December 7th, 1941

Pearl Harbor. I cannot begin to describe the emotions I felt when I went there this summer. It is so powerful. To think of all the fallout that occured from this act is overwhelming. So many sailors and others lost their lives there, just doing their daily jobs. I think about the ones that were probably standing watch, or lying in their racks, or sitting at the mess decks having some coffee when they were attacked...It was Sunday, which is 'holiday routine.' They were completely unaware of what was about to happen.



When you get there, you hop on a boat that takes you to the Arizona Memorial. Not before you watch a video describing how the memorial was built, though. They tell you all about why the design was chosen and how they went about setting it up. It's all well-thought out. Then the boat takes you to the memorial. While you walk around the memorial, you have a set of headphones on that tells you about the sinking of the Arizona...How the men became trapped below. It is a tomb for 1,177 sailors, and that's just one battleship that was moored in Battleship Row. There were a total of 2,403 that died and an additional 1,178 were wounded in the attack.

It's such a moving experience, and I recommend if you're in Hawaii, to go. I'm so glad that I did.

I also got to meet a guy who had survived the attack. He was a charming fellow -- had plenty of jokes, and was in good humor. Here's a picture of me with him.

Looking at the results and the retaliation that was brought forth from this event is staggering. I was looking at some pictures out here of Hiroshima. Someone on the boat had taken a trip on the bullet to see the town. There was a building that was nothing but a shell which they told me used to be the Red Cross hospital. After the bombing at Hiroshima, it was the only building, albeit a skeleton, that stood for miles. There were pictures of men whose clothes had been fused to their bodies. All this while Stalin marched his way through the islands.

The interconnections and implications of all of these events accumulated into a burst of emotion when I visited the memorial. I felt at awe, but at the same time I had that funny feeling in the pit of my stomach when something's not right. It's staggering. Being in Pearl Harbor at the scene of the attack reminded me that a few decades ago, the world went crazy.

Karl Marx said those who cannot learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. I hope that my generation can keep these events fresh. I hope that we do not let their memories fade, because then we will not understand the pain of those events; that time. I got a forwarded email the other day urging people to remember the Holocaust. My generation needs to remember another's pain so that we don't feel the need to experience it ourselves.

I found Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech that he said the day following the attack. Of course his beginning statement has been forever linked to the event itself. I've included it here, along with a link for you to read it in its entirety. There's also a site that goes over how the speech was prepared.

"Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of American was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan..."

So if you want to find out more info or read stories of survivors of Pearl Harbor, you can check out Pearl Harbor Attacked and the Pearl Harbor Survivors Project, which are both excellent sources.