Each year on December 7, we honor and remember the 2,403 service members and civilians who were killed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. A further 1,178 people were injured in the attack, which permanently sank two U.S. Navy battleships (the USS Arizona and the USS Utah) and destroyed 188 aircraft.
Today is the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
God bless their memory and sacrifice.
Amen
We were sleeping when attacked in Hawaii. God bless those souls lost, and those who perished in the ensuing conflict.
War has changed from marching infantry, to trench warfare with chemical weapons, to aerial combat, now biological and psychological. The lesson to be learned is to be ever vigilant—as warned.
Peace to all of our combat veterans and soldiers. May they someday not be needed in that role, but until evil goes away, may God protect the righteous soldiers, and condemn the rest.
thank you, Sundance!
(as the daughter of a radio tech/Chief Petty officer on an ocean-going tug in the South Pacific in WWII)
My father was on one and served out of the Philippines. He was the Executive Officer on it. U S Army Transportation Corp.
80 years ago today, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. It awoke a sleeping giant. Within 4 years, the USA had liberated Europe and Asia, and destroyed the Italian, German, and Japanese empires.
The USA would go on to outlast and destroy the Soviet empire.
And now the USA is destroying a fifth empire.
Its own.
– Don Surber
It is very sad, and quite frankly traumatizing to witness. Reagan said Communism was dead, Trump said AQ, or whatever version you want to call them, had been defeated, we were back on the road to recovery under Trump. Our gov’t has been sabotaging us and destroying us from within since the end of WWII. Painful.
I believe it started before that. The Federal Reserve was a major blow to our country, even today! When was that 1913?
Teach your children. First lesson this morning homeschooling our 13-year old.
How wonderful! Thank you for serving our future in this way, by raising well-educated and respectful children.
I’m sure you’ve taught them the power of prayer, as well. I pray several times a day (mostly in silence) but on days like this, it is more frequent. We have much for which to be grateful, much which requires forgiveness, and many other souls who deserve our prayer.
Together, and with children such as this, we can make our nation and the world a better place, and honor the lives of those who have sacrificed before us. <3
80 years ago and courageous men and women answered the call to defend freedom.
After years of reading personal stories and authentic historical accounts it is impossible to forget their sacrifices.
Today we have less courageous men and women concerned with freedom. Just as December 7th 1941 was a dark time, December 7th 2021 is a dark time as well.
What will they say 80 years from now?
U.S. population in 1942 was about 134 Million. Of course a significant part of that was children and seniors. Still, the US managed to build a combined military of about 12 Million service men and women to fight and win the war in both theaters.
Think abut that. Far more than 10% of US adults ages 18 to 45 joined knowing there was a war occurring with the likelihood of seeing hot combat and risking their lives.
Both my father and father-in law served, the former in the USAAC in both the European and Pacific theaters and the latter in the US Army 13th FAOB (landed on Omaha Beach on June 8, 1944)
As a teenager, we’d rent a 12 foot sailboat by the Subase and go sailing in the inner harbor towards Pearl City and near the Arizona memorial. Back and forth, surfing on the wake of the tourist boats.
There was no bridge to Ford Island then.
We never went to the Arizona Memorial.. it was there, you know. Crazy huh? I mean, it was THERE.
Except that on Dec 7th we all remembered it. We were, after all, in Pearl Harbor.
The thing we must all remember: it was not the Japanese People, it was their neo-medieval, totalitarian Government that did not change with the Meiji Restoration…. Not until McArthur went in and changed their constitution (*) did Japan join the modern world. Always remember that the “japanee” in Hawai’i never got sent to concentration camps, there were simply too many… and they proved themselves to be loyal Americans. Living in Hawai’i we always knew that.
Remember the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Of course, I’m also making the stretch of calling American Okinawans as “japanee”. No insult intended, just trying not to muddle the waters too much for the haoles in the Mainland who don’t know how to eat saimin and Spam musubi. 😉
Yeah, as a matter of fact, I married an Issei and we are happier than a pineapple. 😉
(*) That’s an entire thread to itself… whatever you think about McArthur, he understood history. He kept Kyoto and the Japanese Imperial Palace in Tokyo from being bombed. He kept the main shrines off limits too. He understood the difference between the people and the government of Japan.
I wish someone had an explanation for Crazie Hirono.
Hawai’i has changed.
