On this day in 1941 at 7:55 a.m., Japan entered World War II with the unexpected attack on Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii, a day that Franklin D. Roosevelt said would “live in infamy.”

The two-hour attack sank or beached twelve ships, including the USS Oklahoma and USS Arizona, and heavily damaged nine others. About 320 aircraft were damaged or destroyed. In all, 2,390 people were killed and 1,178 wounded.

“No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory,” promised FDR.

Bitter war raged between the United States and Japan until August 1945, when Harry Truman authorized the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“I made efforts to swallow tears and to protect the species of the Japanese nation,” declared Emperor Hirohito as Japan surrendered.

“The problems of victory are more agreeable than the problems of defeat, but they are no less difficult,” observed Winston Churchill.

America and other countries helped Japan rebuild its devastated cities and economy. With Western knowledge and Japanese spirit — Wa-kon Yo-sai — Japan’s post-war democratic Constitution pledged that the country would never go to war again.

Writer H. G. Wells once described war as “a curtain of dense black fabric across all the hopes and kindliness of mankind. Yet always it has let through some gleams of light, and I am not dreaming it grows threadbare, and here and there and at a thousand points the light is breaking through.”

Upon yielding and choosing a different future, a thousand points of light broke through for Japan as the country experienced remarkable economic rebirth. During the 1980s, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (NIKKEI) rose like a powerful wave, becoming one of the largest markets in the world.

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