'Yesterday, December 7th, 1941--a date which will live in infamy--the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.' These were the opening words in President Frankline Delano Roosevelt's address to Congress the day after the unprovoked surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The speech lasted only six minutes, and Congress took less than an hour to approve a declaration of war against Japan. A few days later, Japan's Axis allies, Germany and Italy, declared war on the United States. Isolationist America was now plunged into World War II. The attack on the U.S. Pacific naval base in Oahu that December morning in 1941 left much of the fleet a blaze of oil-buring flames or sunk at the bottom of the harbor. The raid lasted close to two hours; when it ended, more than 2,300 U.S. military personnel were dead and more than 1,100 had been wounded. In the days after the attack, while the United States tried to salvage and repair what remained of the once-mighty Pacific Fleet, one question resounded: how could America have been caught so unaware and so unprepared?
