Eighty years ago on December 7, shortly before 8 a.m., hundreds of Japanese aircraft dove from the sky in a surprise bombing attack on Pearl Harbor, a United States naval base in Hawaii, killing more than 2,400 Americans (including civilians) and wounding over 1,000. The Japanese managed to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships, and over 300 airplanes.
The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, called December 7, 1941 “a day which will live in infamy” and asked Congress to declare war on Japan. This attack and the accompanying declarations of war brought our country fully into World War II within a matter of days.
The Japanese strategy had been a simple one. The Japanese plan was to level a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and wipe out the American Naval fleet. But even with all the devastation and loss they created, the Japanese failed to cripple the Pacific Fleet. By the 1940s, battleships were no longer the most important naval vessel: Aircraft carriers were, and as it happened, all of the Pacific Fleet’s carriers were away from the base on December 7. (Some had returned to the mainland and others were delivering planes to troops.) Another costly mistake of the Japanese is that they left the base’s most vital onshore facilities—oil storage depots, repair shops, shipyards and submarine docks—intact. As a result, the U.S. Navy was able to rebound relatively quickly from the attack.
- Leslie West, Head of Adult Services at Homewood Public Library
Homewood Public Library is offering two programs that mark the events at Pearl Harbor, including both a virtual presentation, as well as an in-person one.
To register online, you can search for the program on our Adult Services Events page or click the links in the titles below.
Our virtual program will be held on December 2, 2021, from 1-2p.m.
Our Zoom program will be in partnership with Carrie LeGarde, a forensic anthropologist and USS Oklahoma Project Lead at the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) to highlight how the government is working on identifying the MIA veterans from Pearl Harbor, highlighting how they have been able to identify more than 350 Unknowns from that fateful day in December.
Our live program will be presented by Niki Sepsas on Tuesday, December 7th, from 1-2p.m. in the Large Auditorium.
Come join us at as Niki Sepsas presents his program Air Raid…. Pearl Harbor…This Is Not a Drill! This program honors those who lost their lives during the attack on Pearl Harbor in1941, as well as those fighting men and women who protect our freedom every day. Niki Sepsas has enjoyed a 30-year travel career which has taken him to more than 120 countries and all seven continents. His compelling PowerPoint presentations transport his audiences to the sights and sounds of history as it happened and travel destinations in faraway places.
Want to learn more about Pearl Harbor or World War II? Check out these titles available at the library.
Brothers Down: Pearl Harbor and the Fate of the Many Brothers Aboard the USS Arizona
by Walter R. Borneman
To Wake the Giant: A Novel of Pearl Harbor
by Jeff Shaara
Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II
by Daniel James Brown
