“Yesterday, December 7, 1941— a date which will live in infamy— the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” That iconic quote by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announced the United States’ entry into World War II after the surprise military strike on the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service.

At the time, the United States was a neutral country, but Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to prevent the United States Pacific Fleet from interfering with its planned military actions in Southeast Asia. Peter L. Belmonte is a retired U.S. Air Force officer, author, and historian. A veteran of Operation Desert Storm, he has published articles, book chapters, reviews, and papers about immigration and military history, including extensive studies on Italian Americans in World War II.