Aerial Photo Taken of the Pearl Harbor AttackPhoto byWikimedia Commons. After decades of worsening relations between Japan and America, the final attack occurred on December 7, 1941, when Japan made a surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Things had not been going well for the U.S. and Japan relations before, too, but this attack marked Japan's first aerial attack and gave way to America's participation in World War II.