Never Pearl Harbor

Dec. 7 is a famous day in history. Sixty-five years ago, Japanese planes staged a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, a U.S. naval base in Hawaii.

At school I learned the war on the U.S. had begun since the attack. Then Japan took the road to hell. Japanese soldiers dreamed a victory over the U.S., but in fact it was a tragedy that came true to them.

Isoroku Yamamoto, a Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the first four years of World War II, and ex-student at Harvard, commanded the attack. However, he is said to have been against the attack on the U.S. He knew the military power of the U.S., and didn't think Japan would win the U.S.

That event at Pearl Harbor reminds me of fruitlessness of war. That is the tragedy not only for the U.S. people, but also the Japanese citizens. I do not want either to justify or criticize the sudden and cruel attack on the Pearl Harbor. I just want to keep in mind that event.

Thursday, December 7, 2006
The Washington Post

The attack killed more than 2,400 Americans, including 1,177 on the USS Arizona battleship; sank or damaged 21 ships; and destroyed 188 aircraft. The next day, Dec. 8, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. The United States had entered World War II. At Pearl Harbor, a Solemn Remembrance500 WWII Veterans Mark 65th Anniversary in Gathering That Could Be Last for ManyAssociated PressFriday, December 8, 2006.

.....PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii, Dec. 7 -- One by one, survivors from ships sunk 65 years ago Thursday in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor laid wreaths under life-preserver rings honoring their ships. Nearly 500 survivors bowed their heads at 7:55 a.m., the minute planes began bombing the harbor in a surprise attack that thrust the United States into World War II.


..... "America in an instant became the land of the indivisible," said former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw, the author of "The Greatest Generation," who spoke at the shoreside ceremony. "There are so many lessons from that time for our time, none greater than the idea of one nation greater than the sum of its parts."

Many were treating the gathering as their last, uncertain whether they would be alive or healthy enough to travel to Hawaii for the next big memorial ceremony, the 70th anniversary.
"It is because of you and people like you that we have the freedoms we enjoy today," Capt. Taylor Skardon said after relating each ship's story at the end of the ceremony.

A priest gave a Hawaiian blessing and Marines performed a rifle salute. For many World War II veterans, the visit to the attack site could be their last. "Sixty-five years later, there's not too many of us left," said Don Stratton, a seaman 1st class who was aboard the USS Arizona on Dec. 7, 1941. "In another five years I'll be 89. The good Lord willing, I might be able to make it. If so, I'll probably be here. I might not even be around. Who knows? Only the good Lord knows." Stratton and other survivors were boarding a boat to the white memorial straddling the sunken hull of the Arizona, where they were going to lay wreaths in honor of the dead.

"We thank those who lost their lives 65 years ago, and we honor the survivors and their families who are with us here today," said Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle. The Arizona sank in less than nine minutes after a 1,760-pound armor-piercing bomb struck the battleship's deck and hit its ammunition magazine, igniting flames that engulfed it. More people were killed on the Arizona that day than on any other ship. In all, 1,177 servicemen perished, or about 80 percent of the crew. Altogether, the attack killed 2,390 Americans and injured 1,178.

Twelve ships sank and nine vessels were heavily damaged. More than 320 U.S. aircraft were destroyed or heavily damaged by the time the invading planes were done sweeping over military bases from Wheeler Field to Kaneohe Naval Air Station.

......Japanese veterans who participated in the attack as navigators and pilots will also pay their respects, offering flowers at the Arizona memorial for the American and Japanese who died.
Japan lost 185 men, mostly on dive-bombers, fighters and midget submarines. Some Japanese veterans and American survivors have reconciled in the decades since. Japanese dive bomber pilot Zenji Abe has apologized to American survivors for the sudden attack, ashamed his government failed to deliver a declaration of war in time for the assault.

The Japanese aviators who carried out the attack thought the declaration had already been made by the time they started bombing, Abe has said.

That attack is not a fact but history to me. Certainly to the U.S. veterans survived from it, it is an unforgettable fact. However, to many young people like me it is mere one page of large history book.

History doesn't always tell the truth. History might tell us no tragic story of Pearl Harbor, in some day. Hence the Pearl Harbor should continue to be told and be remembered. It is because that tragedy gives us the reasons why we mustn't go to futile war. I hope no war will there be in the future.