In the early hours of December 7, 1941 Japan launched a major surprise carrier-based air strike on Pearl Harbor without explicit warning, which crippled the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

In the Fall of 1941, the naval and air base at Pearl Harbor and the escalations on Oahu, represented the greatest concentration of American military power in the new world.

Though they had not delivered the finishing stroke at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese had put the Americans and the British on their heels in the Pacific.

In a desperate attempt to boost morale in troubling times, Lt. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle organized a surprise attack on Tokyo, known as the Doolittle Raid.