Remember Dec 7th!

[Wild Root]

Pearl Harbor, a day which will live in infamy. Many things have happened since Pearl Harbor that some may feel rival it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s shock value over the last 64 years. Pearl Harbor today lives to be the most shocking military assault on the US.

We lost a lot that day, we lost planes, ships and most of all, lives of fellow Americans.

Here is a link to the entire FDR Dec 8th speech which launched the US into WWII. You will need RealOnePlayer to hear this speech. http://www.henkelsandmccoy.com/corporate/timeline/decwarsp.rm

It is my hope that we may never forget this day. No matter what may happen today or tomorrow, Pearl Harbor must never be forgotten.

We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain?¢‚Ǩ¬¶

Remember Dec 7th!

=WR=

 

[PADDY]

Hear, hear..!

Fine sentiments Root. We will remember them.

 

[Mycroft]

:cheers1: -to the all who served and fell for the all of America.

 

[Vanessa]

In remembering Pearl Harbor, may I encourage everyone to visit the Pearl Harbor Memorial website for information on the Memorial and the continuing efforts to raise funds for a new visitor center & museum.
The memorial is visited by over 1.5 million annual visitors and the current structures are not enough to support them all. I've had the opportunity to visit the memorial twice now and each time it was a truly sobering & emotional experience.
Tickets are free and are passed out in a first come, first serve basis - waiting lines begin at 5am - but the memorial can only support so many people, and some must be turned away every day. For some people, it is a once in a lifetime trip to visit the islands and I would not want them to miss out on a vital part of our nation's history.

 

[Hondo]

Yes! 100% keep the fire, the memory alive today and for future generations to come. As many WWII era Veterans leave us, many fear events like on December 7th will be forgotten, I think I speak for most here, that we pay a little tribute to this era (vintage clothes, reactors) its our way of keeping memories alive.
See a Vet, say hello and Thanks, God Bless America, long may she prosper.
Remember December 7th 1941 :cry:

 

[scotrace]

That's my dad

He spent a part of the war in the states, repairing army vehicles. Then, off to the European theatre, landing after Normandy and slogging all the way through The Buldge to VE Day in the infantry. Waking up in snowcovered foxholes, watching friends die. He was onboard the ship bound for the Pacific at VJ Day.
Here, he stopped for a moment on a bench somewhere in Belgium. I love this picture; in spite of conditions that would have shattered many men, he wears a grin. Either he had gotten great news, or the photographer had great legs...
He died suddenly April 2, 1989. I try to keep his grave as neat as possible, and I always remember this day, December 7th.

Here's remembering all of them, men and women, who gave their best years in service of a just cause. They were truly The Greatest Generation.

 

[Wild Root]

I had the opportunity to meet a Pearl Harbor vet last Saturday. He was in the Marine Corps at Pearl that morning. He told me a few things about that morning. But, he talked about how things were in the pre-war years. It was something to talk to this man who is a rare survivor who is in his 90's now. We are losing vets of this war at a very high rate each day.

For those who haven't yet, I urge you to listen to the uncut, entire FDR "Infamy" speech that was given on Dec 8th. There is a link on my first post.

=WR=

 

[Twitch]

While we've tried to stay vigilant, 9/11 was a sucker punch for sure. December 8th 1941 was the largest day in history for sign-ups for the armed forced.

So Paddy you like Gentile too, eh?

 

[GraveRobberGreg]

He spent a part of the war in the states, repairing army vehicles. Then, off to the European theatre, landing after Normandy and slogging all the way through The Buldge to VE Day in the infantry. Waking up in snowcovered foxholes, watching friends die. He was onboard the ship bound for the Pacific at VJ Day.
Here, he stopped for a moment on a bench somewhere in Belgium. I love this picture; in spite of conditions that would have shattered many men, he wears a grin. Either he had gotten great news, or the photographer had great legs...
He died suddenly April 2, 1989. I try to keep his grave as neat as possible, and I always remember this day, December 7th.

Here's remembering all of them, men and women, who gave their best years in service of a just cause. They were truly The Greatest Generation.

Treasure that photo and the memory for as long as you can. I want to thank you for sharing such a special heart felt memory with us all. Whenever you have a bad day just look at that photo and you too will have a smile on your face.

May we never forget and their memories live on through all of us.

 

[Scuffy]

I know this sounds a bit cheesy buty the History Channel has been airing a couple of great shows today. I worked first shift at a local lift bridge this morning and since the river has iced over I don't get too much business! Anywho, I had plenty of time to catch up on the television that I don't normally get a chance to watch. There was quite a bit that happened at Pearl Harbor that day that I had never heard about. Must have been amazing (in a solumn, horrific and shocking way) to have experienced it.

Also, I just learned about the "second incident at Pearl Harbor" where several supply ships loaded with arms, ammo, fuel and other volatile materials set the west loch ablaze.

Without a doubt a salute goes out to all the men and women who have served before us and fought to keep our country free! I second the notion- cheers! :cheers1:

 

[Vanessa]

Nice site from National Geographic with attack maps, timelines and a searchable archive of survivors' stories.

