In Our View: Never Forget Pearl Harbor

It remains, 75 years later, a date that lives in infamy.

Yet while the words spoken by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt continue to resonate as some of the most famous in American oratory, the entirety of Roosevelt’s message to Congress often is lost to history. After opening with, “Yesterday, Dec. 7th, 1941 — a date that will live in infamy,” Roosevelt later declared, “No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.”

The occasion was an attack by the Empire of Japan upon the United States’ Pacific naval fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, resulting in the deaths of more than 2,400 Americans and the wounding of more than 1,000 others. The attack triggered the United States’ entry into World War II, which culminated more than three years later with absolute victory over Japan in the Pacific theater and against German-led Axis forces in Europe.

That is why we recognize the 75th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor ambush today, acknowledging the world-altering events that unfolded as a generation of Americans hardened by the Great Depression and steeled by love of country banded together to triumph through the most severe military conflict the world has ever seen. The achievement earned the victors the moniker of “The Greatest Generation,” an honorific earned through a galvanized sense of national purpose that likely has not been seen before nor since.

Several local commemorations of the Pearl Harbor attack will take place today. The Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors will hold a remembrance at 9:30 a.m. at 40 et 8 Bingo Hall in Hazel Dell; the city of Washougal will host a commemoration at 9 a.m. at city hall; and other events throughout the metro area are scheduled (http://tinyurl.com/zyzn8hz).

More than seven decades after the Pearl Harbor attack, it remains essential to recognize the significant role the event has played in American history. And with fewer and fewer members of The Greatest Generation left to represent to that history, it remains essential for younger Americans to learn about that significance. World War II had an impact upon the nation’s psyche, ethos, and sense of self, establishing this country as a protector of freedom and as a military and economic superpower.

Perhaps most important, the war demonstrated, as Roosevelt put it, the righteous might of the American people when brought together through a shared purpose. That might remains powerful, even if it is weakened at times by fractures and fissures. Because of those fractures, which were particularly evident through the presidential campaign, we use the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack for multiple purposes.

One is to honor those who were killed or maimed in the Sunday morning ambush. Another is to examine how the attack unleashed far-reaching consequences that dramatically altered the course of human history. And yet another is to reflect upon the shared duty that encompassed the United States and her citizens in the wake of the bombing. Many American heroes emerged out of the Pearl Harbor attack and its aftermath, with those heroes eventually defeating an imperialist regime in Japan and a fascist despot in Germany.

And so we pause today to remember a cataclysmic event in this nation’s history, 75 years after a date that still lives in infamy.