We recently observed the 77th commemoration of the Japanese air raid against U.S. military forces at Pearl Harbor on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941.
The observances are smaller in recent years and receive less media attention than when I was a boy, about 50 years ago. The passing of time is one reason for that. The event becomes less significant to modern life with each passing year, just as key events from the War of Independence and the Civil War slipped from the national conscience.
But the Pearl Harbor attack was still fresh in the minds of many Americans in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when I was first learning about World War II. Many of those who served in the war and those who were alive during it have died. The direct connection to that period in time will cease to exist in just a few years. My dad was a freshman at Arlington High School in 1941 and was attending a charity basketball game featuring the Harlem Globe Trotters at the school when officials shared news of the Japanese attack and urged everyone to return home.
Dad passed away in 1995. Mom is still with us, but is now in her early 90s. My parents served as my connection to the war. Dad sparked my interest in the conflict when I was in the third grade and it remains a favorite subject of study for me. Dad taught me and my siblings about the Pearl Harbor attack and World War II history. And he made certain we took at least a few minutes each December 7 to pause and remember those killed in the attack.
In the mid-1970s, WGN-TV in Chicago started a new tradition on December 7 of airing "Tora, Tora, Tora," Hollywood's 1970 movie about the events leading up to Pearl Harbor raid. For those not familiar with the movie, it includes a dramatic depiction of the air raid. Dad made sure we watched the movie at each presentation, and shared stories of the date President Franklin D. Roosevelt said would live in "infamy". And that was fine with me. I never tired of watching the movie, or of discussing the air raid. WGN stopped airing the movie several years ago.
I imagine our formal observations of Pearl Harbor Day will fade and eventually end. Many young Americans today are not familiar with the event and don't much care that it propelled the U.S. into World War II. But I will do all that I can to observe Pearl Harbor Day and remind others of the event's significance. I think it's the least I can do to show my gratitude to those who did the same for me.
-Thank you for reading. Please email your comments to kbotterman@hotmail.com.
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