Satellite Image of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – “Remembering a Day of Infamy”
The attack on Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan). The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States.
GeoEye-1 Satellite Image (0.5m) Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii
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(Image credit: GeoEye and Courtesy of Satellite Imaging Corporation)
This half-meter resolution satellite image shows the Pearl Harbor Memorial, located about two miles west of the Honolulu Airport in Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. GeoEye tasked its GeoEye-1 satellite on Dec. 7, 2011 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor Attack on Dec. 7, 1941. The image specifically shows the USS Missouri (center), a museum ship docked at Battleship Row, and crowds of people standing in formation on the dock. The USS Arizona Memorial (upper right) was built over the remains of the sunken battleship USS Arizona, which can be seen below the white memorial under the water’s surface. The Arizona Memorial is managed by the National Park Service and is now a part of the dedicated WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument. The GeoEye-1 satellite is the highest resolution, commercial Earth-imaging satellite and flies 423 miles above the Earth at an average speed of 17,000 mph, or four miles per second.
The base was attacked by Japanese fighters, bombers and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four being sunk. All but two of the eight were raised, repaired and returned to service later in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship and one minelayer. One hundred eighty-eight U.S. aircraft were destroyed. Watch a video on attack.
Battleship USS Arizona
USS Arizona was a Pennsylvania-class battleship built for the United States Navy in the mid-1910s. Named in honor of the 48th state’s recent admission into the union, the ship was the second and last of the Pennsylvania class of “super-dreadnought” battleships.
Unlike many of the other ships sunk or damaged the day of the attack, Arizona could not be fully salvaged, though the Navy removed parts of the ship for reuse. The wreck still lies at the bottom of Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial, dedicated on May 30, 1962 to all those who died during the attack, straddles the ship’s hull. To read more on the Attack of Pearl Harbor and view images, visit here.
Image credit: Wikipedia
The USS Arizona (BB-39) burning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. USS Arizona sunk at Pearl Harbor. The ship is resting on the harbor bottom. The supporting structure of the forward tripod mast collapsed after the forward magazine exploded. View more photos of Pearl Harbor.
