During the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, shrapnel from a Japanese fighter plane hit and killed an American soldier at Hickam Airfield. The body exploded and fell behind the Hickam Airfield sanitary station.

        During the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, shrapnel from a Japanese fighter plane hit and killed an American soldier at Hickam Airfield. The body exploded and fell face up behind the Hickam Airfield sanitary station. The Japanese attacked Hickam Airfield, southeast of Pearl Harbor, and American planes defended their pursuit to a Japanese aircraft carrier. The damage was severe, with 189 men killed in action and 303 wounded in action.

　Shortly before 8:00 a.m. on December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the American base at Pearl Harbor. Officially, 2,403 American soldiers were killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, with 2,008 Navy personnel, 109 Marines, 218 Army personnel, and 68 civilians among the dead. Approximately 1,117 of the dead were killed in the explosion on the USS Arizona when a bomb hit one of the powder magazines. The 1,143 wounded included 710 Navy, 69 Marines, 364 Army, and 103 civilians. Six U.S. ships and approximately 169 fighter aircraft were destroyed.

　Pearl Harbor, a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by the Japanese shortly before 8 a.m. on Sunday, December 7, 1941, when 420 Japanese fighter planes descended on the base, destroying and damaging nearly 20 American naval ships, including eight battleships, and over 300 fighter aircraft. The attack destroyed and damaged nearly 20 U.S. Navy ships, including eight battleships, and more than 300 fighter aircraft. More than 2,400 Americans, including civilians, were killed in the attack, and about 1,000 more were wounded. On December 8, the day after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. He declared, "On this day, December 7, 1941, which shall be known as the Day of Infamy," and brought the United States into not only the Pacific War, but World War II as well.

　Six Japanese aircraft carriers and 420 fighter planes sailed 5,600 kilometers from Hitokappu Bay in the Kuril Islands to a point about 370 kilometers off the Hawaiian island of Oahu. In the attack on Pearl Harbor, 129 Japanese soldiers were killed, and the Japanese lost 29 fighter planes and five small submarines. The Japanese attack force retreated from the Pearl Harbor battlefield without being attacked.