Our View: Still grateful to those who survived day of ‘infamy’
In the passage of 73 years, wounds heal, friendships and alliances form and important partnerships are created. But none of that can change this essential fact: Dec. 7 remains the “date which will live in infamy.”
This was the day – Dec. 7, 1941 – that Japan launched its devastating sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, sinking six warships, killing 2,470 people (including 68 civilians) and wounding another 1,200. It was also the day that Americans everywhere realized they were in a global war, unlike anything that had preceded it. Surely they understood that everyone they knew, every belief they held, every ounce of resolve they possessed would be tested.
Many, we are certain, were terrified. How could they not be frightened? Germany was overrunning Europe and North Africa with ease. And the same day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, it also attacked Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippines, Wake Island and Midway. The world seemed in flames.
As President Franklin D. Roosevelt put it, “The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.”
But not everyone cowered in fear. In fact, the overwhelming majority did just the opposite. They knew that if this nation was to survive – and they were sure that it would – then it was up to them to save it. They made it their job to ensure not just the survival of our nation, but to exact vengeance for a diabolical attack and restore peace. Literally, they saved the world.
We can’t know what they were thinking, but we can get a glimpse of some the hardships they endured. The movie “Unbroken” will debut later this month. If it lives up to the superlative book by Laura Hillenbrand, it will tell the story of one of the airmen who showed the fortitude required to prevail in the long struggle that still lay ahead on this day in 1941.
A spectacular runner from Torrance, Louis Zamperini was the youngest member of the American Olympic team in 1936. With war raging in Europe, he had enlisted in the Air Forces three months before Pearl Harbor was attacked. Zamperini wasn’t in Hawaii that day, but he was already in the fight. Two years later, in 1943, he was aboard a bomber searching for downed airmen in the Pacific when his plane crashed. He and two others from the crew of 11 survived, but were cast adrift on a life raft. They floated 47 days, the longest such journey on record, before being captured at the Marshall Islands.
It got worse, but Zamperini survived all these horrors. Back home in California, his family was enduring horrors of their own – not knowing if their missing son was alive or dead, then being told he was dead, then learning he was alive. All around them, other families were suffering their own moments of anxiety or despair.
Those who see the movie will get a tiny sense of World War II, but no movie or book can fully describe what it was really like. We can’t feel what an entire nation felt 73 years ago; the fear and dread, the certain knowledge that sons, husbands, fathers and uncles would soon depart for war and possibly never return. Only a very few of us ever know those horrors, thankfully.
Fortunately, a few among us still remember. There was a reunion of survivors from the USS Arizona, one of the sunken ships, at Pearl Harbor earlier this week. Only nine remain, and only four made it back to Pearl Harbor. Dec. 7 yet lives in infamy. But through such moments, such books and movies, we should continue to recognize those who stepped up to face the horrors of war and sacrificed so much to save this nation. Infamy yes, but honor as well.
This story was originally published December 5, 2014 at 9:04 AM with the headline "Our View: Still grateful to those who survived day of ‘infamy’."