History of Hawaii
Pearl Harbor was surprisingly attacked on December 7, 1941 by the Imperial Japanese Navy, killing 2,403 people and sinking the main American battleship fleet. Fortuitously, the four Pacific aircraft carriers were not in port and escaped damage. Hawaii was put under martial law until 1945. Unlike the West Coast of the United States in which 100,000 ethnic Japanese citizens were interned, the Japanese American population in Hawaii completely avoided such similar fate, though hundreds of pro-Japan leaders were arrested. Pearl Harbor was the U.S.' main forward base for the Pacific War. The Japanese tried to invade in summer 1942 but were defeated at the Battle of Midway. Hundreds of thousands of American soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen passed through on their way to the fighting.
List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Attack on Pearl Harbor
The Japanese fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor also struck elsewhere in the Hawaiian Islands that day, trying to disable the U.S. Marine base on Sand Island at Midway Atoll. For his actions during that engagement, a 16th Medal of Honor was awarded to a Marine who died at Sand Island on this first day of the Pacific War.The definitive book about the December 7 Medal of Honor recipients is "PEARL HARBOR'S HIDDEN HEROES" by Colonel Charles A. Jones U.S. Marine Corps Reserve (Retired). The book covers not only the December 7 Medals but also the Hammerberg Medal and the sole Medal of Honor (posthumous) for the Battle of Midway 1942, Captain Richard E. Fleming U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.