High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Pearl Harbor is a harbor on the island of O ahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan on December 7, 1941, brought the United States into World War II. Pearl Harbor was originally an extensive, shallow embayment called Wai Momi (meaning "pearl water") or Pu'uloa (meaning "long hill") by the Hawaiians. Pu'uloa was regarded as the home of the shark goddess Ka'ahupahau and her brother (or son) Kahi'uka in Hawaiian legends. Keaunui, the head of the powerful and celebrated Ewa chiefs, is attributed the honour of having cut a navigable channel near the present Puuloa saltworks, by which the great estuary, now known as "Pearl River," was in all subsequent ages rendered accessible to navigation.