With all concerns laid to rest, early in the morning of December 7, the Japanese planes lifted off their carriers and headed for Pearl Harbor. Mitsuo Fuchida, commander and leader of the attackers, flew ahead of the other planes to scout the target. He arrived high over Oahu at 7:53 A.M. and saw the American ships lined up like sitting ducks below.

On that Sunday morning, all but three of the huge warships of the U.S. Pacific fleet lay anchored at Pearl. The USS Arizona, West Virginia, Oklahoma, California, Maryland, and many other heavily armored vessels, along with smaller cruisers and destroyers, crowded around the harbor's docks. Altogether, ninety-six ships were anchored at the American naval base. (Missing that morning were the Colorado, in dry docks on the U.S. west coast, and the aircraft carriers Lexington and Enterprise,which were...