The Attack on Pearl Harbor - December 7, 1941

[Aristaeus]

Dec. 8, 1941

[video=youtube;M0PW1Jhuu2Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0PW1Jhuu2Q&feature=related[/video]

 

[PADDY]

Rest in Peace.

 

[scotrace]

Remember Pearl Harbor.

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[AmateisGal]

We have a beautiful Veterans Memorial Garden in my city, and I'm fortunate to volunteer on its advisory board. Every year we have a Pearl Harbor Day program. This year I led it and played a bunch of radio broadcasts from that day. We didn't have as big a crowd as last year, but that could be because it was very, very cold, or perhaps because last year was a big anniversary - the 75th - and thus more important to commemorate for some people.

Regardless, I do my small bit to keep this memory alive. I wonder, though, will we still commemorate it like we do now in 50 years? Now it still gets attention on the news and social media. But when that generation is gone and even their children are gone, will we remember?

 

[LizzieMaine]

And remember the rape of Nanking. And everything else that The Empire of Japan did to China.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Wreckage of Japanese Aichi D3A1 "Val" dive bomber (AII-250 from aircraft carrier Kaga) shot down by a P-40 flown by 2Lt George Welch. AII-250 crashed outside of Wheeler Field in my Dad's neighborhood in Wahiawa. The crash site was on the next street from my Dad's house. Supposedly my uncle recovered a wing tip from the wreckage.

Illustration depicting the shootdown of AII-250

1. Wheeler Field
2. My Dad's house
3. Approximate crash site of AII-250

 

[Big J]

@LizzieMaine, Absolutely. Our Russian and Chinese allies paid an extreme price for our collective victory.
Rest assured, the Chinese and Koreans are never, ever going to forget.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Tomorrow is the 80th anniversary. A big commemoration was planned at Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately, we have a big “Kona low” sitting on the state. Torrential rains are coming down and the wind is high. Last night much of O’ahu lost power. It is supposed to continue through tomorrow. Not sure how/if they are adjusting their plans. My wife and I are planning to get up early tomorrow to watch the ceremony live. My wife’s father was a Marine Corps Corsair fighter pilot in the pacific during the war. He grew up in St Louis and enlisted after PH. Since we are pretty much socked-in due to the weather, today Mrs Tiki and I are having a champagne brunch and listening to my 1940s/WWII playlist. My sis-in-law is a flight attendant and day before yesterday she had a WWII vet on her flight to Honolulu. 97 years old. He was coming for the ceremony. She reports that the whole plane gave him an ovation. Warms my heart.

 

[HOP UP]

"My sis-in-law is a flight attendant and day before yesterday she had a WWII vet on her flight to Honolulu. 97 years old. He was coming for the ceremony. She reports that the whole plane gave him an ovation. Warms my heart."

Best post EVER.

Never FORGET.

 

[Doctor Strange]

My dad was in the Army Air Corps. Already 21 years old, raised Jewish in NYC and aware of what was happening to Jews in Europe, and knowing that the US would ultimately join the war, he'd already enlisted and finished boot camp before Pearl Harbor. He was in the first wave sent to Hawaii to rebuild:



He began as a B-17 mechanic, but quickly transitioned to photography, since he'd already been an amateur photobug before the war. He counted himself lucky that he never saw action. He ultimately made sergeant and ended up running a darkroom staffed by civilian women in Gulfport, MS:



And he then had an over 50-year-career as a professional photographer after the war:



Oh, and my mom was also a sergeant in the Marines, and then ultimately my dad's partner in the photo biz:



Yeah, we're talking serious Greatest Generation!

Alas, both have been gone for over a decade now, but their war service and exemplary lives afterward is worth recalling.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We're following the story in real time in the "Era Day By Day" thread, courtesy of the Brooklyn Eagle and the New York Daily News!

 

[crawlinkingsnake]

My father was in his 2nd year at West Virginia University. While walking up the steps to his dorm someone said that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. His comment was, "where in the hell is Pearl Harbor". Well.... of course, he and the rest of the world soon knew. He enlisted as part of the United States Army, 3rd Division Infantry, landed in North Africa, invaded Sicily, Anzio, and St Tropez France, Colmar Pocket before ending the war in Germany.

He's been gone now nearly 7 years. But I often ask him just how he did it? How did he survive? He would simply say, "you did what you had to do". Greatest generation.... without question.

 

[alanwake82]

It was one of the most interesting events of WWll, but sadly people these day forget that event.

 

[Harp]

Tomorrow is the 80th anniversary. A big commemoration was planned at Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately, we have a big “Kona low” sitting on the state. Torrential rains are coming down and the wind is high. Last night much of O’ahu lost power. It is supposed to continue through tomorrow. ... Since we are pretty much socked-in due to the weather, today Mrs Tiki and I are having a champagne brunch and listening to my 1940s/WWII playlist. .

Like the way you live bro. Catch a wave out at Kaneohe for me.

 

[GHT]

It was a quiet and beautiful Sunday morning at Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor – home of America’s U.S Pacific Fleet. Many of the 60,000 Sailors and other military personnel stationed there were still in their bunks resting after a Saturday night on the town. Some were eating breakfast; a few were on duty, others just straggling in after a long night. What appeared to be another beautiful day in paradise would quickly turn into a nightmare.

Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who planned the attack on Pearl Harbour would reportedly write in his diary, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

To Winston Churchill the Japanese attack on United States naval forces at Pearl Harbour was one of the greatest days of the most terrible war in Great Britain’s history. He was appalled, calculating, and exhilarated perhaps in equal measures.

He was dining at Chequers, the country retreat of prime ministers, when he heard the news. His guests were US Ambassador Gil Winant and Averell Harriman, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s special envoy to Europe.

A butler brought in a portable radio for the party to listen to the BBC Home Service. When the attack was confirmed Churchill leapt to his feet and said he must declare war on Japan at once. His guests dissuaded him from this impetuous act, historian Walter Reid recounts in “Churchill 1940-1945,” his book about wartime relations among the Allied leaders.

Today, very few Pearl Harbour survivors remain as our last living links with our history and the beginnings of America’s greatest generation. Most of these brave Americans are now in their late 80's and 90's. Today, we salute their valour and sacrifice, and we honour their fighting spirit.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]