7 interesting facts about the attack on Pearl Harbor

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Thursday, December 07, 2023

The death toll

The USS West Virginia, one of the many ships destroyed or damaged by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. | Public Domain

According to the National WWII Museum and Census Bureau, the official death toll for the Pearl Harbor attack stands at 2,403 Americans, along with more than 1,100 people wounded.

Of the 2,403 dead, 2,008 of them belonged to the U.S. Navy, 68 were civilians, and the remainder were divided between U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps, reported USA Today.

The greatest share of losses in the attack came for the crew of the USS Arizona, an American battleship that, when it was sunk by the Japanese, took the lives of 1,177 servicemen.

In April of this year, Ken Potts, one of the last remaining survivors of the USS Arizona and the Pearl Harbor attack in general, died at his home in Provo, Utah, at the age of 102.