Hawaii remembrance draws handful of Pearl Harbor survivors

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By AUDREY McAVOY 2 hours ago

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) — A handful of centenarian survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor joined about 2,500 members of the public at the scene of the Japanese bombing on Wednesday to commemorate those who perished 81 years ago.

The audience sat quietly during a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m., the same time the attack began on Dec. 7, 1941.

Sailors aboard the USS Daniel Inouye stood along the rails of the guided missile destroyer while it passed both by the grassy shoreline where the ceremony was held and the USS Arizona Memorial to honor the survivors and those killed in the attack. Ken Stevens, a 100-year-old survivor from the USS Whitney, returned the salute.

“The ever-lasting legacy of Pearl Harbor will be shared at this site for all time, as we must never forget those who came before us so that we can chart a more just and peaceful path for those who follow,” said Tom Leatherman, superintendent of the Pearl Harbor National Memorial.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/hawaii-bombings-world-war-ii-attack-on-pearl-harbor-c26e01e250992bc9d9371d2b1d96e085?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_09

[msongs]

1. this evening's memorial parade will be a sad event as so few survivors are left. they have a banner

for each sunken ship with that ships survivors marching/riding there. sad to say most of the banners for ships have no survivors with them anymore.

[LudwigPastorius]

2. I visited Hickam AFB and the Arizona Memorial back in 1986.

You can still see bullet holes and bomb damage on some of the buildings at Hickam.

And, the Arizona was still leaking oil, and continues to do so to this day.

It was quite moving and it made a bit of history I learned as a kid very real.

[DemocraticPatriot]

3. 'Tears from the battleship Arizona'

is how some have characterized the oil leaks which continue to this day...

[DemocraticPatriot]

4. It is very sad, the final passing of an era

that the heroic veterans of that war are fast disappearing due to old age...

We must not forget.


My own father passed away in 2020 at the age of 91-- but he was not a veteran...
He was only a year or two too young to have enlisted during that war,
but his 2 older brothers did, one in the Army and one in the Navy...


My father turned 18 in 1947.

[Zorro]

5. One thing that struck me when I visited the USS Arizona memorial years ago

was just how many Japanese tourists were there.

But then I remembered it was a momentous event in their history, too.

[tblue37]

6. My father was at Pearl Harbor when it was hit. He was a 19-year-old airman. If he were

alive today, he would be 101 years old, but he died in 1992.

[republianmushroom]

7. Hero's each and every one of them. Thank you

[Aristus]

8. I visited Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona about ten years ago.

Fulfilment of a life-long dream. I first read about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the sinking of the Arizona, and the Memorial when I was about seven or so. It was very moving.

It's a tradition among some tourists to scatter the petals of one's welcome lei on the waters over the wreck, as long as you take them off the string first, for environmental reasons.

I scattered mine over the Arizona, and was very proud to have done so, in honor of the dead still entombed there.

It's still nearly impossible to look at the peaceful, calm, breezy Harbor today, and imagine the horror and chaos of the attack that morning.

[keithbvadu2]

9. Pearl Harbor day in Central Maine 1941

Pearl Harbor day in Central Maine 1941

________ was in the eighth grade in central Maine on that day and at the movies.
They stopped the movie, said America had been attacked and to go home.
She said they ran home looking up at the sky, expecting to see airplanes attacking.

Forty years later, my grandmother still kept two metal trashcans in the attic, stockpiling bags of sugar.
Just in case.

My grandfather's neighbor remembered folks driving (DRIVING) working model Ts and such old cars to the rail yard to be sent off for scrap for the war effort.