 

[The Captain]

I 'still' remember Pearl Harbor...(I was six years old)

I was six years old when THE JAPS tried to annihilate our fleet and they almost succeeded. I remember standing in the kitchen of our home in Omaha and wondering why all of the women in the house were crying. I had two relatives - USMC - stationed there at the time. They both survived and the stories they told of laying in the grass in their underwear, firing at attacking planes - flying so close to the ground that the pilots faces were visable - still haunt me today.
It may be decades and generations later, but I still "Remember Pearl Harbor!" If you didn't experience that time or have relatives that did, you don't have a clue of how bad it was. My neighborhood had many windows that displayed red stars, the sign that the people that lived there had lost a son, brother or father.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Amen Captain. My Grandfather who raised me SERVED Aboard the Arizona. Fortunately (Not to him though, he'd rather have stayed), he was transferred from the ship in June of 1941 due to a illness. He was later sent back to the USS Tangier, which was moored behind the Utah on that day directly accross Ford Island from the Arizona. Needless to say he was above deck manning guns when she was hit and witnessed 1,177 of his shipmates die. I've heard his stories, witnessed his tears and felt his pain. And my my grandmother who told me stories of not hearing from him for over two months till she got a Generic Navy department Post Card saying he was alive, unhurt and signed by him, nothing more. I've been to the reunions of the survivors of the Arizona and heard their stories about the treachery that occured that day. The JAPS started and we finished by kicking their butts clear back accross the Pacific. My Grandfather was there for all that island hopping campaign clear up to Toyko Bay fir the surrender. I've learned to just those folk(and you know who you are in your big city enclaves) who don't seem to understand the contexts of the time and would prefer to view history through their (Usually leftist) prism. Signed,
Someone who was raised by a Hero who was there.

I was six years old when THE JAPS tried to annihilate our fleet and they almost succeeded. I remember standing in the kitchen of our home in Omaha and wondering why all of the women in the house were crying. I had two relatives - USMC - stationed there at the time. They both survived and the stories they told of laying in the grass in their underwear, firing at attacking planes - flying so close to the ground that the pilots faces were visable - still haunt me today.
It may be decades and generations later, but I still "Remember Pearl Harbor!" If you didn't experience that time or have relatives that did, you don't have a clue of how bad it was. My neighborhood had many windows that displayed red stars, the sign that the people that lived there had lost a son, brother or father. Maybe it isn't too "PC" to say Japs, but I don't give a s**t!

 

[Wild Root]

Someone got upset with me recently for using the word "Japs". I wonder if he is glad he ain't speaking Japanese intead of English.

Let's also not forget what they did to their POWs either.

Bob, this is not the time or the place. How dare you step into this with that bologna. I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m trying to set up a thread to remember those who died in Pearl Harbor and who fought against a surprise attack on a peaceful Sunday morning.

I harbor no bad feelings to our Asian neighbors.

I knew a friend who was a Pearl Harbor vet. He told me what it was like and that?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s why I hold this day with reverence.

So please Bob, if you want to say something, say something intelligent.

=WR=

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Ummmm gee Imagine my surprise

And see below for some stories on Japanese Subversives since we should give the readers here at the lounge a fair and blanced look shall we? Oh yes, I do remember the sacrafices of some Heroic Japanese Americans but you can knock off the moral realtivism anytime now.
D

PEARL HARBOR: 64 YEARS
By Michelle Malkin · December 07, 2005 10:05 AM
Why have so many chosen to forget? The Mobile Register reports that observances of the Pearl Harbor attack are down, in part because of Hurricane Katrina:

While today marks the 64th anniversary of the Japanese attack on U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which plunged the nation into World War II, local officials report a scarcity of area observances of the event.
No observance of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack will take place at Battleship Memorial Park on the Causeway this year because the park has remained closed since Aug. 29 when Hurricane Katrina inflicted some $4 million in damage on it.

"We're planning a large event next year for the 65th anniversary," Bill Tunnel, executive director of the park, said Tuesday. He said Pearl Harbor survivors throughout the state will be invited next year to a ceremony to take place on the park's centerpiece, the USS Alabama. He said he hopes the park can be partially reopened "within the next 30 days."

"I don't know of anything planned at all" in the area, said Buford Barber, 84, a Pearl Harbor survivor who lives in Fairhope.

He said he is aware of only a few survivors living in the area. "We're not youngsters anymore," said Barber, who was a 20-year-old sailor on board the USS Helena at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese struck.

Another Pearl Harbor survivor, Wes Strauley, 86, also of Fairhope, lamented Tuesday, "I don't see any observances any place. It's going to be just a gone day. ... But that's life. Maybe next year we'll kick up something big."


The Delaware News Journal also notes that veterans are worried about fading collective memory:

The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese made Dec. 7, 1941, as FDR said in that famous radio broadcast, "a date which will live in infamy."
Fred Hess used to think that was so, but these days he's worried that the president was wrong. He's afraid that the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor soon will go unremarked and unremembered.

"It's mind-boggling to me that so many kids don't even know about Pearl Harbor and what it was and what it meant," said Hess, 78, as he sat in Jack Hanna's Newport barbershop working out the last details for today's annual memorial service.

