Pearl Harbor

Epilogue

For months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the citizens of Hawaii lived in fear of another attack. But in June 1942, American forces defeated the Japanese at Midway Island. This was not the end of the war, but it was an important victory. Hawaii was no longer in constant danger of additional Japanese attacks because Japanese ships were no longer so close by. Worries of war and martial law still existed, but Hawaii felt safer.

World War II ended in 1945. Hawaiians were eager to return to normal life, but that wasn’t easy to do. What the islanders had seen, heard, and felt was unforgettable. More than four thousand Americans of Japanese Ancestry had been held in internment camps on the islands. They returned home, but continued to carry the traumas of prison with them.

Today, the USS Arizona still rests at the bottom of the harbor. Now, it’s a national historic landmark, and more than a million people from all over the world visit it each year. They come to pay their respects to the people who gave their lives on December 7, 1941.