Question for older DUers - what was December 7 1966 like?

[Algernon Moncrieff]

Thinking of 9-11 22 years later, I started wondering about a comparable event. I know most baby boomers/ greatest gen/ and silent gen that I know compared 9-11 to the day JFK was assinated, but in terms of loss of life and the consequent war, my thought was that the bombing of Pearl Harbor was a more apt comparison.

My question: was there a big deal made about the 25th anniversary of Pearl Harbor? Obviously there was no social media, but did TV and radio do "where were you...?" stories, and were the colors half-masted throughout the US?

[Voltaire2]

1. It was observed but it was not a huge event.

[Tomconroy]

2. Don't really remember anything. I would have been 11.

[CountMyVote4Reality]

5. Same here.

Just the “usual” on this important day in history.

[MuseRider]

39. Me too

I was 12 soon to be 13 and I do not remember a thing about it.

[Fiendish Thingy]

3. IIRC, it was a federal holiday for years

And was noted on most calendars well into the 90’s.

Yes, I think the media covered significant anniversaries of Pearl Harbor (I was only 9 in 1966, but I do recall it being covered in subsequent years).

Hollywood made a blockbuster movie about Pearl Harbor (with no CGI) in the early 70’s called “Tora, Tora, Tora”

[Tomconroy]

4. Don't think it was a school holiday. I sure as hell

Would remember that.

[Fiendish Thingy]

6. Yeah, not every school/state observed every holiday

In California, we used to get Admission Day (the week after Labor day), but I don’t think we got Columbus Day.

Also, I think Election day was a federal holiday - banks, post office, and IIRC, bars and liquor stores were closed in CA in the 60’s and early 70’s…?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. Dec. 7 has never been a federal holiday.

[H2O Man]

22. Right.

[marybourg]

7. As far as I can recall (I was 24 and a stay at home Mom) it was just

about the same as 9/11/2023. Some people were hyper-aware, some oblivious, most in the middle..

[snowybirdie]

8. It was remembered

but nothing special. Remember, live, remotely televised events were not available. So a film may have been played on nightly news, but the Vietnam war likely was the big story of the day.

[rurallib]

10. I was in high school. Don't remember anything different about that day

Actually, being in a Catholic school, the next day was a day off because it was a holy day. Had an after school job and a girlfriend so that was what took up my time.

[Attilatheblond]

11. Cooked supper for family and did homework as usual

Mom worked on a Navy base, I don't recall any special observance.

[John1956PA]

12. On the cover of a magazine (maybe Look Magazine), a photo of the Pearl Harbor horror struck me.

The photo showed black smoke billowing from a U. S. Navy ship. Being only ten years old, I was jarred by the photo. The images still comes to my mind at times when I see a reference to the attack of December 7, 1941.

[rzemanfl]

13. Cloudy, 39 degrees. It was a Wednesday. I went to college all day

Last edited Tue Sep 12, 2023, 06:36 PM - Edit history (1)

and probably worked at night. I would have missed the evening news; I don't recall there being any big observances. The other day I was in the center of a town I never had been to before and observed on their memorial that one of the people who came from there died on December 7, 1941.

I don't recall the state of the flags, but they were probably at half-staff. Thanks for making me think about being 19 years old. Being able to look up the weather for that date in just a few moments was unexpected.

[peacebuzzard]

14. I was preteen and living on a military base overseas

with outside communications all through AFRTS (Armed Forces Radio Television) one TV channel, and one radio station. It was in a remote region; ruled by a dictator who didn't allow the local population of this area to have radio or TV unless he was on. It was very medieval and we kids just wanted to have fun on base or off. I can't remember much about anything else.

[LeftInTX]

15. It's really hard to compare Pearl Harbor and 9/11

9/11 was loss of civilians. It was an attack on infrastructure and America. It was much worse. The immediate response was first responders.

Pearl Harbor was an attack on a military base. It was an attack of war and Japan did this knowing the US would retaliate with a war.
I think it shocked American exceptionalism at the time. The Japanese were bold and very confident. However, it was an attack of war, not terrorism.

The two events are apples and oranges to me.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

17. I get that it's an imperfect comparison

NYC, DC, and Shanksville are all part of the US proper, while (at that time) Hawaii was a US territory.The Pentagon was a military target, but the twin towers were not. Just over 2400 died at Pearl Harbor. Just under 3000 died on 9-11. Where I think the comparison is apt is the level of shock.

[Tomconroy]

19. Pearl Harbor was the seminal event for my parents generation.

Everyone's lives were changed in ways that never happened after 9/11. I don't think you understand what happened to the country.
I could go on and on.

[LeftInTX]

20. I know, but it isn't the same.

My dad compared 911 to Pearl Harbor, but Pearl Harbor was a military attack.
First thing he said, "We had Pearl Harbor".

Yes, Pearl Harbor changed everyone's lives. But it was very different.

[Tomconroy]

24. 16 million people served in the military during ww 2 in

A country of 140000000.
No one was making the distinction then that you are making now. Your father made the comparison because the outrage and anger was the same. You should hear some of the popular songs that became hits by Jan 1942.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

26. Or see the Disney and Warner Bros cartoons

Loaded with racist and ethnic stereotypes. But those were the times and Americans were scared and angry.

[LeftInTX]

33. I know, but there was more "closure" involving the actual Pearl Harbor site.

The site was military and it's still a military base.

An attack on civilians is terrorism. An attack on the military is an act of war. There is a difference.

Terrorism plays on fear.
The Pearl Harbor attack was a provocation to engage the military into war. It was military versus military.