In the days of Hawai’i Five Oh (*), we had a republican in charge of Honololu and O’ahu.. and a Democrat as Governor.
I’d guess over the years, the folks there have gotten fat on the tourism and DOD money. The pineapples left and went to Central America, they shut down the Aiea C&H refinery, I dunno, the last I went it was so different.
BUT, getting clobbered with Mai Tais at Ft. DeRussy was still fun. My brother in law ( ex Navy ) and yours truly have short hair so they never checked our IDs. Somewhere we got a picture of both of us holding Mai Tais with Diamond Head in the background.
Awesome.
(*) My mom came very late one day from the Commissary. We had no clue (no cell phones then) so we’d make dinner and hoped nothing bad had happened. It turns out they were filming Hawai’i Five Oh at the Commissary and they (her and friend) wanted an autograph from “McGarrett”. (**)
(**) Then there’s the time they filmed an episode in my Dad’s ship, where McGarrett as a Navy Reserve Officer is investigating something. They had to sail out for two days, went no where really… the filming crew used the helo pad by the stern… The crew got their usual crates of cigarettes free of any taxes.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0598095/trivia
Ft. DeRussy..fond memory..was there in 1960..interviewing with Pan Am for a FA job..working at the time for TWA.so flew over there for free for the interview was staying with my friend and her boyfriend(now DH) who was a Navy pilot made arrangements for me to get picked up at Ft. D for a ride back to where they were,it was in the middle of the afternoon and I was sitting there by myself with an iced tea..waiting for my ride..and the bartender said I really was not allowed in there..unaccompanied..and viola…a lovely ,older officer with a lot of “salad” on his uniform..said
it’s okay, she is with me….!!never forgot that..and yes, I was accepted by Pan Am….
Love Hawaii 5 O. Been in love with Hawaii ever since. Interestingly this Brit recognises the memorial because it featured in episodes several times.
So true. The vast majority of the people of the world are good and decent. Gubmint people? No so much. The people that make decisions in gubmint? Definitely not so much.
The sad part is many gov’t people started out going into their jobs as public servants, most w/good intentions, and then they get corrupt, lazy, or whatever. As far as the politicians it is the same, they think they are going to go to DC to make positive change and all they do is get sucked into the wind tunnel of the Swamp, they become whirling peas.
My father was only 16 back then. He used to tell us about it every December 7th and what our Country went through to win the war that followed. He was in the Pacific theater preparing for the invasion of Japan when the war ended. He had already lost a few friends by then. I am glad he was not around for 9/11/2001. It would have made him weep for his Country. He would be pissed off when he thought about what we have become today. But, he would still remember Pearl Harbor Day like it was yesterday.
My Dad, an uncle and a much older cousin all joined the military the same day, at the same time & place. Dad went to the Army Veterinary Corp and ended up a mule skinner with Merrill’s Muraders. The uncle joined the navy and was on several ships in the Pacific. My cousin joined the Marines and ended up with the 4th Marine Division. He fought on Tinian & Iwo Jima. All 3 are gone now. I’m really glad they are gone so they don’t have to see what America’s military is like today.
My family’s Pearl Harbor story:
In late November of 1941, my great grandfather, George Washington Harmon, was visited by the son of a Japanese-American logger whose life he had saved. The man had been sent by his father from the Pacific Northwest all the way to Spooner, Wisconsin, where Mr. Harmon was mayor, to convey important information to perhaps the only person he knew who might have the credibility to make others believe what he had to say.
The information concerned an imminent Japanese attack on U.S forces at Pearl Harbor. Not wanting “Uncle Sam to get caught with his pants down”, George Harmon wrote a letter summarizing the information and sent it to Stephen T. Early, President Roosevelt’s Press Secretary. The letter is dated November 28, 1941, a mere ten days before the attack occurred.
The letter, possibly one of many received by the government, can be viewed here:
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👌 👍 Thanks for both the personal AND American History lesson.
Intentional or Incompetence.
The same issues that plague our Bureaucracies that are evidently antiConstitutional Republic “enemies foreign and domestic” and therefore have become the greatest threats to our Constitutional Republic
All sorts of warnings were provided. They were all ignored. FDR lied the US into another war. Read, “Pearl Harbor: The Story of the Secret War”, by George Morgenstern.
