Today is December 7th, which is the 82nd anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.



USS Arizona



Draft No. 1 page 1 of FDR's speech to Congress on December 8th 1941. Corrections are in his handwriting. More information about the history of the speech here. Interesting reading.

Film of speech here.

Radio announcements of the attack on Pearl Harbor here.

USS Arizona survivor tells his story. He was on the fantail when it exploded and one of the divers inside the ship removing the dead.

USS Arizona survivor who finally talks about his experience 75 years later writing a book about it. He had major burns on his skin after the explosion and he pulled his burning skin off his arms to continue firing his machine gun at the Japanese.

Ironically for me, I am in the air over the Pacific, returning from a two week sightseeing tour of Japan.
One of the last places we visited was Ground Zero in Hiroshima.
The solemn feeling I felt in the Peace Museum, was similar to how I felt, decades ago, visiting the USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor.
The Japanese people are wonderful. Culturally, many chose to look forward, rather than to the past regarding the devastation.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2023 04:52AM by Ken Sp..

My father enlisted the next day on December 8, 1941 at Whitehall Street in lower Manhattan.

He was in the Army Air Force for the entire war ferrying DC3s to various war zones via Nova Scotia/Greenland/Iceland on the northern route and Puerto Rico/Brazil/Azores on the southern route.

Thanks for reminding us of the many sacrifices so many made.

Dare I say the obvious, freedom is never free.

Be well.

Rob

A good day to watch Tora! Tora! Tora!.

[youtu.be]

My aunt was born Dec 7, 1919, and got married on her 21st birthday, Dec 7, 1940. Who knew?
==

Also today, December 7, 1787, Delaware became the first state.

Back in high school, a local radio station (WMMR in Philadelphia) used to have their annual Xmas party on December 7th. In the radio promos, whenever they mentioned the date, they'd always follow it with the clip of FDR saying "... a date which will live in infamy..."

Quote
Ken Sp.
Ironically for me, I am in the air over the Pacific, returning from a two week sightseeing tour of Japan.
One of the last places we visited was Ground Zero in Hiroshima.
The solemn feeling I felt in the Peace Museum, was similar to how I felt, decades ago, visiting the USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor.
The Japanese people are wonderful. Culturally, many chose to look forward, rather than to the past regarding the devastation.

I visited the Peace Museum in Nagasaki earlier this year. Very solemn, very powerful. I've also visited the USS Arizona memorial. I agree with your assessment of the Japanese people. I've been to Japan 4 times, and absolutely love the country and its people.

It’s good to pause for a moment to think of the men who died or were injured that day and what we still owe them today.

There is only a single USS Arizona survivor alive, Lou Center, now 101 years old.

---

“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” -- François de La Rochefoucauld

"Those who cannot accept the past are condemned to revise it." -- Geo. Mathias

The German word for contraceptive is “Schwangerschaftsverhütungsmittel”. By the time you finished saying that, it’s too late

I always let me kids know "today is dec 7" and "today is june 6" for pearl harbor and D-Day... but think there are other days in WW2 that prob don't get the same recognition.

I mean they have all had movies -- midway, battle of the bulge, iwo jima -- but the since they are multiple days, maybe lost.

I don't know if any one of them might be the most important... D Day I would assume.

---

Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

It’s good to pause for a moment to think of the men who died or were injured that day and what we still owe them today.


Even as a vet, I don't think much about 7 DEC except for the above.

I'm over the infamy part, and I've let that go quite some time ago.

The sacrifices made, the bravery demonstrated are the only things that hold meaning for me.

That's not quite accurate.

I don't ever think of our losses at Pearl without thinking about the tens of thousands of civilian lives lost in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

---

I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.