The Day That Will Live In Infamy
It was 80 years ago today…80 years ago…that the Japanese attacked the U.S. through the Pearl Harbor naval base within the U.S. territory of Hawaii. It forced the United States into the war actively, on not one but two fronts.
What some don’t recall is that the Japanese attacked more than just Pearl Harbor…attacks took place on the U.S.-held areas of the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island…and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
2,335 were killed in the 90-minute long, multi-wave Pearl Harbor attack that Sunday morning, with another 1,143 wounded.
The attack came shortly before 8 a.m. Hawaii time…the first public announcement was made within an hour, no small feat given the relatively limited communications of the time. The initial announcement came shortly before 1:30 p.m. Iowa time by the White House press secretary.
Quite quickly, of course, everything changed. I noted this a few months ago, on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attack on our country, but how amazing it was to see members of the Greatest Generation two decades ago, who lived through Pearl Harbor and their military service as young men…now to be retired and stunned by another attack on U.S. soil. What must have been going through their minds; of course, as members of the Greatest Generation, they didn’t say much.
Those of us who came after owe it to them to remember the sacrifice of that day, and the years that followed. It is only through an active remembrance of history that we can learn for our futures.
