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. My visit to the Arizona Memorial was an emotional experience. To this day, whenever a US Navy vessel enters or leaves Pearl Harbor they render honors when passing the final resting place of the USS Arizona and the 1177 men that died there.
I know what you mean, the Arizona Memorial is one of those places where skepticism and wisecracks seem wretchedly inappropriate, an experience intensified by the knowledge that you are standing above the graves of so many sailors who perished that morning.
The other great shut-you-up and make you serious US memorial is Lincoln's. On one wall are the words of of his second inaugural address, the opposite features the Gettysburg address. You stand there reading the words from this poet-president and it is very humbling, you really do feel like you are on sanctified ground.
I know what you mean, the Arizona Memorial is one of those places where skepticism and wisecracks seem wretchedly inappropriate, an experience intensified by the knowledge that you are standing above the graves of so many sailors who perished that morning.
The other great shut-you-up and make you serious US memorial is Lincoln's. On one wall are the words of of his second inaugural address, the opposite features the Gettysburg address. You stand there reading the words from this poet-president and it is very humbling, you really do feel like you are on sanctified ground.
During my naval service I served with and met two veterans of the attack. Both were career enlisted men nearing the end of their service. The two men had two very different attitudes. The first had no reluctance in speaking about his experiences and bore no long term grudges. The second refused to talk about what happened and retained a seething hatred for the Japanese that I am sure lasted for the rest of his life. When our ship called at Japanese ports he refused to go ashore, and either stayed on board or only left to visit the US naval station, and would not go into town.
So glad this thread was started. Blackshoe, fascinating to read your posts.
I have two personal tidbits to share.
My father was working in Chattanooga TN managing a grocery store the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. His draft notice, which I still have, came up immediately after. He had been dating my mother a while. After he was inducted and stationed he wrote her a letter stating that "he'd just be gone a year". The next letter said "well, it will be longer than a year." What an optimistic attitude a young man had in the first letter! My mother told me that she remembered writing him and telling him how cute she thought the Jeeps were in the war reels.
I sold antiques in the 90s and was looking at some vintage items in another dealer's booth from Hawaii. The dealer then told me that her father was career Army or Navy and they were living in Honolulu when Pearl Harbor was bombed. She was a young teenager. The dealer said that the women and children were sent back to San Francisco on ships that went a roundabout route to escape mines, etc.
Thank you again, Blackshoe, for your contributions.
I think it's strange how every small detail of the attack on Pearl Harbor is well documented on TV and in the movies, but for one incident that would make a good movie on it's own. I'm refering to the events that occured on one of the smaller hawaiian islands, Niihau, right after the attack when a Japanese pilot crashed landed there. The pilot, Nishikaichi, was captured by the native hawaians living on the island, then sought and received the assistance of three locals of Japanese descent in overcoming his captors, finding weapons, and taking several hostages.
This incident was widely publicised and documented in a naval report to Washington, of which would have been a factor as to why Japanese Americans were interred durring WW2. I never heard a breath of this incident until I ran across it a few weeks ago. Is it not PC to mention this event in public context, as it may spoil the idea that it was all white racism that was the basis of Japanese interrment ? I'm not saying the interrment was justified, but that this very interesting part of the Pearl Harbor attack has been swept under the carpet and needs to be better known to fully understand the mindset that led to Japanese American interrment.
A bit of WW2 information that most Americans will not know the answer to.
On the day after December the 7th, Canadian, British and Indian army troops were fighting the Japanese Imperial army. Where ?
Jim B
Toronto.
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