At 07:55 hours the local time, the first bombs fell on Pearl Harbor from aircraft from the Japanese Imperial Navy in a surprise attack. The Japanese completely caught the US Military off guard and utterly rained destruction upon the US Fleet stationed there. 7 ships were sunk at Pearl Harbor, 5 battleships, one destroyer and a auxiliary ship, numerous others were damaged. Of the 5 battleships, the USS Arizona took the took the greatest blow when an armor piercing bomb set off her forward magazine and blew up, killing 1177 of her crew, the USS Oklahoma took several torpedoes and capsized, 429 of her crew perished, the USS Utah, capsized after taking numerous torpedo hits and bomb hits, But Utah was then regulated a training target ship , 58 of her crew were killed. USS Nevada was hit by 6 bombs and a single torpedo as she got up to steam and attempted to leave Pearl, slowly sinking her captain beached her near Hospital point so she wouldn't block the harbor. 100 of her crew were killed. Only Arizona and Utah remain in place where they sunk that day, Arizona still has hundreds of her crew still entombed within in her, and Utah has 55 of her crew within her as well. Both a designated war graves. Oklahoma was eventually righted and patched up to be taken under tow to the US West coast, but sunk along the way. 2403 people were killed at the attack, including 55 civilians.

The airfields around Pearl were also attacked , with 180 being destroyed in the attack. The Japanese lost 29 aircraft, 5 midget submarines , 130 men in the attack. Their intended targets, the 3 Aircraft Carriers were not at Pearl at the time.

Pearl Harbor is proof why diligence must be maintained, as we learned again on 9-11, Freedom isn't free.