A date which will live in infamy...

I remember the first time I made a port call in Pearl.

I was on a boomer back then. The few times we were allowed to pull in, they stuck us over at Ford Island, way the heck away from everyone else except for Missouri; we were generally berthed right near her - where she used to be berthed, anyway. (An experience that followed me on the Sacramento, where we were usually anchored out to sea...something about so many thousands of tons of ordnance or something. :confused: ;) ) Transportation was erratic and it was a real PITA to cross the bridge to the mainland on foot. I spent some time walking around the island once.

I noticed odd things - weird (to me) damage to the pier we always seemed to be at, and what looked strangely like bullet holes all over the old unused runway and some of the WWII-era structures...not to mention the plaques on our little-used pier detailing which ships had been berthed there during the attack and what had become of them. I wasn't much of a history buff and didn't learn until years later that these were, in fact, bullet holes left from the attack that had never been repaired. Being far more interested in the war in the Pacific these days, I've seen much evidence of war all over Guam, dove on the wrecks of a maru and a shot-up Zeke, visited landing sites and old emplacements, seen the sun rise over Mt. Suribachi from the distance (we couldn't actually go to the island unfortunately)...even stumbled over UXO and debris from the era in my own theater of operations. :rolleyes: None of it moved me as deeply as what I saw in Pearl Harbor and whenever I think of WWII, the first thing I think of is that runway. (The second is that Zeke. I recall the canopy being open. I sure hope the pilot made it out of that bird.)

Everyone owes it to themselves to visit the Arizona at least once in their lives. I'll leave it at that. Whenever we entered or left Pearl we rendered honors to her. These were probably the only times I didn't mind being up on deck in my whites and snapping salutes.
 
My Dad was at Pearl on Dec. 7th also. He is gone now, but the sacrifice of that generation leaves me with feelings of deepest respect & hope that the present generations will not let the sacrifices of that generation be in vain.
 
It is with shame that the Japanese have to admit that Hawaii is their #1 favorite holiday destination, and yet they make up less than 1% of the visitors to the Pearl Harbor Memorial.

Thats the weird part. Japanese people seem to know that they were in World War Two, but they cant seem to remember anyone else being involved.
They somehow get things confused. They know that they won (?) and that someone else started the war and somehow, for some strange reason, someone dropped atomic bombs on Japan. They know that they have had peace for 60 years and the United States should learn from their peaceful example. (?) They just have no idea how it is that they came to have peace or who kept that peace or why it is that they werent all "managed" the way they would have "managed" us if they had won the war.

Here's another interesting fact: When Japanese people are asked about the outcome of World War 2, they are all glad that they lost.

The part that bothers me is the fact that they just flatly refuse to say "Yes, we attacked America without cause. Yes, America forgave and rebuilt us even though we KNOW we would not have done the same."

They like to say how much they love MacArthur.
I say "why?"
they say " Oh, he rebuilt Japan and gave us democracy."
I say "no, that was America. MacArthur was just doing what we told him to."

That's just something they cannot accept or admit. Their fragile tiny egos just cannot deal with that, 60 years later, it's still too much.
 
Dan,
The General,did NOT do what we told him too.Read HIS autobiography,you will be impressed & surprised!
THE DUCK! :cool:
PS-YOU will drive yourself crazy trying to understand NIPPON,THE FRENCH ARE MODEST COMPARED TO THE JAPANESE!! YOU & EVERYONE ELSE ARE GAJIN(??)!NIPPONESE are "SUPERIOR"!!Think I'm kidding??I'm not!! Racism,HA!
They have practised it for a looooong time & still do.Example! M/A visited JAPAN for DEMOS & competition,goes to a nightspot,refused enterence,REASON??GAJIN,Japanese only.
 
Back in my youth a couple decades ago, I practiced Japanese karate and had some contact with Japanese forign exchange students who also trained. Their opinion that they were superior to white people was very ill concealed and it was an interesting experience to be on the receiving end of that type of thing.

I hope those guys made it back to Japan in one piece. They were tough but not that tough, and in some parts of town the "attitude" wouldn't have gone over.
 
Met my wife on Sunday December 7, 1980. Brought her home a dozen roses last night.

A model ( still in the wrapper ) of the Battleship Arizona sits up in our living room, She likes to say I said something about that being the day the Arizona was sunk, and so was I.

( I let her: I'm not that sturpid to try and contradict her... )
 
Unfortunately Dec. 7th is being forgotten by the youth, myself included. Whenever it comes around and there is something on tv about it I kick myself. I guess that a generation that has to go to their grandparents to find any direct link to WWII cares less than someone who heard about it on the news or grew up hearing about it.

Tora! Tora! Tora! was on yesterday on the history channel. My Japanese teacher told us about it once. I like the fact that Americans produced the American side of the story and Japanese produced the Japanese side. DIJ, is this movie available in Japan? Depending on the school I think it would be a great movie to show your students.
 
Man, they don't allow anyone to discuss anything "unpleasant" about history in school.
Their explanation " Well, how do you know it's true? Maybe you just made it up!"

They dont seem to trust or believe anything. (Least of all something as unpleasant as Nanjing or Pearl Harbor.)
 
I used to live on Ford Island in the mid 90s. As a matter of fact I lived right next to the Admiral's pier which was coincidentally maybe 50-70 yards from the Arizona.

For those of you that do not know, Ford Island is the island in the middle of Pearl Harbor and had the airfield that was bombed (as were others at Kaneohe and Hickham). It was an eerie place. Very little was done to rebuild the place after the war. Many of the structures there stilll bore the scars of strafing runs, bomb craters, and shrapnel. I guess eerie isn't the right term; I'd say that it was ghostly. A lot of things happened there...details, I mean, that didn't make any of the History Channel's programs or our schools' history textbooks. I had the honor if speaking with a few of the men who survived that day. We were standing along the shore near the swiftboats launch and looking out on Battleship Row and they related to me personal anecdotes of that day. The stories they told were horrifying. And the stories they told of the days following the attack were just as horrifying and heartbreaking. I was about 23 at the time - a period in which you tend to feel ten feet tall and bulletproof. Standing there and listening to these elderly gentlemen talk to me, I felt like I was able to catcha glimpse of the carnage of that day. All the ruins and scarred buildings... I was able to put a human face to what I previously saw as simply facinating/interesting curiosities. I wish I could remember their names. I owe them my thanks - for their service, and for opening my eyes.

BTW, we referred to the oil drops issuing from the wreckage of the Arizona as the "tears of the dead."
 
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