--- ---  # After Pearl Harbor: Rare Photos From the American Home Front by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Updated: Jan 24, 2024 3:08 PM UTCPublished: Nov 20, 2013 8:39 PM UTC  A sign points the way to Pearl Harbor on Dec. 15, 1941, a week after the attack. A sign points the way to Pearl Harbor on Dec. 15, 1941, a week after the attack.William C. Shrout—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Updated: Jan 24, 2024 3:08 PM UTCPublished: Nov 20, 2013 8:39 PM UTC President Franklin Roosevelt declared Dec. 7, 1941 — when Japan launched more than 350 fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes against the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii — a “date which will live in infamy.” In fact, that Sunday morning is so seared into America’s memory that the tumult of the critical weeks and months afterward, as the U.S. responded to the attack, is often overlooked. Here, on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, LIFE.com presents photos — most of which never ran in LIFE magazine — from Hawaii and the mainland, chronicling a nation’s resolute reply to an unprecedented act of war. Japan’s early morning assault on Pearl Harbor, on the island of Oahu, lasted less than two hours, but took an incredible toll: four battleships sunk, 188 aircraft destroyed, 2,403 Americans killed. For its part, Japan lost 64 men and 29 planes. At the time of the attack, there were roughly 50,000 troops based at Pearl Harbor. Afterwards the number of soldiers spiked; there were several hundred thousand stationed in Hawaii by 1945\. (The number dropped to less than 70,000 by 1946.) “Out of the Pacific skies last week,” LIFE magazine wrote in its Dec. 15, 1941 issue, “World War II came with startling suddenness to America . . . With reckless daring Japan aimed this blow at the citadel of American power in the Pacific.” The Navy, which was able to salvage an astonishing number of ships damaged or sunk by the Japanese, could not fully salvage the battleship USS _Arizona_ (slides 1 and 3 in the gallery.) Today, the spot where the massive ship went down is the site of the USS _Arizona_ Memorial, which straddles the sunken hull and commemorates the events of that long-ago Sunday. Of the 1,177 _Arizona_ sailors killed that day, 1,102 have the ship as their final resting place. Like so many vessels that saw action in World War II, the Arizona was built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, founded in 1801\. The yard had contributed ships to every American conflict, including the War of 1812, the Civil War and World War I. As the pictures in this gallery attest, it would prove absolutely essential to the war effort during WWII. As a matter of fact, as the Japanese Navy grew during the 1930s, many ships had already been transferred from Brooklyn to the Pacific to deal with the potential menace. This created room for new ships to be built — and as America was faced with the prospect of a global war across continents and on the world’s oceans, construction of and repairs to battle ships, destroyers and other naval vessels grew increasingly urgent. The 22-year-old Divergent star turns out to be the outspoken feminist role model we've been waiting for. Here's what she's had to say so far. Within days of the attack the eyes of America were, understandably, focused on Pearl Harbor and the Pacific. (Left: A young boy from the Madison Square Boys’ Club in New York carries a bundle of newspapers On Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the attack, including the New York Mirror which bears the headline “Japs Declare War.”) But thousands of miles away from the scene of the Japanese assault, the Brooklyn Navy Yard was already ramping up production for what looked to be a long, long war. At its peak during the war, the Brooklyn Navy Yard employed more than 70,000 people, including many women, who for the first time held jobs as welders and ship-fitters. But the size of its workforce wasn’t the yard’s only impressive aspect: to transport materials where they were needed, the Brooklyn Navy Yard employed 11 locomotives — with 199 railroad cars. Much of the work at the yard involved making ships ready for the sea by loading them with fuel, food and ammunition. The Brooklyn yard itself ceased being used by the Navy in 1966\. By that time, its work force was down to around 9,000 employees. [**\[MORE: LIFE VR’s Pearl Harbor virtual-reality experience.\]**](http://time.com/4583817/remembering-pearl-harbor-virtual-reality/) LIFE magazine’s response to the attack and its aftermath, meanwhile, offers an illuminating glimpse into the thinking not only of the magazine’s editors, but the nation as a whole late 1941 and early ’42. “In the face of an attack so clear that no man could argue it,” LIFE declared to its readers in mid-December, “the nation stood absolutely united. Senator \[Burton K.