Maybe not so much for you folks over on the Continent, but for us over here, it's sort of a big deal.
I wasn't around when the bombs fell, but I am interested in that part of our history so I think back about Pearl Harbor often.
A school visit I made to the Arizona Memorial can be found here, and a picture tour of the USS Missouri and USS Bowfin museums can be found here.
I gotta say, the Arizona Memorial is not one of those tourist attractions where you go and enjoy yourself.
The mood is somber and it wouldn't be what I call fun.
It's a bit different from reading books about it, when you're actually standing on the place where it all happened.
Over on Ford Island, they just finished up the Pacific Aviation Museum and they've restored the control tower where you can still find bullet holes from the strafing.
Surreal.
I don't know what it's like to live under martial law and I don't want to know but it's interesting to think about tanks rumbling through downtown Honolulu and barbed wire lining the beaches.
Sort of reminds us over here that we are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and if I'm not mistaken, a strategic first strike target.
Being home to the Pacific Fleet and all.
No one seemed to think about all that back in 1941.
When that first bomb fell though, it changed everything.
Mobilized a country and turned the United States into the world power we are today.
It cost us a pretty penny.
If not for a victory at the Battle of Midway, most folks here have no idea how close they came to speaking Japanese, for at the time the Japanese made up roughly one third of the Hawaiian population.
Gee just think, I would've been a really bad Keirin racer.
Anyways, take some time today to remember the folks that gave their lives on this day.
Remember the folks who sacrificed from that day on to preserve the freedoms we all enjoy.
Let's hope that days like that day are few and far between.
Pearl Harbor 2011
5 comments:
When we visited the Memorial, I found the entire place pretty surreal. I mean the atmosphere is somber enough, but when I saw that oil leaking out a few drops at a time, it became as if the whole site was somehow alive and just aching to tell the story of those heros who were lost.
Thanks for the reminder.
Amen
Ditto Big Oak's comment. The Arizona survivors are now down to around 100 or so.
"The mood is somber and it wouldn't be what I call fun" I can totally relate, I've had the same experience at many battlefields but most notably at Little Big Horn. Maybe one day I'll get to visit the Arizona Memorial.
As a post script, I read in the paper today that a USS Utah survivor who recently passed away has his remains interred by Navy divers on the wreckage.
I took a moment this morning to think about that.
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