How many US citizens were killed in Pearl Harbor?

Pearl Harbor is a United States naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, where Japanese forces launched a devastating surprise attack on December 7, 1941. On that Sunday morning, just before 8 a.m., hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the base, destroying or damaging nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships, and over 300 aircraft.

The attack killed over 2,400 Americans. President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan the day after the attack.

Although the attack on Pearl Harbor was unexpected, Japan and the United States had been edging toward war for decades.

The US was particularly dissatisfied with Japan’s increasingly verbally aggressive attitude toward China. The Japanese government believed that the only way to solve its economic and demographic problems was to expand into the territory of its neighbour and take over its import market.

To accomplish this, Japan declared war on China in 1937, resulting in the Nanking Massacre and other atrocities.

The United States responded to this aggression with a slew of economic sanctions and trade embargoes.