San Jose Mercury News "The survivors of those doomed ships -- many from the Bay Area -- are mostly hard of hearing now, but the buzz and the boom of the bombs from that day still ring in the ears of John Tait of Concord, Ed Silveira of Hayward and Dempson Arellano of Antioch. Gordon Van Hauser, who lived in San Carlos until his death in 2008, often spoke of his service not in terms of fighting for his own life, but for the life of his country."
Survivors of Axis nations have their own, harrowing stories and tales of Allied attacks. We will leave those to PBS,academia, Alan Alda type celebrities and left-wing history writers -there are far more than enough of them and we don't need more-to bring out today.
Here, we will focus only on stories of America and Americans' reactions to the threat on this nation.
Pearl Harbor Day 2011: three enduring mysteries "On Pearl Harbor Day, historians continue to debate the mysteries of Pearl Harbor. The Japanese attack created some of the great unanswered questions of military history." Also here.
Aboard the USS Arizona "Marine Corporal E.C. Nightingale was aboard the Arizona that fateful Sunday morning:"
Has Obama Set the Stage for Pearl Harbor All Over Again? "Federal stimulus programs have piled up debt but haven’t brought back jobs for most Americans. Critics charge that the stimulus funds have mostly gone to friends of the President. At the same time, the defense budget has been cut to the bone, and America’s troops have neither the weapons nor the personnel to carry out their assignments.
"Sound familiar? Actually, we are describing the U.S. on Dec. 7, 1941—the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and dragged the U.S. into World War II. What can we learn from the Pearl Harbor disaster?"
How God caught up with the man who led Japan's surprise attack. "America's latest blockbuster, Pearl Harbor, has already been blamed for dwelling on a shallow love triangle, ignoring the sacrifices of Japanese Americans, downplaying the Japanese empire's aggression, and generally Disney-fying the "date which will live in infamy." No surprises there; as director Michael Bay told Reuters, "It's not a history lesson." But it's far too easy to shoot holes in Hollywood history. Instead, I'm going to fault the movie for missing a poignant and inspiring Christian story: the saga of Mitsuo Fuchida."
From Pearl Harbor to Calvary by Mitsuo Fuchida.
The story of the man who introduced Fuchida to Jesus Christ: "During the next forty long months in confinement, DeShazer was cruelly treated. He recalls that his violent hatred for the maltreating Japanese guards almost drove him insane at one point. But after twenty-five months there in Nanking, China, the U.S. prisoners were given a Bible to read. DeShazer, not being an officer, had to let the others use it first. Finally, it came his turn -- for three weeks. There in the Japanese P.O.W. camp, he read and read and eventually came to understand that the book was more than an historical classic. Its message became relevant to him right there in his cell."In the ensuing weeks, I read this book eagerly. I came to the climactic drama -- the Crucifixion. I read in Luke 23:34 the prayer of Jesus Christ at His death: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." I was impressed that I was certainly one of those for whom He had prayed. The many men I had killed had been slaughtered in the name of patriotism, for I did not understand the love which Christ wishes to implant within every heart.
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I was 18 months old and we lived in Denver at the time. A Sunday when the family would get together and have dinner. I was laying on a blanket in front of this tall radio when the news came in. I remember people crying out in disbelief, and everyone talking at once. Then that was all I remembered, but I told that to my mother many years later and she was amazed that I remember it. She did verify that is what had happened. In May of 1942, five months later and ten days before my second birthday, my fathers was hauling war supplies from Denver to the west coast. He was an Engineer on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. The trains were leaving Denver every thirty minutes and the one that was ahead of my father had derailed and no signals were up to stop the coming trains. My father's train came around a bend and plowed into the back end of the train ahead of him. Before he hit the other train he threw the Fireman out of the cab of the engine saving the man from death. My father died in that crash. I never knew him but my family tells me I'm more like him than any of my brothers, both who are now gone. In 1943 we moved from Denver to Fallon Nevada, mom had a pot of money and my brothers and I got a monthly check from the railroad until we were 18. We also got free train passes anywhere in the U.S. My mother would get those passes and ship us out of town, my time came when I was about 14 and was going from Reno to Kansas City.
A Conductor took my pass once and looked at it for a very long time, he later came back and sat down next to me and told me he knew my father and that my father had saved his life. He was the Fireman my dad threw out of the cab. He talked and I listened, but it was the first time I had ever heard anything about my dad. My mother remarried in 1946 and my brothers and I had a strained relationship with our stepfather. It lasted with me until my mother died in 1963 and after that I lost track of him. I doubt he is still alive.
That is my memory of December 7, 1941 and years following.
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