Survivors mark 78th anniversary of Pearl Harbor attack

A handful of aging U.S. military veterans who survived the surprise Japanese bombing raid that drew the United States into World War Two marked the 78th anniversary of the attack in a ceremony on Friday at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The Japanese air and naval assault on Dec. 7, 1941, took 2,390 American lives.

Japanese forces attacked with torpedo planes, bombers and fighter planes, bombing the U.S. fleet moored there in the hope of destroying U.S. power in the Pacific and keeping the United States out of the war. The number of aging survivors able to attend the annual commemoration ceremonies of the Pearl Harbor attack has been dwindling steadily over the years. Fewer than 200 survivors of the attacks there and on other military bases in Hawaii were alive in 2016.