Remember Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941, a date that will live in infamy. Don't forget.  More than 2,400 soldiers, sailors, Marines, and civilians dies that day -- almost half of them on the battleship USS Arizona, which sank in minutes early in the attack:

The Arizona is the only ship that sank during the attack that remains on the bottom of Pearl Harbor. A memorial to the hundreds of sailors and Marines who died on the Arizona and remain insider her is a major tourist attraction there. I used to go fishing at the nearby docks on Ford Island:

I doubt the public schools teach much about that day anymore.

It's Pearl Harbor Day -- say a little prayer

There aren't many survivors left, but many of them are in Honolulu for the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor -- "a date which will live in infamy" -- that shoved the U.S. into World War II. More than 2,000 American servicemen and women died that day, including about 1,500 aboard the battleship USS Arizona, which was shattered by torpedoes and bombs early in the attack while moored at Battleship Row on Ford Island:

The Arizona is still there, with a memorial spanning its sunken hull, as a tomb for so many of the men who died aboard her:

Too many people don't pay too much attention to the anniversary, and too many more don't even know much about what happened all those years ago. Remember.

A date which will live in infamy

That's what President Franklin Roosevelt dubbed Dec. 7, 1941, the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and dragged the U.S. into World War II. Of course, if you refer to Dec. 7 as "a date which will live in infamy" to a millennial, you are likely to receive one of two responses: 1) "What date is that?" or b) "What's infamy?"

Anyway, today is the 74th anniversary of the attack, which left 2,400 soldiers, sailors, Marines and civilians dead and the Pacific fleet in shambles. They live on only in the collective memory of the nation -- or they should.

Remember Pearl Harbor Day

It seems the anniversary garners less and less attention as the years go by. America has a habit of forgetting that there really are nations out there that want to kill us -- or, more often, ignoring the fact.

There still are some folks who won't ever forget, though, at least not while they're still drawing breath. On the 73rd anniversary of Japan's attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, more than a dozen survivors of the attack, including the last nine members of the USS Arizona Reunion Association, which consists of survivors of the battleship USS Arizona. The Arizona was destroyed by a catastrophic explosion caused by a direct bomb hit in the forward magazine. Nearly 1,200 crewmen died on the Arizona, 900 of whose remains are still aboard. It's amazing any of them got out:

The hull of the ship remains in Pearl Harbor, spanned by the Arizona Memorial. When I was in high school, we used to go fishing from the adjacent pier where the USS Maryland was docked. Now that pier is the home of the USS Missouri Museum and offers a good view of the Arizona Memorial:

Well, God bless those survivors who were able to make the trip, and I hope they are able to make many more. At a minimum, they deserve our thanks, and to preserve in the national memory the sacrifice they made and the larger message Pearl Harbor represents.

Dammit, yesterday was Pearl Harbor Day

By yesterday, I mean 10 minutes ago, but I completely lost track of the calendar for a while there. Been busy today, and I tend to not note the date on weekends. My bad.

In any event, 72 years ago yesterday, the Japanese blasted America into Worl War II by attacking Pearl Harbor without warning that they were even particularly upset with us. Things could have been much worse -- no aircraft carriers were in port at the time, and only three ships, the USS Utah, a battleship being used as a target ship, and the USS Shaw, a destroyer whose front end got blown off when its forward magazine went up, and, of course, the USS Arizona, which went down taking nearly 1,200 U.S. sailors and Marines with her. I visited the USS Arizona Memorial numerous times while in high school just a short bike ride away, and used to go fishing off the pier on Ford Island where the USS Maryland was moored during the attack. Here is an aerial view of the Arizona Memorial:

The Arizona was left in place as a permanent memorial to the men who died with her that day -- more than half the of U.S. soldiers, sailors and Marines who died during the attack were aboard the Arizona. Three men aboard the Arizona were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions that day -- two of them posthumously.

The Naval History and Heritage website provides some good pictures and narrative regarding the Pearl Harbor attack, including this shot of the battleship USS West Virginia:

Amazingly, the West Virginia was raised and went on to fight the Japanese later in the war. The Naval History webiste provides this caption:

Sailors in a motor launch rescue a survivor from the water alongside the sunken USS West Virginia (BB-48) during or shortly after the Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor. USS Tennessee (BB-43) is inboard of the sunken battleship. Note extensive distortion of West Virginia's lower midships superstructure, caused by torpedoes that exploded below that location. Also note 5"/25 gun, still partially covered with canvas, boat crane swung outboard and empty boat cradles near the smokestacks, and base of radar antenna atop West Virginia's foremast. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, National Archives collection.

In 1967-68, while my father was in Khe Sanh, my family lived in Virginia Beach. Our next-door neighbor was an old Navy man named Elmer Shoenfelter, who was aboard the battleship USS Pennsylvania at the time of the attack. He used to tell me stories and show me pictures -- official Navy pictures, as he was too busy trying not to get killed to take his own -- of the Pearl Harbor attack. The Pennsylvania was in dry dock that day and emerged largely undamaged. She was quickly back in the war, taking my future neighbor with her. In this photo, the Pennsylvania is the ship behind the two jacked-up destroyers in the foreground:

 Yes, two. One fell over against the other, and the drydock was flooded to put out fires, so it can be a little tough to tell. The  Naval History website provides this caption:

The wrecked destroyers USS Downes (DD-375) and USS Cassin (DD-372) in Drydock One at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, soon after the end of the Japanese air attack. Cassin has capsized against Downes. USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) is astern, occupying the rest of the drydock. The torpedo-damaged cruiser USS Helena (CL-50) is in the right distance, beyond the crane. Visible in the center distance is the capsized USSOklahoma (BB-37), with USS Maryland (BB-46) alongside. Smoke is from the sunken and burning USS Arizona (BB-39), out of view behindPennsylvania. USS California (BB-44) is partially visible at the extreme left. This image has been attributed to Navy Photographer's Mate Harold Fawcett. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, National Archives collection.

There is more information and more photos here. Hat tip to Ace for guiding me to this site.

Pearl Harbor demonstrated how gutted our military was at the outset of World War II. We lacked the resources for a meaningful response in the immediate aftermath of the attack and were forced to watch helplessly while Wake Island, the Phillipines, Singapore and most of the rest of the Far East fell to the Japanese. Nice to see that we have a president who thinks the military is there primarily to serve as the first and only place to cut the budget. Hope you remembered Pearl Harbor Day before I did.