It’s interesting to note that, at least in the instance of my great grandfather, the warning came from a loyal Japanese American. Who knows but that the family was among those later interned. I certainly hope that wasn’t the case.
The US Federal Government was well aware of the imminent attack on Pearl Harbor but chose not to do anything in order to create a ‘black flag” event that would allow FDR to push the US into WWII.
The Japanese Ambassador to the US also attempted to deliver a declaration of war to the US State Department hours before the attack, but he was ignored and delayed…. the US Government knew about his message, they didn’t want it because they wanted to frame the attack as cowardly to enrage the American population so that no thought about the American entry into WWII would be questioned.
Admiral Kimmel was made the scapegoat.
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/admiral-kimmel-scapegoat-pearl-harbor-man-open-door-japanese-attack.html
FDR was an arrogant a$$ho!e.
“Pearl Harbor Betrayed” by Michael Gannon >
“Dec 08, 1941 MacArthur Pearl Harbor” by William Bartsch
Wiki/torpedo _alley > 400 ships, 5000 seamen lost Dec 1941 to July 1942
WW Two staged and prolonged by deep state, including FDR
Day of Deceit By Robert Stinnett
“Pearl Harbor: The Story of the Secret War”, by George Morgenstern. FDR knew and wanted the Japanese to attack the US.
Thank you Sundance for remembering. As time passes, heroes can be forgotten. Patriots keep the memory of our fallen warriors alive and honor them for their sacrifices to give us freedom.
May we fight to continue to live free.
Victor Davis Hanson has a great Pearl Harbor essay here: https://amgreatness.com/2021/12/05/misremembering-pearl-harbor/
Excellent essay. VDH scores another first rate, historically accurate missive..
God and The Greatest Generation saved this country and the world…for a time! Pray their sacrifice is not in vain!
Semper Fi and prayers.
Amen!
“Battles are fought by scared men who’d rather be somewhere else”
The Arizona Memorial is lovely and poignant but it was the boat ride out to it that will forever be burned into my memory. The chatter on-board got quiet and a feeling of cold came over me even though the morning was quite warm and I was happy to be getting married in a couple days. Even a few decades later the memory remains.
I imagined my uncle later transiting through the aftermath on his way to the Philippines and the horrors that awaited the Marines there.
God bless those who lay such sacrifices upon the altar of freedom. They are not forgotten.
Pappy, a fairly long in the tooth fellow with two children and one on the way volunteered after the attack on Pearl.
He was a member of MacArthur’s Seahorse Soldiers and did some of his time in the Philippines.
After he passed and I was given dominion over his service related papers, only then did I discover the ‘old man’ had received two bronze stars for his service and actions on Luzon.
A generation of pragmatic, tough, resolute, but not boisterous people who stepped up to do or die. I miss ’em.
Hmm… a strange place to visit in a honeymoon, you know?
It’s definitely not a happy place.
This historic anniversary will eventually be buried by woke tyranny as the fault of racist white guys.
I have only one WWII memory.
The radio was on with a man talking. My mom started dancing around the room cheering and shouting.
I don’t know whether it was for Germany surrendering, or the Japanese surrendering, but the memory is clear.
December 7th: A Date That Should Live in Infamy for Other Reasons https://dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/3197/December-7th-A-Date-That-Should-Live-in-Infamy-for-Other-Reasons.aspx
👌 👍 The JoeBama administration is THE ASSET that our enemies use against our Constitutional Republic Citizens
Sickening how long our Country has been infiltrated and now so openly an, “enemies foreign and domestic”
Brothers and Sisters in conflict, bond across time.
Comparing Apples to Apples
A. America declared war on Japan for its Dec 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. It was war. Approximately 2400 Americans killed on that morning.
B. The CCP Wuhan Bio-Warfare Lab, with American bureaucratic and technical support that over 500,000 individuals have died from the Chi-Com Bio-Weapon engineered disease (COVID-19).
C. Apples to Apples
What Deaths as Result Action Taken
1. Pearl Harbor Attack 2400 deaths War declared on Japan
2. Chi-Com Bio-Weapon Attack > 500,000 deaths Crickets-… chirp, chirp, chirp
3.American enablers accountable?
