A Date Which Will Live in Infamy: Attack on Pearl Harbor
Sunday December 7 1941 is a date which will live in infamy said U S president Franklin D Roosevelt On this date Japan attacked Pearl Harbor It took the United States by surprise At this time much of Europe and Asia were fighting in World War II Japan needed oil for military tanks and ships It attacked countries in Asia to get their oil It didn’t want the United States to defend these countries It needed to destroy U S military power So it attacked Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is a U S navy base It’s in the Pacific Ocean The U S Pacific Fleet is there The fleet is the main military force in the Pacific Ocean 4 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
FLASH FACT President Franklin D Roosevelt’s Day of Infamy speech took 7 minutes Vocabulary infamy IN-fuh-mee known everywhere for an extremely bad thing fleet FLEET a group of naval ships 5
FLASH FACT Japan surrendered aboard the USS Missouri on September 2 1945 Vocabulary torpedoes tor-PEE-dohz underwater missiles or bombs 6
Japanese submarines fired torpedoes Japanese planes dropped bombs Japan’s attack lasted 2 hours and 20 minutes The Japanese sank or damaged 21 U S navy ships They destroyed or damaged over 300 U S planes Over 2,400 Americans died Nearly 1,200 people were hurt The attack on Pearl Harbor woke up the sleeping giant The United States didn’t want to get involved in the war But the events of December 7 couldn’t go unpunished The next day America declared war on Japan It entered World War II It won in 1945 It sank the Japanese ships that attacked Pearl Harbor 7
