Day of Infamy: To go down in infamy means to go down in history for something terrible, and the attack of Pearl Harbor was certainly terrible. Japan attacked an American naval base just off the coast of Hawaii on December 7, 1941. It was a surprise attack that the U.S. never saw coming; destroying 20 naval vessels and killing over 2,000, with another 1,000 wounded. The opposing sides in WWII were the Axis powers and the Allies. The Axis powers consisted of Germany-the main perpetrator-Italy, and Japan. Whereas, the Allies included: Britain, France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, the Soviet Union, China, and eventually the U.S. During WWII, America was doing its best to stay out of the war, but Japan decided that the only way for them to win was to attack America when they least expected it, and so the attack on Pearl Harbor was planned and executed with devastating results.