The 70th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor

The storm of iron and explosives that broke over Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, was one of the finest applications of air power in all of World War II. For several hours on that beautiful Sunday morning in Hawaii, Japan’s elite naval aviators pummeled the American forces on Oahu, crippling the U.S. Navy’s battleship fleet and destroying the ability of the United States to intervene against other Japanese occupation efforts in the Pacific Basin. The Hawaiian operation was a flawed concept from the start, however, targeting only enemy naval vessels and aircraft, missing more strategically significant targets and setting the stage for Japan’s eventual defeat in 1945. Despite this, the attack on Pearl Harbor remains one of the most intriguing and decisive air strikes in history.