Pearl Harbor remembered 70 years later

Ceremonies commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor have been held across the United States.

It was the surprise attack on the US navel base in Hawaii which brought America into World War II.

Survivors gathered on the island to remember the fallen.Nearly 2,500 American service members died on December 7 1941.

Witnesses tell of huge explosions which sank massive destroyers in a matter of minutes.

88-year-old Arran Chabin was among the survivors:

“Occasionally I think about them. But it’s kind of fogy. Because as I said everything happened so fast. It was over in two hours, and we just went on from there. I am one of the lucky ones.”

In those two hours some 20 ships were sunk or damaged and 164 planes destroyed. The day after Pearl Harbor, the US Congress officially declared war on Japan. Three days later, Germany declared war on the United States. The US entry into the war was to change the course of the conflict.

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