Pearl Harbor Day, Plus 75

Today is Pearl Harbor Day. This will not be a typical looking back seventy-five years to the sneak attack upon the US, which ultimately brought us into World War II, but a look forward. Most of my generation remember Pearl Harbor from the stories we heard from those who were there. The previous generation lived it. The next generation? Who knows?

Many of us have seen, with nervous laughter,  Jay Leno's Man on the Street, or Watter's World, where young adults and college students are asked very simple questions about historical events that most of my generation learned in grade school. Those interviewed appear clueless, sometimes not able to locate the founding of our country or the Civil War within a century of when they actually happened.

"Remember the Alamo!"

"Remember the Maine!"

"Remember Pearl Harbor!"

Each of those sayings stirred the soul of a generation at one time or another. Some fade more quickly than others. The veterans who served at Pearl the day of the attack are fewer in number every year. Soon, the last of them will be gone. Who will remember Pearl Harbor? Even our own president famously showed his own ignorance of the day, when he referred to Japan "dropping the bomb" on Pearl Harbor. Only twice in human history has a piece of ordinance been significant enough to be referred to in the singular, Those were the two atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. "The Bomb" is atomic. The bombs (plural) used on Pearl were conventional, not atomic. Details!

I suppose we could jump on the bandwagon and blame our constantly declining public education. Despite the bleating on the Left, throwing more money at the problem is not the solution, after trying it for decades.

So, what are we left with? An annual documentary or two on public television? A declining number of human interest features as we watch a declining number of veterans return to Pearl for an anniversary remembrance? It's unfortunate, but people who can't name even three Founding Fathers can name a half a dozen Kardashians. 54-40 or fight? Tippecanoe and Tyler, too? "From which country did we declare our independence"??? Might as well be speaking Klingon! (No. A few might actually understand Klingon!)

I will remember Pearl Harbor as a significant turning point in American and world history for as long as I live.  The tragic loss of life and the motivation it provided to the US to enter the war and take leadership of an alliance against the axis of evil of its day, teaches us lessons that ought not be forgotten. Unless, of course, they're never learned in the first place.

Will this generation learn from the lessons of history? Or are they doomed to repeat them?

Magic Eight Ball says: Outlook not so good.

"Praise the Lord, and Pass the Ammunition"

It was 73 years ago today.

The USS Arizona Memorial, located at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, marks the resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors killed on the USS Arizona during the Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 by Japanese imperial forces and commemorates the events of that day. The attack on Pearl Harbor and the island of Oʻahu was the action that led to United States involvement in World War II.

The memorial, dedicated in 1962 and visited by more than one million people annually, spans the sunken hull of the battleship without touching it. Since it opened in 1980, the National Park Service has operated the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center associated with the memorial. Historical information about the attack, boat access to the memorial, and general visitor services are available at the center. The sunken remains of the battleship were declared a National Historic Landmark on 5 May 1989.

If you've been to the Arizona Memorial, as I have, you know it is a solemn, moving experience. If you're visiting the island of Oahu, be sure to pay your respects when you go. It's well worth the trip.

from 2009, updated

"A Day Which Will Live in Infamy"

Today is the 71st. anniversary of the December 7th. attack on Pearl Harbor, which then President FDR called, a "Day which will live in Infamy".

The number of people who lived through the day and those who lived through the attack itself, decreases every year. The day will come when only a very few historians will remember the attack on Pearl Harbor, but this is not that day.

Over 300 planes from six aircraft carriers attacked Pearl Harbor that day. Some 2400 Americans lost their life in the attack and more than 1200 were wounded.

America in 1941 was steeped in isolationism. The unexpectedness and seeming treachery of the attack galvanized America into action. The US declared war on Japan December 8th. Italy and German declared war on the US three days later and the US reciprocated. The US was committed to, what would become known as, the Second World War.

"Remember Pearl Harbor"

USS Arizona memorial

On this day in history in 1941, the naval facility at Pearl Harbor was attacked, bringing the US into WWII.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt would call it a "Day that would live in infamy".