UNEXPECTED ATTACK RESULTS
IN DECLARED WAR
Just before 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. December the 7th 1941 marks a date that will never be forgotten as hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. Almost the entire Pacific Fleet was moored around Ford Island in the harbor: to the Japanese, Pearl Harbor was an irresistible target. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 300 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan; Congress approved his declaration with just one disagreeing vote.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, but Japan and the United States had been edging toward war for decades. The United States was particularly unhappy with Japan’s attitude towards China. The Japanese government believed that the only way to solve its economic problems was to expand into its neighbor’s territory and take over its import market; to this end, Japan had declared war on China in 1937. American officials responded to this aggression with restrictions upon international trade and finance. These sanctions made the Japanese more determined to stand their ground. During months of negotiations between Tokyo and Washington, D.C., neither side would budge. It seemed that war was inevitable.
The single vote against Congress's declaration of war against Japan came from Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana. Rankin was a pacifist – someone to believe war and violence are unforgivable and all disagreements should be settled by peaceful means, who had also voted against the American entrance into World War I. "As a woman," she said, "I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else."

By December, 194l the Japanese Army had a force of 2,400,000 trained ground troops and an air fleet of 7,500 planes. The US had a force of 1,500,000 of which 1,000,000 were not completely trained, 1,157 combat aircraft and 347 war ships. At about 8 a.m., Japanese planes filled the sky over Pearl Harbor. At 8:10, a 1,800-pound bomb smashed through the deck of the battleship USS Arizona. The ship exploded and sank with more than 1,000 men trapped inside. Next, torpedoes pierced the shell of the battleship USS Oklahoma. With 400 sailors aboard, the