Japanese Air Attack on Pearl Harbor

On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese carrier aircraft struck the United States Pacific Fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The surprise raid drew the United States into World War II and stands as one of the most devastatingly successful carrier-borne air attacks in history.

The assault was launched from a striking force built around six aircraft carriers that had crossed the Pacific undetected. The attackers came in two waves; the first consisted of about 183 aircraft, followed by a second wave of similar size. Torpedo bombers, dive bombers, high-level bombers, and fighters together sank or damaged numerous battleships and other vessels and destroyed many American aircraft on the ground.

The raid demonstrated conclusively that massed carrier aviation, not the battleship, had become the decisive instrument of naval power. Yet the American aircraft carriers were at sea and escaped harm, and those ships would carry the burden of the Pacific war that followed.