\] Wheeler, the leader of the Isolationists, spoke for all when he said: ‘The only thing now is to do our best to lick hell out of them.'” --- > “” --- World War II lasted four more years, until Germany surrendered in May of 1945 and Japan surrendered in September of that year, in the wake of America’s destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The attack on Pearl Harbor, meanwhile, rather than heralding Japan’s greatest victory, turned out to be an act of belligerent folly that, in elemental ways, guaranteed the Land of the Rising Sun’s eventual defeat. — Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at [@LizabethRonk](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk). Newsboy photo: Dmitri Kessel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  The exposed wreckage of the battleship USS Arizona. Bob Landry—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The USS Arizona's wreckage. Bob Landry—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Damaged battleship in the background days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Bob Landry—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  American bombers fly over Hawaii, December 1941. William C. Shrout—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Vice Admiral Joseph "Bull" Reeves, Waikiki Beach, December 1941. Bob Landry—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A rally at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, December 1941. George Strock—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A poster at the Brooklyn Navy Yard calls for vigilance, December 1941. George Strock—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The Brooklyn Navy Yard by night, 1941. George Strock—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A Naval officer — dwarfed by the vessel in his view — gazes at a cruiser's propeller at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, 1941. George Strock—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A worker on break at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, 1941. George Strock—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  One of the earliest vessels on display at the Brooklyn Navy Yard: the Intelligent Whale, a 19th-century hand-cranked submarine. George Strock—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A hastily constructed defense bunker, Hawaii, early 1942. Bob Landry—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Training with gas masks in Hawaii, early 1942. William C. Shrout—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  American troops in Hawaii, days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. William C. Shrout—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Troops in Hawaii, early 1942. William C. Shrout—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Men dig a post-Pearl Harbor defensive trench in Hawaii, December 1941. William C. Shrout—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Troops shore up defenses in Hawaii in the weeks after Pearl Harbor. William C. Shrout—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Post-Pearl Harbor training and patrol in Hawaii, early 1942. Bob Landry—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Young defenders beside a mounted machine gun, Hawaii, December 1941. William C. Shrout—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A sign points the way to Pearl Harbor on Dec. 15, 1941, a week after the attack. William C. Shrout—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Aboard an American warship, Pearl Harbor, early 1942. Bob Landry—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A sailor chalks a message to America's fighting men from the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations on a warship at Pearl Harbor. "Your conduct and action have been splendid. While you have suffered from a treacherous attack, your commander-in-chief has informed me that your courage and stamina remain magnificent. You know you will have your revenge. Recruiting stations are jammed with men eager to join you." Bob Landry—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Military man, Pearl Harbor, December 1941. William C. Shrout—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  An American warship's crew shows its spirit, Pearl Harbor, early 1942. Bob Landry—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Pearl Harbor: Photos From the Pacific and the Home Front ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3620986/after-pearl-harbor-photos/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3620986/after-pearl-harbor-photos/"},"headline":"After Pearl Harbor: Rare Photos From the American Home Front","datePublished":"2013-11-20T20:39:15.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-24T15:08:11.000Z","description":"On the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, LIFE presents rare and classic photos from Hawaii and the mainland in the aftermath of the 1941 attack.","url":"https://time.com/3620986/after-pearl-harbor-photos/","keywords":["hawaii","photography","World War II","LIFE Magazine","WWII","Pearl Harbor"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70c031e2b30601ff/69876d10a988ca6d776ab37a/141205-pearl-harbor-19.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70c031e2b30601ff/69876d10a988ca6d776ab37a/141205-pearl-harbor-19.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pearl Harbor, 1941","caption":"Pearl Harbor Sign Dec. 15, 1941","creditText":"William C. 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