Day of Infamy

My mother was a young girl during World War II. She remembers learning silhouettes of Japanese planes in school, in case there was an inland attack. She always stressed the importance of December 7, 1941.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared it a "day of infamy". The attack was planned carefully on a Sunday morning, to catch America at its lowest point of attention.

Over two hours, chaos reigned. Airfields and shipyards were attacked. A bomb managed to detonate the magazine of the USS Arizona, blowing her out of the water and cracking her in half. 1,177 men go to a watery grave in this one instance alone.

We will never know all the stories of fear, courage, life, and death of this day until we all cross over. The death toll of this day reaches 2,390.

Please don't forget the sacrifice of the brave men and women who stood as our vanguard in the Pacific. They took the best shot our enemy could give, and within months the U.S. was taking the battle across the ocean.

I was privileged to visit the USS Arizona Memorial on our honeymoon in 1998. It was a honor to reflect on what Pearl Harbor represents for our country.

Here's an article on MSNBC discussing the living Pearl Harbor survivors reflecting on the 65th anniversary of the attacks. You can find a timeline of the day here. Breakpoint has a poignant commentary, with more links at the bottom of the page.

I, for one, will never forget.