Do you remember
this tragic day? I was only 4 years old
so I cannot recall any specific events, but I found this article from the American Thinker, December 7, 2013,
edition:
It's been 72 years since the attack on Pearl Harbor,
but for survivors, the events of that day are seared into their memory, making
the experience fresh and vital.
This is important
because the number of those who lived through the attack gets smaller every
anniversary.
Each of us probably has some tie to that black
day of American history, to Pearl Harbor, although the lines may be faint and
the chances of tracing it directly dim with each year.
On the day Japanese
bombers struck the
battleships lined up like sitting ducks in Pearl Harbor, my then 16-year-old father
was hunting on the farm on Sunshine Bottom (a narrow strip of Missouri River
valley just south of the South Dakota line).
"I came home
about dark and Dad told me the news," my father said.
Eventually, he would
join the other 16 million Americans who served in World War II.
On that same day about
a hundred miles or so away, my then 12-year-old mother looked up to see her
mother react to the announcer over the battery-powered radio in the sitting
room. She remembers my grandma running in tears to the field to tell my
grandpa.
And just like the
terrible news delivered to so many other American families throughout the way -
416,837 killed or missing - it hit close to home.
The Pearl Harbor
disaster was one of the first truly national tragedies. The technology of radio
helped spread the news so that within hours, virtually everyone in America knew
what happened. That sense of sharing stood us in good stead as the tremendous
sacrifices demanded by victory were borne with remarkable equanimity.
It was a different
America then:
My family's connections back
to the war that defined the "Greatest Generation" in Tom Brokaw's
phrase don't carry with them remarkable and harrowing tales, although I believe
the evidence of valor is implicit. The tales may be there, in shadows of
history or memory, I don't know.
But that's OK, for
these are my connections to great events.
What I think is
important is for each of us to remember the sacrifices great and small that the
"Greatest Generation" made, and to honor those who served then and in
each of the other times the country has called.
We owe them to never
forget.
We are losing 2,000
World War II veterans every day. By remembering Pearl Harbor, we grant each of
those who pass on a little bit of immortality. They, and their accomplishments
will remain alive as long as we keep faith with history and remember them.
Read
more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/12/never_forget_december_7_1941.html#ixzz2mu0mJHbX
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
I hope that
you will find these words thought-provoking and make you appreciative of the ones who
were there on that fateful day.
Please share with readers of this blog your thoughts about
December 7, 1941, by posting your comments in this blog or emailing me at
glynjordan@gmail.com.
Thanks, Glyn
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