
By 9:45 am on December 7, 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor was over, leaving behind 2,343 dead, 1,272 wounded and nearly 1,000 missing military personnel. The United States had been suddenly and deliberately attacked by the Japanese Naval and Air Forces, and at that moment thrust from isolationism into World War II. Historian Jim Gibbons explains what led to the predawn attack and discusses how our government and the American people were wooed to vulnerability.