Two thousand four hundred-and-three Americans perished in the two-hour Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor. And the world was never the same.
Although the American mainland was never seriously threatened during the Second World War, it’s not hard to imagine a scenario if different decisions were made where it could have been.
Furthermore, 1942 marked the low point in Allied fortunes. German and Japanese offenses threatened to annihilate the British Empire, thereby turning Great Britain into “Little England.” In the Soviet Union, a renewed push by the Wehrmacht threatened 90 percent of Russia’s oil reserves and the manufacturing hub Stalingrad. In the Pacific, Japan’s capture of Singapore became the worst defeat in the history of the British Army.
Only two dozen Democracies existed by that summer. England, battered and bruised, couldn’t defeat Nazi Germany by itself and Russia stood on the brink of total collapse. The United States of America played an invaluable role in turning the tide, but for months the war’s outcome remained uncertain.