What was the attack on Pearl Harbor?
Answer
A surprise attack by Japan
Explanation
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military assault by Imperial Japan against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941. The strike was launched from a fleet of six aircraft carriers commanded by Admiral Chuichi Nagumo and planned by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who had argued that Japan's only hope of expansion across the Pacific lay in crippling the United States Pacific Fleet at the start of any war. The attack came in two waves of aircraft, totaling 353 fighters, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers.
The first wave struck at 7:55 a.m. local time, catching American sailors and airmen at breakfast and Sunday morning routine. Japanese pilots had been told that battleships would be the priority target. They sank or severely damaged eight American battleships, including the USS Arizona, which exploded after a bomb hit her forward magazine and killed 1,177 of her crew, and the USS Oklahoma, which capsized. Nineteen ships were sunk or damaged in total. Japan also destroyed 188 American aircraft on the ground, mostly at Hickam and Wheeler airfields nearby. American military deaths totaled 2,335 service members, with another 68 civilians killed and more than 1,100 wounded. Japan lost 29 aircraft, five midget submarines, and 64 lives.
The attack was a stunning tactical success but a strategic blunder. The Pacific Fleet's three aircraft carriers, the Enterprise, Lexington, and Saratoga, were all at sea on December 7 and survived, and the carriers became the decisive weapon of the Pacific war. Pearl Harbor's repair facilities, oil storage, and submarine base were also untouched, allowing the United States to recover quickly. American battleships sunk in the harbor's shallow water were raised, repaired, and returned to service, with all but two eventually fighting again.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt called December 7 a date which will live in infamy in his address to Congress the next day, and Congress declared war on Japan within hours. The attack permanently ended American isolationism, united public opinion behind the war effort, and led directly to American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and Europe.
Why this matters for your test
USCIS uses this question to confirm applicants understand the event that brought the United States into World War II. Pearl Harbor remains a defining moment in the American memory of foreign attack, comparable in cultural weight to the September 11 attacks sixty years later.
Source: USCIS 128 Civics Questions (2025)
