It was 7:55 on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. The battleship Oklahoma was anchored at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Suddenly, this grim message blasted out of speakers on the ship: “Air Raid Pearl Harbor real planes, real bombs; this is no drill.”
Waves of Japanese dive-bombers and torpedo planes zoomed across the island. They sank ships in the harbor. They destroyed planes parked at a nearby air base. It was the most destructive attack on American forces in history. Within a few hours, the Japanese sank or crippled eight battleships, three cruisers, and two destroyers. Americans hadn’t been willing to go to war. Now, they felt they had little choice.