It's one of the few Pearl Harbor celebrations in Delaware today. In contrast, Americans gather by the thousands on Sept. 11, a tragedy that is fresher in the minds of most. Comparisons with 9/11, though, bother some WWII veterans who point out that the terrorist attacks of 2001 did not thrust the United States into a two-front war for survival.

Pearl Harbor, they argue, was a more seminal moment in U.S. history.

"We have to keep this going. If we give it up, who's going to carry it on? Who's going to take the time to remember that this was a world event, not just one involving the United States?" Hess said. "No young people seem to want to carry this on, to replace us, so we keep doing it. Someone has to do it."


Peter Schrag of the Sacramento Bee remembers.http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/13949593p-14784246c.html

Ken Masugi reflects. http://www.claremont.org/localliberty/archives/004337.html

The Houston Chronicle highlights a forgotten hero. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3508036.html

Here's the White House National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day proclamation. May be offensive to Liberals: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/11/20051128-2.html

Did you know the USS Arizona Memorial is sinking? There's an effort underway to replace it.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1118nepearlharbor18.html

Donald Sensing pays tribute and has photos of his visit to the USS Arizona memorial.
http://www.donaldsensing.com/index.php/2005/12/07/remember-pearl-harbor/

At least one American citizen, Richard Kotoshirodo, assisted the Japanese espionage cell that gathered information used to plan the attack. http://www.michellemalkin.com/subversives.htm

The Niihau Island attack occurred a few hours after the Oahu raid.
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/michellemalkin/2004/08/10/12647.html


W. Thomas Smith, Jr. collects remembrances from some famous WWII veterans. http://www.reportingwar.com/wts120205.shtml

See also After the Day of Infamy, an archive of man-on-the-street interviews conducted following the Pearl Harbor attack. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afcphhtml/afcphhome.html

Jon Ham at the John Locke Foundation posts old newspaper front pages from Dec. 7, 1941. http://www.johnlocke.org/lockerroom/lockerroom.html?id=6180

Mike's Noise links to audio files of Pearl Harbor day radio reports. http://mikesnoise.typepad.com/noisepage/2005/12/pearl_harbor_bl.html

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Sacred Cow Burgers spoofs: If Pearl Harbor happened today... http://www.sacredcowburgers.com/fresh/showpics.cgi?if_it_happened_today

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Related:

Check out A Different Christmas Poem posted at Blackfive. http://www.blackfive.net/main/2005/12/a_different_chr.html#more

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Previous:

Remembering Pearl Harbor http://michellemalkin.com/archives/000958.htm
An overlooked great American http://michellemalkin.com/archives/002765.htm

 

[Wild Root]

Look Bob, I wanted this to be a polite and simple memorial to our vets.

I am young but, I could tell you a lot of things about this history stuff. I just don't want a political debate to come of this thread.

Thank you. Paddy, lock it down.

=WR=

 

[Wild Root]

I give up! I'm taking my toys, and hats and going home. Mods, pelase feel free to dlete my account. This place has become a playground leftists, sissies, and bitter old men wth too much time and disposable income on their hands. And no I won't let the door hit me in the butt on the way out. There is no door, just a moldly old draft coming from stage left.
Dusty
Oh well, one last look at the toys for you newbies.
http://public.fotki.com/formerblueangel/felt_fedoras/

Ok, what did I say? If you feel you want to go, I can't stop ya. Bob just comes in here to stir the pot. This was intended to be a reverent homage to Pearl Harbor, to those who died in this day 64 years ago. Pleas, if you want to discuss political sides of this day, take it to the Observation bar thank you.

=WR=

PS. Bob, I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m not judging your intelligence, but, bringing racial stuff in to this thread is just not cool with me. I under stand the 1940?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s era better then most here.

 

[Michael Mallory]

I didn't plan it this way, but I had lunch today with a wonderful old gentleman who was interned in Manzanar during his late teenaged years simply because he happened to be a Japanese American living on the West Coast. Let's hope this aspect of our home-grown infamy never returns.

 

[Mycroft]

I didn't plan it this way, but I had lunch today with a wonderful old gentleman who was interned in Manzanar during his late teenaged years simply because he happened to be a Japanese American living on the West Coast. Let's hope this aspect of our home-grown infamy never returns.

I am with you on that one.

 

[boomerchop]

Thanks Wild Root

I appreciate you remembering those members of the greatest generation who served, particularly at Pearl Harbor on this 64th anniversary.

Sadly, it is a tendency of mankind to forget as time goes on. What about Remember the Alamo, Remember the Maine, etc? What days of the year were those? I myself admittedly, do not know. I think we are doomed to forget, and sometime in the 22nd century or so, even 9/11 will probably be an unremarked day.

The controversy created by some in this thread is unfortunate. However, time does march on, old enemies become trusted allies, and we as a nation need to accept that and move on, and by and large we have.

So a salute to our fathers and mothers, uncles, cousins and brothers and anyone else who was a member of that greatest of all generations. We can learn alot from them. Let's honor, cherish and learn everything we can from them while we are in their presence.

Peace all,
Paul Webb
LCDR, SC, USN (Ret)