On this day in 1941, on an early Sunday morning and without warning, naval aviators from the Empire of Japan bombed, torpedoed, and strafed the island of Oahu in Hawaii, focusing on our Navy base at Pearl Harbor and the Army Air Base at Hickam Field. Thousands were killed, several major ships sunk at their moorings, and more were damaged.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt memorably called it “a day that will live in infamy” as he declared the U.S. to be at war with Japan. Soon thereafter Germany, an ally of Japan, also declared itself to be at war with the U.S. and we found ourselves involved in a war that had been ongoing for two years.
Most who were alive then are alive no longer, and the few who remain were mostly children then, as I was. I don’t remember the war starting, but do have memories of events prior to its end, including rationing, blackout curtains, and the death of FDR.
For most now living the attacks on September 11 are their only memories of our nation under attack. The past recedes, and eventually is forgotten, so be it.
