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It was 81 years ago today...the horrific incident on "the date that will live in infamy!" The savage and malicious attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. In the annals of American history, there had been nothing like it before...there has been nothing like it since.
Just as dawn was breaking on what appeared to be an idyllic Sunday at "Pearl," Japanese fighter planes swooped down from the skies. And they began a reign of death and destruction lasting about two hours.
When it was over, much of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet lay in ruins. A total of 12 ships sunk or sinking, 4 others were heavily damaged, and nearly 200 aircraft destroyed. The death toll was steep -- 2,403 sailors, marines, and soldiers killed...another 1,178 injured.
As President Franklin Roosevelt promised during his address to Congress and the American people a day later, the U.S. did indeed unleash its "righteous might" and gained "the inevitable triumph!"
The War with Japan that began with an attack on U.S. Navy ships fittingly formally ended on one, with the unconditional surrender of Japan on the Battleship Missouri -- on September 2nd, 1945.
The Pearl Harbor attack was officially AVENGED!
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