Today is December 7 and it is the 74th anniversary of Japan’s surprise attack on Hawaii on December 7, 1941. There were 2,400 people killed in the early Sunday morning attack that was the stimulus for the United States to enter and become the deciding force in the Second World War. Those years were, perhaps, the most tumultuous in all of American history.

The nation was battling two empires with military machines never before seen on opposite sides of the world. The American victory over Japan and its intricate presence in the demise of Nazi Germany may be the most spectacular military feat in the history of the world. There some little known facts about the attack, however, that brings the day into clearer focus, according to The Huffington Post.

One of the most interesting facts is that while eight battleships were sunk during the attack, the Navy managed to raise 6 of them, restore and fix them, and send them out into the Pacific. Only the USS West Virginia and the USS California were unsalvageable. In addition, the bullet holes that tore through buildings at such places as Hickam Field and Schofield Barracks still remain to this day. They were not patched or covered. They were left to serve as a physical reminder of what had happened that day.

Any veteran that survived the attack can be laid to rest in the harbor. Survivors of the USS Arizona can have Navy divers bring their ashes down to the sunken battleship. Of the 355 sailors that survived the sinking of the Arizona, 30 of them have chosen to rest beneath the waves. There are less than a dozen survivors left today.

Speaking of the mighty Arizona, as tourists walk out to the memorial and gaze down at the sunken hulk, they will notice that even after 74 years, the battleship continues to leak fuel. There was a million and a half gallons of fuel on board the ship that day and it continues to leak at least 9 quarts of fuel every day. Many who have visited the monument and gazed down say that it looks like the ship is still bleeding.

A baby girl remains entombed at the bottom of the harbor aboard the USS Utah. A grieving father had taken his daughter’s ashes with him so that he could scatter them at sea but never had the chance. Finally, Japanese tourists are one of the largest groups to visit the Pearl Harbor memorial site. Hawaii had become heavily dependent on Japanese tourism to survive and the Japanese keep coming in huge numbers to pay their respects and to remember that day as well as the horror of that particular war.