December 7, 1941 is a Day All Americans Should Remember

Today I read an interesting letter to the editor of my hometown newspaper. In it, the writer berates the editor for including an article to commemorate the 30-year-old shooting of San Francisco mayor, George Mascone, while neglecting to print one word about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on the date of his death.

I, too, had noticed the absence of anything about the Kennedy assassination, and thought it may have been an oversight. If so, all the radio and TV stations, as well as a few other newspapers in our area were suffering from the same oversight. Not a word---and this was a momentous event in our country's history.

At the actual time of Kennedy's assassination, news coverage about it went on for days, weeks, and even months. You couldn't pick up a magazine without seeing a total replay of the event, but now, just over 45 years later, the media acts as though it never happened.

Even a few years ago, American people turned out en masse for Memorial Day parades, and then went out to the cemeteries to put flowers on the graves of departed loved ones. On Veteran's Day, they cheered the military as they marched by. The 4th of July was celebrated with a local dignitary reading the Declaration of Independence, followed by speeches, family picnics and fireworks.

Parades to mark these holidays still take place. The difference is that we often see more people marching in the parades than watchers cheering them on from the sidelines.

And many people today wouldn't think of wasting their time listening to a speech on a beautiful 4th of July day... They do still have picnics, but the emphasis now seems to be placed more on who can hold the most liquor, and on who has gathered the most powerful fireworks to shoot off. Not a thought of what the holiday really represents.

Tomorrow, December 7, is Pearl Harbor Day. If a poll were taken (but I think were all polled out since the election), I think you would find that many people wouldn't even know what you were talking about if you mentioned Pearl Harbor Day.

Pearl Harbor Day is the day in 1941 that Japan attacked an American base in Hawaii, killing more than 2000 people, and injuring at least 1200 more. This horrendous attack initiated our entry into WWII and was a day that eventually led to Japanese people who had been living peacefully in the United States being imprisoned in camps for the duration of the war; it was also a day that eventually led to the first-ever wartime use of the atomic bomb; and a day that has taken us over 60 years to forget.

But, forget it, many of us have. Just as there is little or no media coverage of the Kennedy assassination these days, so there is seldom any mention of Pearl Harbor Day. If you once took a moment on December 7th to at least think about the significance of a day that changed the whole course of the world, but have let it kind of fade in your memory, may I suggest that you remedy that? Don't let the memory completely disappear from American society. Remind yourself of the hundreds of thousands that died as a result of that horrible war, and determine, that if you have anything to say about it, such a thing will never happen again.

If you are one of the younger people to whom the words, Pearl Harbor Day, mean little or nothing, please take some time on December 7th to look it up in a good encyclopedia. Read about the shock Americans received when they were attacked, and the resolve that the attack sparked in them. If you have relatives who fought in that war, ask them for a first-hand account of what it was like for them.

My invitation to all Americans, this day before Pearl Harbor Day, is that we all, regardless of political affiliation or religious belief, take just a moment out of our busy lives tomorrow, December 7, 2008, to remember Pearl Harbor.


***If you want to know more about the attack on Pearl Harbor, check out the link below for an excellent book on the subject.