Pearl Harbor “changed the future of the world,” U.S. President Joe Biden said at a White House event for veterans and their families on Friday, the eve of the anniversary of Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

The president recalled that he “heard so much” about Pearl Harbor when he was growing up and talked about his uncles who enlisted in the military after the attack.

“During World War II, we stood at an inflection point,” the president said.  “We still stand at an inflection point. The decisions we make now in the next four to 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 more free, more secure and more just path.”

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 fighter planes unleashed bombs, bullets and aerial torpedoes on America’s Pacific Fleet in the Sunday morning attack.

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

The Japanese succeeded in sinking four of the eight U.S. battleships at Pearl Harbor and damaging the remaining four.

According to the Naval History and History Command website, “That more Japanese aircraft were not shot down had nothing to do with the skill, training or bravery of our Sailors and other servicemembers.

“Rather, U.S. antiaircraft weapons were inadequate in number and capability, for not only had the Japanese achieved tactical surprise, they achieved technological surprise with aircraft and weapons far better than anticipated — a lesson in the danger of underestimating the enemy that resonates to this day.”

The day after the attack, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt appeared before a joint session of Congress, seeking a declaration of war. After he delivered his famous “Day of Infamy” speech, the Senate unanimously supported the declaration. In the House, there was one dissenter, Montana’s Representative Jeanette Rankin, a pacifist.

Roosevelt signed the declaration Monday afternoon. The United States had now been officially drawn into World War II.

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

The attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor was part of Japan’s plan to prevent any challenges to those goals in Asia.

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

Earlier this week, a 104-year-old survivor of Pearl Harbor 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 airport in Honolulu with a water cannon salute and music from the U.S. Pacific Fleet Band.

When asked what he remembers about that day, Schab told the Hawaii News Now website, “Being scared, more than anything else.” Schab said he made the trip because he is one of the Pacific Fleet’s “very few” survivors remaining from that day.

He said, “They deserve to be recognized and honored.”
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