National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 2026 is on Monday

About National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day

Early on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft attacked the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor and nearby military airfields on Oahu. The attack sank or damaged battleships and other vessels and destroyed many aircraft. Presidential proclamations put the death toll at 2,403 service members and civilians. The battleship USS Arizona alone lost 1,177 crewmen, and many of them remain aboard the sunken ship, which the USS Arizona Memorial now spans.

The next day, December 8, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress and the nation by radio, calling December 7 a date that would live in infamy. Congress voted for war, and Roosevelt signed the declaration against Japan that afternoon, bringing the United States into World War II.

Congress designated December 7 as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day in Public Law 103-308, approved on August 23, 1994, and the designation now sits at 36 U.S.C. 129. The law asks the president to issue a proclamation each year calling on Americans to observe the day with ceremonies and on federal agencies, organizations and individuals to fly the US flag at half-staff in honor of those who died as a result of their service at Pearl Harbor. Each president now issues that proclamation in early December.

The day is a remembrance, not a federal holiday. An annual commemoration is held at Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Honolulu, the National Park Service site that includes the USS Arizona Memorial, and veterans' groups, museums and towns across the country hold their own observances. As the generation that lived through the attack passes, the day has become a way to keep survivors' accounts in public memory.

Sources: 36 U.S. Code § 129 - National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (Cornell Legal Information Institute), Federal Register: Proclamation 10869, National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, 2024, National Park Service: USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor National Memorial, National Archives: "A Date Which Will Live in Infamy" lesson and documents. How we check dates.

How to mark National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day

• Fly the US flag at half-staff on December 7, as the annual proclamation asks.
• Watch the commemoration held at Pearl Harbor National Memorial, which is often streamed online, or attend a local ceremony hosted by a veterans' organization.
• Listen to a recording of Roosevelt's December 8, 1941, address to Congress and talk about it with students or family members.
• Read oral histories from Pearl Harbor survivors in the collections of the National Park Service, the Library of Congress Veterans History Project or the National WWII Museum.
• If anyone in your family served in World War II, gather their letters, photos and records and write down what you know about their service.

National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day dates