My father was the best man I ever knew. He passed away on December 15, 2006. I’ve met presidents, television stars and other lesser luminaries and celebrities but no one has measured up to my father. Dad was honest, patriotic, kind, loving and levelheaded. He taught me to be truthful, even if it cost me. Dad always said, “Honesty is the best policy” to which I would respond, “That may be true, but insanity is a better defense!” I learned a lot from my Dad. He wasn’t a “teller”; he was doer, an example to my sister and me. He never swore, never uttered a racist statement, lived a life based on Christian values and not just on Sundays, as well as showed charity in words and deeds to those less fortunate than we were.
Patriotism for my Dad was something you lived, not just something you espoused. He willingly gave years of his life to our country by serving in Korea with the US Army. We raised and lowered Old Glory every day on the flagpole outside our suburban St. Paul home. He took me to vote with him. In my younger days, he took me inside the voting booth and explained the importance and process of voting. He told me who the candidates were and why he was voting the way he did. Dad voted for the person, not the Party. That spirit has been lost in these modern times for lots of Americans, to the detriment of the nation.
Dad participated in every veteran’s event there was. He celebrated Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day of course, but he also commemorated other events like Armed Forces Day which takes place every year on the third Saturday in May. He likewise remembered Pearl Harbor.
On December 7th, 1941, at 7:55am Hawaiian time (11:55 Central Time) the American naval installation at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii was attacked. Six carriers of the Japanese Imperial Navy carried out the assault, along with a number of mini, one man, submarines that infiltrated the harbor. There were two sorties of Japanese planes that launched the attack, 750 planes in all, without warning that Sunday morning in December. The seventy-five minute savage sneak offensive destroyed 300 American aircraft, many of which were parked wingtip to wingtip to protect against sabotage. That made it difficult to get them off the airstrips and into the sky. It also made them sitting ducks for Japanese bombers. There were several warships damaged or destroyed, the most famous of which was the USS Arizona. More than 2400 Americans lost their lives with another almost 1300 wounded.
The American losses weren’t greater because the aircraft carriers and some other ships weren’t in port. They were out on maneuvers or patrol and thus were spared. Unfortunately, that American flotilla was too far away to be of any assistance in repelling the Japanese attack. The sailors and airmen of the American Navy and Army (the Air Force was founded in September of 1947 as a separate Service, until then it was Army fliers – like George McGovern in Europe and Navy/Marine fliers – like Joe Foss in the Pacific) who fought back valiantly, but vainly, shooting down 29 Japanese planes and damaging another 19 so badly they had to be pushed into the sea once they had limped back onto their carriers.
There were 102 ships stationed at Pearl Harbor; 69 received no damage at all, 15 had minor damage, 11 sustained major damage and 7 ships were sunk at Pearl Harbor but only 2 were a total loss, the USS Arizona, and the USS Oklahoma; for those of you doing the math, the remaining ships were out to sea. Within six months the entire fleet, sans the Arizona and Oklahoma, were in full repair and in action against the Japanese. That’s because the Japanese didn’t bomb the dry docks and repair sheds. Consequently, while the attack was a psychological blow, it was ultimately ineffectual militarily. In fact, it backfired for the purposes of the Japanese. Prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States’ citizenry was ambivalent about World War Two. In American public opinion, war was “their problem” over in Europe and Asia. However, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor the American populace was enraged and jumped into the war effort with both feet.
More than 900 men are still entombed in the bowels of the USS Arizona. Sailors from the USS Arizona had a unique opportunity after the war. The surviving crew of the USS Arizona could choose where they’d like to be buried when they finally died. Depending on their war record, Arlington National Cemetery was an option as a final resting place. Sailors from the USS Arizona also could choose to have their ashes spread over the site where the ship lies sunk under the water off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii. Another option was to be buried at sea, in the USS Arizona itself. At their request, forty-four USS Arizona survivors were placed inside the ship, once they later passed away, allowing them to rest in peace with their comrades in arms who died in combat on December 7th. Fire Control Chief Petty Officer Lauren Bruner died in September of 2019, just shy of his 99th birthday, and was the last surviving crew member to be laid to rest with his shipmates in the USS Arizona. Dave Conlin, an underwater archeologist with the National Park Service and a scuba diver, is one of the few people who have been inside the USS Arizona. His role is to help the National Park Service ensure that the USS Arizona remains intact as a tomb for the brave souls who died and went down with their ship on December 7th.
As of this writing, there is a single survivor of the USS Arizona left alive, Quartermaster Third Class Lou Center. He’s 101 years old and remembers December 7, 1941, like it was yesterday.
In the summer of 2008, I was in Hawaii for my 20th wedding anniversary. My wife was along naturally, as were our kids (both in high school then) and their godfather, Doug Ellwein. One of the things we did was to visit the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. The memorial site is accessible only by launch and often the ocean is too choppy for tourists to get out there safely by small boat. We were lucky, the weather was splendid. There were twenty of us, sixteen Americans of various ages and four Japanese senior citizens – obviously two married couples traveling together.
Before boarding the launch, there was a short film – ten or fifteen minutes – that is an excellent mini history of the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the film, a member of the National Park Service talked about the dos and don’ts of visiting the memorial. (Pearl Harbor is an active naval base but it’s the National Park Service that oversees the memorial.) Once you’re on the memorial, there really isn’t much to see. The funnel of the USS Arizona is the only observable portion of the ship under the water. There is a memorial gallery with the names of the fallen sailors etc. Even so, there is a majesty and a crushing somberness to the place.
The four elderly Japanese were chattering away, taking pictures, pointing and laughing. I don’t speak Japanese, but it was obvious to me that they were reliving their own or their fathers’ glorious attack on the United States. I was so incensed; I was going to throw them in the ocean. I’m not speaking metaphorically. I was going to throw those people into the ocean and allow the souls of our dearly departed sailors a modicum of satisfaction. Before I could, my son Spenser got in my face and said, “Dad, whatever you’re thinking about doing, don’t do it.” Another tourist, an American woman in her thirties, stepped up and started giving those Japanese visitors “What For”. They didn’t comprehend the words, but they heard her tone, read the facial expression and understood the index finger poking them in the chest. Those Japanese, who a second before had been reveling in the glories of the Nipponese Armed Forces and the destruction it wrought, looked at the crowd of American faces. It was like the moment when Ola Ray realizes that Michael Jackson is a zombie in the video for Thriller. They shut up and I avoided a prison sentence.
World War Two was famous for many things but one of them was the utilization of popular culture, movies and songs, to mobilize the home front to support the war. One such song was “Let’s Remember Pearl Harbor”:
“Let’s Remember Pearl Harbor
As we go to meet the foe
Let’s remember Pearl Harbor
As we did the Alamo
We will always remember how they died for Liberty.
Let’s remember Pearl Harbor
And go on to victory…”
Pearl Harbor was the Greatest Generation’s 9/11. It was a tragedy that led to greater bloodshed, loss and hardship for millions of Americans and Japanese alike before the war was over. For a long time there were commemorations, readings of those who died that day at Pearl Harbor as well as other tributes and remembrances. Now, it is just another date on the calendar for most Americans. I wonder how long it will be before 9/11 suffers the same fate, no longer a defining moment but rather a dusty date of historical trivia.
December 7th is Pearl Harbor Day. Let’s remember it, commemorate those who bravely fought off a dastardly surprise attack and honor those who gave their lives in the defense of this great nation. December the seventh is not just another day on the calendar.