Big Picture: Pearl Harbor #1

Pearl Harbor 70th anniversary

Some 100 survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor will gather in Hawaii today 70 years after the day which drew the US into World War II. The Japanese air and naval strike on the American military base claimed nearly 2,400 lives, destroyed over 160 aircraft and beached, damaged or destroyed over 20 ships. President Franklin D. called it " a date which will live in infamy" when he addressed the Congress the next day asking to declare war with Japan. -- Lloyd Young (35 photos total)

Ernest "Dave" Davenport, 90, of Virginia Beach, Va., is a Pearl Harbor survivor. He was an aviation machinists mate on a PBY 5 Catalina, a sea plane. (Bill Tiernan/Associated Press/The Virginian-Pilot)

Eugene Gorman,92, is a Pearl Harbor survivor. He was a 3rd class petty officer aboard the USS Hulbert, a sea plane tender at the time of the attack. He made the Navy a career and retired as a Warrant officer. (Bill Tiernan/Associated Press/The Virginian-Pilot)

Preston Parham, 89, is a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was aboard the light cruiser St. Louis. (Bill Tiernan/Associated Press/The Virginian-Pilot)

Lester A. Silva,88, of Virginia Beach is a Pearl Harbor survivor. He was stationed aboard the light cruiser USS Detroit at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He suffered a leg wound during the attack. (Bill Tiernan/Associated Press/The Virginian-Pilot)

Bob Brunner Sr., 89, of Norfolk, Va., is a Pearl Harbor survivor. He was a pharmacists mate at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Brunner spent 21 years in the Navy and retired as a chief corpsman. (Bill Tiernan/Associated Press/The Virginian-Pilot)

Dean Griffeth, 94, of Norfolk, Va., is a Pearl Harbor survivor. He spent 30 years in the Navy and then spent 25 years working at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth. He was aboard the USS Phelps at the time of the attack. (Bill Tiernan/Associated Press/The Virginian-Pilot)

Paul Moore, 90, of Chesapeake,, Va., is a Pearl Harbor survivor. He was a seaman aboard the battleship West Virginia when it was hit by a Japanese torpedo at Pearl Harbor. (Bill Tiernan/Associated Press/The Virginian-Pilot)

Ray Baer, 93, of Norfolk, Va., is a Pearl Harbor survivor. He was a Petty Officer 3rd class at the time of the attack. (Bill Tiernan/Associated Press/The Virginian-Pilot)

Wilfred Gagne, 89, is a Pearl Harbor survivor. He was a signalman aboard the battleship USS Tennessee. (Bill Tiernan/Associated Press/The Virginian-Pilot)

Pearl Harbor veteran Evans Brasset, who was a signalman on the USS Rigel during the attack, poses for a picture at his home in Harvey, Louisiana. The National World War II Museum is launching a new exhibit about Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, the 70th anniversary of the attack. (Lee Celano/Reuters)

Pearl Harbor veteran Robert Templet, who was a Radioman 1st Class at Ford Island, Hawaii during the attack, is seen outside his home in Metairie, Louisiana. Templet was walking to breakfast on that Sunday, December 7, when he heard a plane motor surging at his back. He turned and saw the pilot, his goggles atop his head, smiling down at him before a torpedo fell from the plane's belly. Stories like Templet's are being documented in "Infamy: December 1941," an exhibit opening on Dec. 7, the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. (Lee Celano/Reuters)

Frank A. Chebetar, 90, sits down during a weekly visit to the Pearl Harbor Memorial at the Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek- Fort Story in Virginia Beach, Va. Chebetar, 90, was a ships cook aboard the destroyer Phelps at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He pays a visit to the memorial each week to shine the bell. And on this day, he was making last minute preparations for the annual remembrance ceremony, Dec. 7. (Bill Tiernan/Associated Press/The Virginian-Pilot)