D. “…..Nothing like the smell of napalm in the morning,……..it smells like victory”. ‘Apocalypse Now’ movie
E. Napalm works wonders on bio-weapons labs.
Their sacrifice is squandered when the sheep won’t even step into the streets to protest as the fascists march over us. When people are too polite to call out tyranny in their own families for fear it will make somebody uncomfortable. When we are not willing to even have a hard talk with the demon-possessed in our midst, how will this end? We will not salvage civilization when we can’t muster millions in the streets to protest. Look to Australia where they are fielding 10% and up just to force attention. Now look to home. When we see a million people packed into the streets in St. Paul, in Topeka, in Cheyenne, when we see 5 million or more in the streets protesting in Albany and in Sacramento then we have a chance. Not one minute before.
There is a popular but idiotic fantasy that the rabid vermin will eat the DFL cities clean, then stop. Or they will “come to the suburbs” (or the country) where suddenly the well-armed supermen of the real US of A will show them what-for.
Get real. They’re being trained right now, before your eyes, in pack-hunting. They are rehearsing over and over how to arrive in packs of 20-200, swarm in to loot, rape, and burn every place they hit. Who the he!! are you kidding thinking that you with your 37 long guns and 42,000 rounds in the basement can stand against them? Sure, you have the firepower. How many shooters do you have, in the house, this minute? Do you have enough shooters there to watch at every window, or at least one facing each direction, including multiples as needed to see past other structures? Do you have a second and third shift for those people? Are each and every one of you seasoned warriors READY to pull the trigger without hesitation as the pack moves in? All it will take is one untended door or window, one person who fails to shoot early and often. One person who fumbles a weapon.
All it takes is one rat in the pack to get close enough to throw the molotov cocktail that sets the house on fire.
The ludicrous notion that we can have a national divorce and somehow that’s just tough shyte for anyone caught on the wrong side of the line, or that once done the grasshoppers will then respect the line, is beyond stupid. It’s childish. As is the notion that the vermin will destroy the city then suddenly find religion and repent, get a job and be a model citizen.
Wake up and step up people.
Exactly 💯
We’re lacking effective National leadership at the moment.
1 Governor in Florida is not enough.
1 stolen Presidential election was apparently enough.
Thanks for the enemy plan of attack strategy and tactics review 👍.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself…” FDR
It still holds true today.
God Bless America!
“The only thing we have to offer is fear…” FJB.
Yes, that was my implication. The WWII generation were thrust up against evil and won. It wasn’t a straight shot and our heroes did a lot of losing in the Pacific Theater before Midway, June 1942.
Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, we under attack with a bio-weapon from China, it’s our Pearl Harbor. Just like WWII had it’s AXIS sympathizers, Prescott Bush, Joe Kennedy et al for instance, we have entrenched enemy within our government for WWIV. The more things change…
I have a niece who, as a member of a choral group from Arizona, visited Hawaii.
While there, several members of her group decided to visit the Arizona memorial.
My niece was at the memorial when an elderly man in a wheelchair struck up a conversation with her.
The man informed her that he was a survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack and began to tell her his story.
As they talked, the old vet inquired about her reason for visiting Hawaii.
When she told him why she was there, he said, “Boy, I would have loved to hear you guys sing.”
My niece immediately rounded up the other kids from her group and they gave the man an impromptu performance right there.
She asked if he had a favorite song and he told her it was “I’ll Be Seeing You.”
As they started to sing, a crowd began to gather and by the time they finished there wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd.
Very nice story… thank you.
Great story, thanks for sharing it…. and this time of year reminded me of our amateur choral escapades in the neighborhood when young, and we made particularly long stops at the WW1 vets homes, as most of our parents like my dad were survivors of WW2 battles, including Pearl Harbor.
The men and their wives would come out and some would join the children in singing Christmas carols and some would just listen.
That was the America I knew. What it is now I have no idea.
original lyrics by irving kahal:
I’ll be seeing you
In all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces
All day through
In that small cafe
The park across the way
The children’s carousel
That chestnut tree, the wishing well
I’ll be seeing you
In every lovely summer’s day
In every thing that’s light and gay
I’ll always think of you that way
I’ll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I’ll be looking at the moon
But I’ll be seeing you
widely adopted during WWII as a remembrance to fallen loved ones by those they left behind.
well, I wish I had removed my mascara before I read that..and one of my favorite version’s is by Jimmy Durante..a classic.
