Photographs can be found in the various Record Groups assigned to each military branch as well as the War Department.

In addition to the original format, a large percentage of the World War I photographs have been digitized along with a small percentage of World War II images. Photographic formats include glass plate negatives, black-and-white acetate film negatives, color negatives, color transparencies, black-and-white prints, and color prints. In addition to photographs, thousands of posters were generated Millions of photographs were created by American military photographers, foreign militaries, and private sources documenting personnel, combat, training, facilities, equipment and the homefront. The first and second World Wars are by far the most heavily covered subject matter within the holdings of the Still Picture Branch. Local Identifier: 165-BO-0159 National Archives Identifier: 16577256 reciprocated soon after.American soldiers leaving England for the front. Within days, Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy also declared war on the United States, and the U.S. The next day President Roosevelt delivered his famous 'infamy' speech, and signed a formal declaration of war against the Empire of Japan. After the attack, Japan officially declared war on the United States.

(Two of the battleships were later raised and returned to service.) Some 2,400 Americans were killed in the attack another 1,250 were injured, and a huge shock was dealt to United States. The entire preemptive attack lasted only 90 minutes, and in that time, the Japanese sunk four battleships and two destroyers, pummeled 188 aircraft, and damaged even more buildings, ships and airplanes. forces were unprepared, waking to the sounds of explosions and scrambling to defend themselves. More than 350 Japanese aircraft attacked the naval base in two waves, strafing targets, dropping armor-piercing bombs, and launching torpedoes toward U.S.

On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on the United States, bombing warships and military targets in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

World war 2 navy photographers