United States commemorates the 83rd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor

US President Joe Biden said Friday at a White House event for veterans and their families that Pearl Harbor “changed the future of the world.”

The president recalled that he “heard a lot” about Pearl Harbor as a child and spoke of his uncles who joined the Army after the attack.

“During World War II, we found ourselves at a turning point,” the president said. “We remain at an inflection point. The decisions we make now in the next four or five years will determine the course of our future for decades to come… We owe it to the next generation to set that course on a freer, more safer and fairer.”

Saturday, December 7, marks the 83rd anniversary of Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, a U.S. naval base on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, near Honolulu.

Hundreds of Japanese warplanes dropped bombs, bullets and aerial torpedoes on the U.S. Pacific Fleet in the Sunday morning attack.

More than 2,400 American sailors, soldiers and civilians died that day. About half of them died on the battleship USS Arizona.

The Japanese managed to sink four of the eight American battleships at Pearl Harbor and damage the remaining four.

According to the Naval History and History Command website, “The failure to shoot down more Japanese aircraft had nothing to do with the skill, training or bravery of our sailors and other service members.

“Rather, American anti-aircraft weapons were inadequate in numbers and capability, as the Japanese had not only achieved tactical surprise, they achieved technological surprise with much better aircraft and weapons than anticipated, a lesson in the danger of underestimating to the enemy that resonates to this day.”

The day after the attack, US President Franklin Roosevelt appeared before a joint session of Congress, requesting a declaration of war. After delivering his famous “Day of Infamy” speech, the Senate unanimously supported the declaration. In the House of Representatives, there was one dissenter, Montana Rep. Jeanette Rankin, a pacifist.

Roosevelt signed the declaration on Monday afternoon. The United States had now officially become involved in World War II.

Before the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States had imposed economic sanctions on Japan as a way to stop Japan’s expansion goals in Asia. The sanctions affected Japan’s access to aircraft exports.

The attack on the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor was part of Japan’s plan to prevent any challenge to those targets in Asia.

There is now a USS Arizona memorial that expands over the hull of the sunken ship without touching it.

Earlier this week, a 104-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor returned to Hawaii to participate in this year’s commemorations. Ira “Ike” Schab Jr., of Portland, Oregon, who was a Navy musician, was greeted at the Honolulu airport with a water cannon salute and music from the U.S. Pacific Fleet Band.

When asked what he remembered from that day, Schab told the website Hawaii News Now: “I was scared, more than anything else.” Schab said he made the trip because he is one of the “very few” Pacific Fleet survivors left from that day.

He said: “They deserve to be recognized and honoured.”

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