Remembering Pearl Harbor

Remembering+Pearl+Harbor

On December 7th, there’s a certain hush to air. A collective silence as a somber atmosphere settles over America; a fitting quiet as the nation recalls the events that took place just a few decades prior- this being the horrors of Pearl Harbor. While 2020 has proven to have ample distractions, it is important to take the time to remember and honor the 2,403 souls who saw their lives ripped from them on this day 79 years ago.

 

When President Franklin D Roosevelt gave a speech in response to atrocities committed in Pearl Harbor in 1941, he was able to predict how deeply impactful that day would continue to be for a millennium. “December 7, 1941- a date which will live in infamy,” Roosevelt said to a traumatized people. America had been eyeing the carnage and fighting occurring in war-struck Europe, and the resounding amount of death ever piling under Hitler’s reign, with a careful distance. The bitter taste of World War 1 could still be felt, and many were reluctant to engage in a war that had revealed itself to be catastrophic in a way never yet seen. And then, in the early hours on a Sunday morning, hundreds of Japanese planes darkened the skies like vast storm clouds, raining down bombs that would damage or destroy 20 American vessels and over 300 aircrafts. Though detrimental, the materialistic damage was but a fraction of the true loss that day. It has been estimated that 2,403 Americans were killed in Pearl Harbor, which includes about 2,008 Navy personnel, 109 Marines, 218 Army service members and 68 civilians (USA Today). With this tragedy revealing the necessity of action, America then joined the allies in World War 2 in what would prove to be some of the most trying years ever to have fallen upon humanity.

 

It was Congress that dedicated every December 7 as Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day in 1994. Since then, the recent custom has been for the National Park Service and United States Navy to hold a ceremony at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center. Here, Pearl Harbor survivors alongside World War 2 veterans gather to pay homage to both those who lost their lives and who fought during that time. 

 

Almost 80 years later, and the wounds inflicted by Pearl Harbor can still be felt. It was a stark foreshadowing of what war is (and what particularly that war would show itself to be)- with the loss of innocents and heroes alike demonstrating exactly what was at stake with World War 2. Take this moment, or anyone you can, to remember those 2,403 human beings who perished this day, and what their death meant for this county.