From the archives: Pearl Harbor coverage through the years

Pacific Stars and Stripes first published in Tokyo on Oct. 3, 1945, 4 years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This front page from Dec. 7, 1945, was the first anniversary of the event to appear in the paper. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255936.1386216842!/menu/standard/file/12-07-1945.pdf">Click for enlarged PDF image</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

Coverage of the attack on Pearl Harbor in a Pacific Stars and Stripes from Dec. 7, 1961, the 20th anniversary of the event. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255951.1386217743!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-07-1961-P5.pdf">Click for larger version (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

The Japanese pilot who radioed the words 'Tora, tora, tora' after the Japanese Imperial Navy's attack on Pearl Harbor was featured in a 3-page spread in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on the event's Dec. 7, 1971, anniversary. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255953.1386217788!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-07-1971-P11.pdf">Click for larger image (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

The Japanese pilot who radioed the words 'Tora, tora, tora' after the Japanese Imperial Navy's attack on Pearl Harbor, seen in the Pacific Stars and Stripes on the event's Dec. 7, 1971, anniversary, later became a Christian missionary. [<a href=" http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255954.1386217834!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-07-1971-P12-13.pdf">Click for larger image (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

Pacific Stars and Stripes commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on this page from Dec. 7, 1981. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255956.1386217875!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-07-1981-P7.pdf">Click for larger image (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

In 1991, on the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the main section of the Pacific Stars and Stripes featured one news story on the front and one inside, because a <a href="http://www.stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.142305!/menu/standard/file/ph_50th.pdf">separate special section</a> on the event had been published. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255961.1386218013!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-07-1991-P1.pdf">Click for larger version (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

A Pacific Stars and Stripes page from inside the main section of the Dec. 7, 1991, editions features a news story on live coverage. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255963.1386218042!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-07-1991-P4.pdf">Click for larger version (PDF)</a>] A <a href="http://www.stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.142305!/menu/standard/file/ph_50th.pdf">separate special section</a> had been published in remembrance of the 50th anniversary of the attack. (Stars and Stripes)

'Shared pain: GIs talk about two attacks' reads the headline on the front page of the Stars and Stripes from Dec. 7, 2001. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255964.1386218069!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-07-2001-P1.pdf">Click for larger version (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

Stars and Stripes inside page for Dec. 7, 2001, the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255965.1386218190!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-07-2001-P15.pdf">Click for larger version (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

Retired sailor Nicholas Paulino recalls how he survived the attack on Pearl Harbor in this Stars and Stripes page remembering the event's 60th anniversary. He was just 2 days shy of his 19th birthday at the time. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255966.1386218264!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-07-2001-P16.pdf">Click for larger image (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

Inside page for the Stars and Stripes' Dec. 7, 2001, editions. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255967.1386218300!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-07-2001-P17.pdf">Click for larger version (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

As seen in a Pacific Stars and Stripes from Dec. 8, 1951, Vice President Alben Barkley warned against the 'sinister and brutal' ideology of communism during a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255949.1386217607!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-08-1951.pdf">Click for larger version (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stipes)

Stars and Stripes front page for Dec. 8, 2001. Pearl Harbor survivors salute during a memorial ceremony in Hawaii marking the 70th anniversary of the attack. [<a href=" http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255969.1386218367!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-08-2011-P1-art.pdf">Click for larger image (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

Memorial events for the Pearl Harbor anniversary published in the Stars and Stripes on Dec. 8, 2011. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255970.1386218510!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-08-2011-P2.pdf">Click for larger version (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

Front cover of the Stars and Stripes' 50th anniversary special section page on the Pearl Harbor attack. [<a href="http://www.stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255971.1386219365!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-01-1991-P1.pdf">Click for larger version (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

Stars and Stripes' 50th anniversary special section page on the Pearl Harbor attack. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255973.1386219461!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-01-1991-P2.pdf">Click for larger version (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

Stars and Stripes' 50th anniversary special section page on the Pearl Harbor attack. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255975.1386219489!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-01-1991-P3.pdf">Click for larger version (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

Stars and Stripes' 50th anniversary special section page on the Pearl Harbor attack. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255976.1386219511!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-01-1991-P4.pdf">Click for larger version (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

Stars and Stripes' 50th anniversary special section page on the Pearl Harbor attack. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255977.1386219570!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-01-1991-P5.pdf">Click for larger version (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

Stars and Stripes' 50th anniversary special section page on the Pearl Harbor attack. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255978.1386219592!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-01-1991-P6.pdf">Click for larger version (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

Stars and Stripes' 50th anniversary special section page on the Pearl Harbor attack. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255979.1386219611!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-01-1991-P7.pdf">Click for larger version (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

Stars and Stripes' 50th anniversary special section page on the Pearl Harbor attack. [<a href="http://stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.255980.1386219632!/menu/standard/file/stars_and_stripes_12-01-1991-P8.pdf">Click for larger version (PDF)</a>] (Stars and Stripes)

The morning of Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, had been peaceful, warm and quiet at idyllic Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

But by noon — after Japanese bombs and bullets rained down on a sleepy U.S. Pacific Fleet parked there — 3,600 were dead or wounded. The U.S. was now at war.

In the years since, the historical events, the stories of the servicemembers who lived and died, memorial ceremonies — even the fates of the Japanese naval pilots who flew in the attack on Pearl Harbor -- were chronicled in the pages of the Stars and Stripes. Our Pacific edition debuted during World War II on Oct. 3, 1945, in Tokyo. (The Pacific Stripes went theater-wide by publishing in Hawaii on May 14, 1945.)

On Dec. 7, 1945, the Pacific Stars and Stripes commemorated the fourth anniversary of the attack by publishing an image of a newspaper clipping of the Japan Times & Advertiser announcing that "War is on!" with a caption underneath:

Pacific boomerang. Forty-eight months ago tomorrow, Japanese Time (Dec. 7, Eastern Standard Time) this front page of the Japan Times & Advertiser announced to the people of Tokyo that their Navy had struck Pearl Harbor, bringing the U.S. into World War II. One story called the sneak attack a "brilliant achievement" which "thrilled the entire world." Another passed the buck to the U.S. and Great Britain for starting hostilities, declaring that "the best effort on the part of Japan" had failed to keep the peace. Today Pacific Stars & Stripes completes the cycle of events by reprinting the historic front page from our offices in the building of the Nippon Times, successor to the newspaper which originally published it. The boomerang has returned to wreak vengeance on the men who hurled it — and to make sure that it never shall be hurled again.As part of our 2013 remembrance of the attack on Pearl Harbor, browse through our collection of selected Stars and Stripes pages covering the anniversary. Large PDF versions are available behind the links in the captions.

news@stripes.com

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From the archives: Pearl Harbor coverage through the years

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