Commemorating the 83rd Anniversary of the Pearl Harbor Attack

Pearl Harbor Day honours 2,400 victims of the 1941 attack, marking U.S. entry into WWII.

This year, the 83rd anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor will be commemorated on 7 December. Harbor Remembrance Day or Pearl Harbor Day, is commemorated annually in the United States on December 7, to remember and praise the 2,400 Americans who were killed in the Japanese ambush attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. The event led to the United States declaring war on Japan the next day and therefore entering World War II.

In 1994, the United States Congress assigned December 7 of each year as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. The joint resolution was inscribed by President Bill Clinton on August 23, 1994. On November 29, Clinton gave a proclamation declaring December 7, 1994, the first National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

How does President Biden view Pearl Harbor’s legacy?

Pearl Harbor altered the future of the world, U.S. President Joe Biden stated at a White House event for veterans and their families on 6 Dec 2024. The president remembered that he heard so much about Pearl Harbor when he was growing up and uttered about his uncles who enrolled in the military after the attack.

“During World War II, we stood at an inflexion point,” the president stated. “We still stand at an inflexion point. The decisions we make now in the next four to five years will determine the course of our future for decades to come. … We owe it to the next generation to set that course on a more free, more secure and more just path.”

How did Pearl Harbor lead to the U.S. entering WWII?

The day after the invasion, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt emerged before a joint session of Congress, pursuing a declaration of war. After he delivered his renowned “Day of Infamy” speech, the Senate unanimously backed the declaration. 

Before the surprise invasion of Pearl Harbor, the United States had levied economic sanctions on Japan as a way of preventing Japan’s expansion goals in Asia. The sanctions influenced Japan’s access to aircraft exports. The raid on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor was part of Japan’s strategy to prevent any challenges to those goals in Asia.

This military attack claimed the lives of over 2,400 American troopers and citizens and injured over a thousand more, and the resulting devastation was immense in addition to the thrashing of infrastructure on the base, 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and around 300 aeroplanes were sunk or wrecked.

Generally, on Pearl Harbor Day, the American flag should be flown at half-staff until evening to honour those who perished as a result of the attack on U.S. military forces in Hawaii.