By Steve Pullen
Guest Writer
“Yesterday, Dec, 7th, 1941, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” These words were spoken to Congress by Franklin Roosevelt our President on the day following the attack.
I came home one day from elementary school and told my father that my teacher had taught us about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. I learned that it was a surprise attack conducted on a Sunday against our armed forces stationed on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. That attack led America into World War II. On Dec. 8 our President with the consent of Congress declared war on Japan. I asked my father if he remembered what he was doing on Dec. 7, 1941, and he said “yes.” On that Sunday he was in a soda shop with several of his friends when the radio program they were listening to was interrupted by news of the attack. He admitted he did not know where Pearl Harbor was, but he and his friends decided to enlist the next day to fight the Japanese. Two went into the Marines, one joined the Navy and my father and his twin brother joined the Army Air Corps.
Several weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor our losses were announced — 2,403 were killed, four battleships were sunk, four battleships damaged and 188 aircraft were destroyed. It is only by the grace of God that our carriers were not in the harbor on that day.
I remember while in high school my father and I attended a local Veteran’s Day Parade. In that parade some veterans were walking, some were being pushed in wheelchairs and some rode in convertible cars. I distinctly remember reading the banner on one of the cars and it read, “Pearl Harbor Survivor.” Somehow my dad knew the man and he told me that he had been a musician on the battleship Arizona. Arizona was one of the battleships sunk. When the ship exploded, he was blown overboard. That explosion killed 1,104 Sailors and 73 Marines. Today many are still entombed inside the battleship.
Pearl Harbor would not be the last time America was attacked. The most recent attacks were conducted by al-Qaeda a radical Islamic terrorist organization.
The “greatest generation” that lived through the attack on Pearl Harbor are almost all gone and the baby boomer generation that followed is fading. I recently read a current American history book and was surprised to read that the attack on Pearl Harbor was basically reduced to a single sentence. My concern is that future generations will not be taught nor understand the significance of the attack on Pearl Harbor and its effects around the world. My worse fear is that in the future, the surprise attack that took place on Dec. 7, 1941 will become a footnote in history or not remembered at all.
It is now 84 years since Pearl Harbor was attacked and I do not know if any survivors are still living. I do know that if we continue to observe and explain to future generations the significance of Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day those who died on that Sunday morning far away on Oahu will not be forgotten.