The 33 remains that could not be identified at the end of this program launched six years ago were buried again Tuesday in the Honolulu National Cemetery, as part of the commemorations of December 7, 1941 to which dozens of survivors took go.

In the aftermath of the attack, the US Congress officially declared war on Japan, changing the course of World War II.

Posters, badges, songs: "Remember Pearl Harbor" had become the rallying cry and mobilization in the United States.

Prepared for months in the utmost secrecy by General Isoroku Yamamoto, the lightning attack on Pearl Harbor - it lasted barely two hours - killed more than 2,400 Americans in total.

The Americans had not seen the six Japanese aircraft carriers approaching, which had stopped about 400 km from the island of Oahu.

On December 7, 1941, some 400 Japanese planes took off in two successive waves: 21 American warships were sunk or damaged, as were 328 fighter planes.

The USS Oklahoma, hit while moored alongside, rolled over onto its side, trapping hundreds of sailors in its bowels.

Among the veterans gathered at Pearl Harbor on Tuesday to participate in the commemorations was David Russel, now 101.

He was aboard the USS Oklahoma that fateful day, reading in his compartment, when an officer sounded the alert over the loudspeaker.

"At that moment, torpedoes started hitting us, boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Nine hit us," recalled the sailor in a radio interview in 2016.

He recently explained to CBS television that his decision to step out onto the ship's deck, when an order had just been given to close the watertight hatches to protect himself from the attack, had likely saved his life.

Many of his shipmates were not so lucky and sank with the ship: 429 perished and, with the limited means at the time, only about 30 could be identified after the fact.

The program launched in 2015 by the US military has made it possible to inventory nearly 13,000 bones found on the USS Oklahoma or in the waters of the port, resulting in 5,000 DNA samples.

These samples could then be compared to those taken from the descendants of the victims to give names to the remains and their graves.

© 2021 AFP