View images of the Pearl Harbor attack on its 84th anniversary

The United States will observe the 84th anniversary of the Japanese strike on the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Sunday, December 7, as the number of surviving World War II veterans continues to decline. On that day in 1941, 2,403 American military personnel lost their lives, and civilians were also among the casualties, according to the National Park Service.

The assault inflicted severe damage on the base: five of eight battleships, three destroyers, and seven additional ships were either sunk or badly harmed. More than 200 airplanes were destroyed, as reported by History.com.

The attack prompted the United States to declare war on Japan the following day. President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously described December 7, 1941, as a date which will live in infamy.

The war concluded in August 1945, following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Images from That Fateful Morning

• Sailors in a motor launch rescue a survivor from the waters near the sunken USS West Virginia during the Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
• Dan Pires, caretaker at Punahou School in Honolulu, inspects a window sill damaged by anti-aircraft shrapnel following the attack.
• Young men line up at a Navy Recruiting station in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 8, 1941, shortly after the attack, eager to volunteer.
• A sign reading "I AM AN AMERICAN" was displayed on the Wanto Co grocery store in Oakland, California, the day after the attack. The Matsuda family, who owned the store, were relocated and interned under the U.S. governments policy for Japanese Americans. The sign was placed by Tatsuro Matsuda, a University of California graduate.

These images provide a glimpse into the events and emotions of that historic day.

Author: Chloe Ramirez