US observes 80th anniversary of attack on Pearl Harbor

The USS Arizona Memorial

The USS Arizona Memorial can be seen from a shuttle boat during the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii December 7, 2016. REUTERS/Hugh Gentry/File Photo

The United States will mark the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Tuesday.

The attack on Dec. 7, 1941, shook a country that had been so focused on World War Two in Europe that it had lost sight of the threat posed by Japan, according to historians.

The attack killed 2,390 Americans, and the United States declared war on Japan the next day.

The bombing was famously dubbed “a date which will live in infamy” by then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The United States defeated Japan in August 1945, days after U.S. atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed hundreds of thousands of civilians.

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