Today is celebrated with somber remembrance.
My Grandfather, a WWI vet of the fierce fighting in France, was on the HAM radio with a guy in Pearl City. In the background he heard the first bombs going off. The guys ran outside, saw what was happening. He came back inside, told my Grandfather "My god, the Jap's are attacking us!", and then they both went to radio silence for the rest of the war.
I found a book a couple years ago for my then 10 year old son. He did a school report on it. It is a good read, for kid or adult, "The Children of Battleship Row" by Joan Zuber Earle. I would highly recommend it.
The book is a biography of the author living on Ford Island in '40-41. She was just ten or so when the attack came. Her dad was a USMC Major. They lived in quarters just a few hundred feet from the USS Arizona and USS Tennessee. The book describes life as a kid the year before the attack, during the attack, and during the kids/mom's return to San Francisco. During the attack, as they were being evacuated to a safe bunker, a 2 ton chunk of the Arizona landed in their yard.
A link to the book and an excerpt/review
The Children of Battleship Row
"During the attack, the Arizona exploded five hundred feet from their family's quarters. The two girls and their mother were strafed as they dashed to safety. Later on that day of infamy, the girls helped respond to the attack by loading bullets for machine guns. This wonderful book documents from a child's-eye view one of the most dramatic and important moments in American history. A must-read for children and their parents, it is the unforgettable story of a girl who must grow up in a single day."
I have been to the Arizona Memorial. It was a very somber tour.
It was something to behold, a bunch of tourist entering the theater. A mix of tourist, including a couple bus loads of Japanese tourist, went in. By the time the film ended, you could cut the tension with a knife. Even though it was so many years ago, the tension still ran high after the film. It was eye opening for the Japanese tourist; it is my understanding they don't teach about it at all in Japan.
Unfortunately, even kids in the US are not learning about important events in US history; much is being glossed over.
Of course, she said he appeared to be about 30 years old. I guess these young folks can't imagine a world without television, but I don't recall ever even seeing a television before 1953 and we got our first one in 1954. My wife says her family got their first TV in 1958. She and I were married in 1964 and got our first color TV in late 1968.
