for the U.S. even before Roosevelt's official announcement the next day. The U.S. would declare war on Japan. The U.S. was already close to joining the war, but in an attempt to preserve its stance of isolation and neutrality, it had only committed to sending war supplies on loan to the Allied forces, mainly Great Britain, France, and Russia. Within days, Japan's allies, Germany and Italy (known as the Axis powers), declared war on the US. December 7, the "date which will live in infamy," brought the US into World War II.