At this moment, 65 years ago, the Empire of Japan commenced its attack on American military bases in and around Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, bringing the United States into the Second World War. The war would last nearly four years more, claim more than 60 million lives, and end with Germany utterly devastated and two Japanese cities nearly levelled by the first (and, so far, only) use of nuclear weapons in anger.
Over 2,400 Americans lost their lives on this date, and all eight battleships in port that morning were destroyed or damaged. But by the end of the war, six of them were raised, repaired, rebuilt, and sent off to exact their own measure of revenge.
We all should take a brief moment to remember those who died on that day, as well as those who preceded and followed them in that war.
