San Bernardino County history: USS San Bernardino – Welcome to San Bernardino County

Two navy ships are docked side by side. The ship on the left displays the number 822 and the ship on the right displays 1110. — *USS San Bernardino County (right).*

San Bernardino County shares a history with the attack on Pearl Harbor through the USS San Bernardino and the ships that came after it.

On Dec. 7, 1941, the American Army and Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The attack came as a complete surprise and resulted in the loss of over 2,000 American citizens and injuries to more than 1,000 others.

All eight U.S. Navy battleships stationed at Pearl Harbor were damaged, four of them sunk and nearly 200 aircraft were destroyed. The Japanese military hoped the attack would prevent the United States from increasing its influence in the Pacific. Instead, the attack had the opposite effect. The United States officially entered World War II on Dec. 8, 1941. President Franklin Roosevelt in a speech to Congress called the bombing of Pearl Harbor a date which will live in infamy.

In the months that followed, the slogan “Remember Pearl Harbor” swept the nation. Radio stations repeatedly played a song of the same name, which was recorded only ten days after the attack. The song climbed to #3 on the Billboard charts within one month.

Locally, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors requested on Dec. 8, 1941, that the Secretary of the Navy name one of its new battleships the USS San Bernardino. The USS San Bernardino was a diesel-powered yacht built in 1928 and acquired by the Navy in 1942. The yacht was converted to a gunboat and served in both the Atlantic and Pacific Theaters of World War II before being decommissioned in 1945.

Another tank-landing ship built for the U.S. Navy during World War II was named the USS San Bernardino County. The USS San Bernardino County served in the Pacific at historic battle sites, including Saipan, Guam, the Marshall Islands and Okinawa until it was decommissioned in 1958. In 1969, another U.S. Naval vessel was named USS San Bernardino and was decommissioned in 1995.

On Dec. 7 of each year, Americans remember the lives lost in the Pearl Harbor attack. Today, Pearl Harbor remains an active military base, headquarters of the Pacific Fleet, and a National Historic Landmark.

The information in this historical feature was originally part of a video series produced by the Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk’s office.

Additional County Update News – Feb. 12, 2026