The opening and bloody act for America on the vicious campaign to bring down Japan’s “Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.” A Campaign that cost 400,000 lives and countless dollars of American treasure.
And here we are 80 years on faced with China’s version of a “Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere” and the mass of Americans remain as oblivious to, if not more so, to the threat it represents.
like pearl harbor,like 9/11..
there will be that “surprise”
I very much doubt they will make the “Yamamoto” mistake..
the clever pre planning that includes this ccp19 bioweapon is rather unparalleled in scope.
those that cannot see this aren’t paying attention, which is exactly the purpose of the bioweapon..
Very moving experience to visit Pearl Harbor. What I remember most is the oil slick that still forms from the sunken Arizona. God bless those brave men.
Thank you John Finn for your heroic actions in Pearl Harbor 80 years ago today.
I had goose bumps when they showed survivors at the ceremony today. Soon that day in infamy will be forgotten with one line in history books. God bless America and our great veterans.
To those who survive to see this 80th grim anniversary, God bless you all. To the fallen, may you rest in peace.
Amen
My father was a month short of 20 that day, in the US Army, guarding the Panama Canal. As I recall the story he told was that the news he heard at the time that the Japanese had only sunk a few old ships and oil tankers, no biggie. When the Atlantic Fleet started coming through the Canal early the next year, passing through at night, he realized that the news he had heard had been censored.
God bless all those who died that die, and their families as well.
My Uncle was serving on the USS Oklahoma. He had just turned 19.
He enlisted with several of his HS buddies.
It’s too bad today’s kids don’t understand blind bravery.
Forgot to mention he was killed when the Oklahoma was torpedoed.
Sorry to here about your uncle. Mine was on the USS Oklahoma too. He was fished out the water when the ship rolled. Spent the rest of the war on the USS Chester.
Sundance lists just the USS Arizona and USS Utah as being permanently destroyed. The USS Oklahoma was raised and re-floated in 1943 and wasn’t worth fixing so she was stripped. Her hulk was sunk in a storm while being towed to San Francisco to be scrapped in 1947. 429 sailors died as a result of the Pearl Harbor attack.
On Dec 7, 1941 my father was a senior in high school in Cumberland, Md. When he graduated from high school he went to the recruiter to enlist in the Navy. He had an older brother who had been in the navy but had died at Pearl Harbor in 1939 of leukemia. My dad went on to pilot training and became a Grumman Avenger Torpedo Bomber pilot on the USS Lexington, serving until the very end of the war. He once told me he was on a bombing mission over Japan when the armistice was signed and had to drop his bombs in the ocean before returning to the ship.
Today would have been my parents 83rd wedding anniversary. My twin brothers were born in March of 1941 and it had to be unsettling for new parents to have babies only 8 1/2 months old when this happened, because no one knew for sure where it would lead. God bless the America we had back then, because we have it no longer.
In 1955, when I was 6 years old, my family visited Pearl Harbor. We walked out to where the Arizona was still partly visible underwater. I didn’t understand what had happened to the ship but I understood something very bad had happened there.
On our way back, a lady had collapsed on the walkway between the shore and the ship, and she was sobbing hysterically. Two people were trying to help the lady to stand up but she was too consumed with grief. The man helping her explained to us that the lady’s brother had died on the Arizona. It was at that moment that I understood her brother was on the ship that was underwater.
I pictured my older brother on that ship underwater and the horror of what had happened became clear. I cannot imagine how anyone who lived through that day ever recovered from the pain.
Today S2C Charles Saunders come home to his hometown of Winnie, Texas 80 years after he was killed on the USS Oklahoma on Dec 7 1941.
God bless all who serve.
Heroes, all of them. Today, we are far and few between.
And wars, they come in various ways. They can be visible and invisible.
We are, once again, at war.
Thanks and gratitude for all who served America. Thank you, Sundance, for the article. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Dec, 2020
a day that will eventually be remembered infamy.
or maybe not.
2 years now after the loss of nearly 1 million Americans and around 5 worldwide…
and still, no one seems to understand this was a surprise attack.
we have learned NOTHING from history…not even the rhymes.
things will change…and this isn’t even the opening salvo.
this was the sounding shot…
that no one seems to be alerted to.
God Bless America
We remember.
God bless them all…………….and God bless us…everyone………
When Americans were Americans. Not divided by race, political affiliation or targeted by powers that be for same.