911 was not done to engage the military or provoke the US into war. It was done as retaliation. It was done to make Americans feel scared and fear their infrastructure and way of life could be attacked by a rouge underground group.

[soldierant]

41. I agree on the point of closure.

We have no closure on 9/11. At least, honest people who value truth don't. The made up war with a country which had zilch to do with9/11 certainly nrought no closure. Not did taking out Bin Lden And Gitmo just rubbed the wound raw for many years - not that it has stopped doing that. And now we have our own Vanilla ISIL (AKA MAGA).

On Dec 7, 1966 I was a raw second lieutenant in the USMC. I remember the Marine Corps birthday that year, but not Pearl Harbor Day.

[Voltaire2]

32. Seriously. Perhaps people don't understand how massive

WW2 was? Don’t realize that the entire nation mobilized to a war economy? That basically almost all draft age men were drafted? It’s true that the comparison is imperfect as Pearl Harbor had a far greater impact. One difference is that it was pre television and pre internet, and society and culture have been transformed by both.

[Tomconroy]

34. In thinking about it more: 9/11 was a one off event for most.

Afterwards Bush told the country to go shopping.
For my parents generation Pearl Harbor was just one event that started a four year series of events that would be etched in people's memory. 500000 more were to die after the initial 2000. I remember my mother telling me 5 men she dated prior to the war died. Pearl Harbor launched 4 years of events that touched everyone's lives. I think that's why it didn't have the overriding significance that 9/11 had.

[LeftInTX]

35. The war itself was more of the story than Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor was the tip of the ice berg.

We had isolationism, but it was waning. We would have somehow gotten in that war if Pearl Harbor hadn't happened. Japan was hell bent on provoking us.

911 was the story itself. They weren't state sponsored. They were a small shadowy underground group who wanted to take down our infrastructure.....

[LeftInTX]

16. In 1966, I was 10 and never heard of Pearl Harbor.

We learned about it in High School.

I know it evoked fear and terror at the time, but it was essentially an act of war, which provoked the US into WWII.

[TheProle]

18. Here's a news clip from that day

https://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/230794

[Chainfire]

21. Pearl Harbor was a defeat. People tend to shy away from celebrating such events.

As a Child of the 50s and 60s, there was a lot of TV coverage of WWII history, and I remember a CBS Special with Eisenhower about D-Day in particular. (D-Day was a "victory.&quot We had plenty of teachers who were Vets in that time, and they would have taken note of Pearl Harbor, but it was more in passing. I started reading WWII history in the 5th grade, and I still remember my fist historical fiction was about Pearl Harbor. (We Were There at the Battle of Pearl Harbor) That book set me on a path that I still travel. I don't read WWII fiction, but it is what got me started with both pleasure reading and history in general.

[LeftInTX]

36. Exactly, there were many victories following Pearl Harbor. Not so many following 911...

911 was a tragedy and our response accomplished very little....

I guess we're better at preventing foreign terrorism on our shores than we were before 911, ( we beefed up security) but I think that's about the only accomplishment. It should have pretty much ended there. The foreign intercept in Afghanistan was necessary, but unfruitful and we should have scaled back after we weren't getting anyway. A large military response was a waste of $$$$ and lives.

In a nutshell:
Afghanistan was more or less a tragedy.
We shouldn't have been in Iraq.
There really were no victories...
Yeah, we got Osama Bin Laden, but really?

[Basic LA]

23. I was in the Navy then but don't recall any tributes.

In fact my destroyer was preparing to leave Norfolk,Virginia for Vietnam, with a stop at Pearl Harbor.

[MineralMan]

25. I don't remember a really big deal being made of it that year.

More on the 50th anniversary.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

27. I remember the 50th

That was a big deal in large part because that generation was beginning to die off in large numbers and people wanted to show their appreciation. The D Day remembrance in 1994 was also a huge deal.

[MineralMan]

29. Yes. The 50th anniversary was a bigger deal.

Actually at that time in 1966, I was in the USAF, attending a total immersion Russian language school, so I might not even have noticed, now that I think of it. We were, well, very busy.

[John1956PA]

38. In December 1991, there was discussion about whether Japan would, or should, apologize. n/t

[IcyPeas]

28. Perhaps naive thinking, but

Pearl Harbor happened on an island far away, 9/11 happened in New York City,

Also many people in the USA and the world were watching live TV when the second plane hit and then when the buildings collapsed.

I dunno... seems we were all eye witnesses to the 9/11 attack. We experienced a visceral reaction when we saw it with our own eyes.

So I think they were both devastating events but we saw one actually happen.

[Donkees]

30. The Pearl Harbor Survivors Association held their first national reunion in Hawaii in 1966 ...

A plaque was placed at the USS Arizona Memorial. That veterans group and 'the Pearl Harbor Survivor Descendants' seem to have been the main directors of most remembrance events across the nation.

---
Aboard the Memorial - List of USS Arizona survivors who were later cremated, and their urns were tossed into the wreckage by Navy SEALs.

[kskiska]

31. I was 22 that year in the New York metro area.

Last edited Tue Sep 12, 2023, 05:38 PM - Edit history (1)

Network news programs were only about 15 minutes long up until the mid-60s and there were no huge celebrations like today. The date was likely mentioned, but nothing huge.

[Emile]

37. 15 years old and all I could think about was girls

and getting a driver's license. That said, I don't remember any big deal being made over Pearl Harbor.

[greatauntoftriplets]

40. What I remember best about 12/7/66.

Is that it was the day before my parents 32nd wedding anniversary. I was in high school at the time.