Twitter's Ugly World Cup Response: 'Pearl Harbor'

Shortly after the USA's win over Japan in the Women's World Cup last night, Twitter fans exchanged jubilation and sportsmanship for something much darker: mentions of Pearl Harbor. Several soccer fans suggested the 5-2 victory was a form of payback for the 1941 attack during World War II, reports the BBC. "This is for Pearl Harbor," one less-than-subtle user tweeted along with a photo of Carli Lloyd's face on an atomic bomb. "They destroyed Pearl Harbor, we destroyed their dreams," tweeted another. Yet another wrote "USA has blown Japan away," while referencing Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The New York Daily News reports 120,000 died instantly when two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945; while 2,403 died in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor tends to get mentioned about 500 times a day on Twitter, analytics website Topsy finds, per NBC News. That number jumped to 50,000 yesterday, but at least some users challenged the trend. "Pearl Harbor isn't funny. Hiroshima isn't funny. Nagasaki isn't funny. This isn't WW2 this is a women's soccer match in 2015," wrote a user. (More Pearl Harbor stories.)