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December 07, 2008

The day that still lives in infamy 67 years later

Ethel C. Fenig
Not too many people are alive today who remember the events of another Sunday, 67 years ago, the surprise attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor and other sites on Oahu, Hawaii.  On that horrible Sunday morning at 7:55am,  December 7, 1941, The Day That Will Live in Infamy, a surprise bombardment by Japanese planes ultimately sank 12 Navy ships, heavily damaged others, cost almost 2400 American lives with another 1180 Americans injured.  In a few minutes the USS Arizona sank; its nearly 1200 sailors and marines are still entombed within on the harbor's floor. As a grim memorial the battleship still leaks oil rising to the surface.  American tourists visit the spot; a guide there told me very few Japanese do so.
Every year there are commemorations of this event, but according to an AP story
... this year's remembrance ceremony will center more on the months following the raid, said Eileen Martinez, chief of interpretation for the National Park Service.

"We're moving into the Pacific War, the first strike back," she said.


It is important that this year's memorial includes the immediate months after the attack that launched America's entry into World War ll;  it ended 44 long , bloody, horror filled months later with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 


Those who protest the latter -- both in Japan, America and other hate America first outposts around the world -- ignore the causes or somehow, naturally, twist history to justify Japan's actions or at least babble about moral equivalence.  Frankly, these people are not worth answering. 


But may all those who died defending America rest in peace.  Our deepest thanks. 

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