Naval Station Pearl Harbor provides berthing and shore side support to surface ships and submarines, as well as maintenance and training. Pearl Harbor can accommodate the largest ships in the fleet, to include dry dock services, and is now home to over 160 commands. Housing, personnel, and family support are also provided and are an integral part of the shore side activities, which encompasses both permanent and transient personnel. Because Pearl Harbor is the only intermediate maintenance facility for submarines in the Middle Pacific, it serves as host to a large number of visiting submariners.
At 6:05 on 7 December 1941, aircraft and midget submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy under the command of Admiral Chuichi Nagumo began an attack on the U.S. naval base. The six Japanese carriers launched a first wave of 183 aircraft composed mainly of dive bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters.
Without explicit warning, without a declaration of war, and while the U.S. and Japan were still in the middle of peace negotiations, the Japanese struck American ships and military installations at 7:51. The first wave attacked airfields of Ford Island.
At 8:30, a second wave of 170 Japanese aircraft, mostly torpedo bombers, attacked the fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor. The battleship Arizona was hit with an armor-piercing bomb which penetrated the forward ammunition compartment, blowing the ship apart and sinking it within seconds, killing 1,177 crew members.
The overall death toll was 2,467 people: 2,403 American citizens—2,335 members of the U.S. military and 68 civilians—and 64 members of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Five U.S. battleships were sunk and the other remaining three were badly damaged. Overall, nine ships of the U.S. fleet were sunk and 21 ships were severely damaged. Three of the 21 would be irreparable. 188 U.S. aircraft were completely destroyed and 159 others were damaged. Japan lost 29 out of the 353 aircraft they attacked with.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was the largest destruction of life and property on American soil both in peacetime and in general by foreign nationals prior to the September 11 attacks, and remains the deadliest attack on American soil both in peacetime and in general by a foreign nation.
Over the years, Pearl Harbor remained a main base for the US Pacific Fleet after World War II along with Naval Base San Diego. In 2010, the Navy and the Air Force merged their two nearby bases; Pearl Harbor joined with Hickam Air Force Base to create Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
The Navy base itself was recognized on 29 January 1964 as a National Historic Landmark district and with the National Register of Historic Places since 1976. Within its bounds, it contains several other National Historic Landmarks associated with the attack on Pearl Harbor, including the USS Arizona (BB-39), USS Bowfin (SS-287), and USS Utah (BB-31). As an active Navy base, many of the historic buildings that contributed to the NHL designation are under threat of demolition and rebuilding.
USS Missouri (BB-63) was the last battleship built by the United States, and was the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan which ended World War II. She was decommissioned in 1955 and in 1998, she was donated to the USS Missouri Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor.
The coordinates are from the entrance to the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center.
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