Pearl Harbor's lessons worth remembering

Many of the dead were teenage sailors and Marines away from home for the first time. They died before they had an opportunity to get married, have children, build lives.

Four in five servicemen on the USS Arizona - 1,177 in all - did not survive the day. It was the greatest loss of life of any ship in U.S. naval history. They remain entombed in the battleship's sunken hull, which still seeps oil every few seconds, leaving a colorful sheen on the harbor water.

- From an Associated Press story, Dec. 7, 2006

One of the country's most memorable historical moments was marked Thursday, as the Japanese attack on the U.S. naval fleet at Pearl Harbor was remembered.

Three generations removed from the Dec. 7, 1941, attack, it is little more than statistics and a chapter in a history book for most Americans now. Nearly 2,400 perished in the attacks, and close to 1,200 others were injured. Additionally, 21 ships and 320 aircraft were either destroyed or damaged.

For those who were alive at the time, the day - and these tragic statistics - hold more immediacy. In much the same manner as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, or the assassination of President Kennedy, the bombing of Pearl Harbor has an indelible quality on the collective psyche of those who remember the event that thrust the United States into World War II.

Those who don't have that first-hand recollection, have only stories - written and oral history - to learn about the shocking attack immortalized by then-President Roosevelt as &#8220a day that will live in infamy.” Sadly, the numbers of those able to pass on first-hand accounts of the incident are dwindling.

As has been the custom every five years for four decades, Pearl Harbor survivors gathered at the attack site hear Honolulu on Thursday. The attack may have occurred 65 years ago, but some of the 500 or so survivors who made the journey said they could still hear the explosions, smell the burning flesh and hear the cries of the injured and dying, according to an Associated Press account of the commemoration ceremony.

Some of the survivors who attended the Thursday ceremony assume it will be the group's final reunion. Now in their 80s and 90s, they are confronted with the reality that newspaper obituary pages almost daily report the passing of another World War II veteran.

Newsman Tom Brokaw called them &#8220the greatest generation.” It is hard to argue the point.

&#8220Remember Pearl Harbor.” It's more than a battle cry or slogan from a bygone time. As a nation caught up in a potentially lengthy conflict, Pearl Harbor Day is another reminder of how much of what we value in the present is built on a foundation molded and bolstered by the service and sacrifice of those who came before us.