77th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor different than previous anniversaries

[47of74]

Knew it had to happen some day

This year, the Pearl Harbor Commemoration Ceremony at the USS Arizona in Hawaii will be different from any other before. For the first time, there will be no survivors of Pearl Harbor attending the ceremony. The handful that survived the battleship bombing on this day, in 1941, are now all in their nineties. Last year, 3 of the 5 remaining members of the USS Arizona were able to attend but this year, they aren't able to make it because of health issues.

Historians and everyday Americans worry that we may start to lose a human connection with the attack because of their absence. One of the survivors on the USS Arizona says Americans should focus on the soldiers who lost their lives on that day.

[Liberty Belle]

1. I hope they have made videos of the survivors telling their stories,

That can be played in perpetuity.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. "Historians and everyday Americans worry that we may start to lose a human connection with the

attack because of their absence."

Being inevitable, it seems an odd thing to worry about. That's what happens with history.

[misanthrope]

16. ++++100

Yep

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. Something is always lost

when the last living memory of an event or an era is gone. Which is why we need to work hard to record and preserve such memories.

Until relatively recently, the last hundred years or so, actually recording things wasn't possible. The advent of photography in the mid 19th century was huge. The addition of movies, then sound, then the ability of the average person to record things, all that matters.

Here's a semi-trivial example: the Moon landing on July 20, 1969. I was 20 years old and had grown up reading science fiction, but I never in my wildest imagination thought we'd watch the landing itself live. And a few hours later when Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon. Again, we watched it live. And we can watch it over and over, thanks to the miracle of recordings and, most pertinently, the internet.

If we only had recordings of [name your favorite historical event here], how amazing that would be!

[912gdm]

4. your post made me think of my great-great-aunt

she died in '95 at the age of 101. She was a sweet and funny lady

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. And I bet if you're like me,

every so often you think of something you should have asked her about when she was still alive, and mentally kick yourself for not having asked the questions.

My grandparents were all born in Ireland around 1880, plus or minus a few years. I never knew my father's parents, but did know Mom's. I asked my grandmother a few standard questions, and, oh, how I wish I'd had the sense to ask meaningful questions.

While I myself will never have grandchildren (my one son is highly unlikely to reproduce) I do sometimes think about the things I know that no one else knows. Perhaps we should all write our memoirs.

[912gdm]

6. Oh absolutely.

The last time I saw her I was in my early teens and wasn't interested in history.

My parents would send me up to my grandma's every summer. I grew up in South Florida and grandma and the rest of the family was in Ohio. So a couple of times we would visit aunt Emmy. She was a cool old bird.

My mom absolutely loved her, she was adopted and Emmy would always make over her. I just think its so amazing she was an adult when WW1 started, lived, then WW2 and saw nephews lost, then dealing with the Cold War and jet travel, long distance phone, and finally cable tv.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. What a lovely story.

I have all of my life, and I'm now 70, been fascinated by what people can experience in their lifetimes. You and I, no matter how young or old you might be, simply have lived a different set of years.

Here's my favorite story of this kind: In 1986 Haley's Comet came through. It was a huge big deal and I felt as if I'd been waiting my entire life to see it. At the time we were living in Phoenix, and as you might know, this recent return of the comet wasn't very spectacular. But we did drive a bit south of the city to view it, and when we pulled off on whatever road sufficiently far south of the Phoenix city lights to hope to see the comet, the most amazing thing was how many cars were already pulled off to view it. Wow.

A couple of weeks later we were having dinner with an elderly uncle, and I prompted my then three year old son to tell Uncle Lou what he'd just seen. And to my delight, Uncle Lou said, "When I was about your age I saw Haley's Comet the last time it came through."

I hope that in 2061, the next time it comes around, my son will see some other young child who has just seen it and say, "When I was your age I saw it the last time it came around."


On a similar note, I was on the Mall in Washington DC on July 4, 1976. I've decided I will be there again in 2026 and tell every single person I see, "I was here 50 years ago today." Won't that be wonderful?

[912gdm]

19. awesome

thanks for your feedback.

[lastlib]

9. My grandmother was born the year the Wright Brothers first flew....

Her life spanned from the time there was nothing in the air except birds to the time of the International Space Station and unmanned robots probing the depths of the solar system.

[misanthrope]

17. WOW!!!!

What an amazing footnote to a life!

[marybourg]

10. We have all kinds of recordings, but today

I interacted with a young dental technician who never heard of WATERGATE!!!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. Oh, dear lord!

I hope you informed that young person.

I'm old enough at 70 to remember how ignorant we were when young. Our elders had lived through the Great Depression and WWII, and many of us simply didn't know very much about those things, depending in large part how much our parents told us.

My parents were born in 1913 and 1916, which means they lived through both. But from what little I got from them, the Depression didn't impact them very much, perhaps because their families were relatively poor to begin with. As to WWII, my father was in the service, but he did not see combat. Because he had a college degree in accounting he was stationed somewhere, I think in Indianapolis, where he saw to it that other soldiers got their paychecks. I never thought to ask him about his experiences, and he died in 1973, long before I understood he could tell me stuff.

All of us have stories to tell. And all of those stories are very interesting. It's up to us to pass those stories on.

It's so easy to think, "Oh, well, my life isn't very interesting," and that's not really true. Even the most boring and mundane of lives is fascinating, and the way things change, things that happened only a few decades ago (Watergate!) are unknown and hopefully interesting to young people.

[lapucelle]

8. My dad was a Pearl Harbor survivor.

[Stinky The Clown]

14. I salute your Dad

[lapucelle]

18. And my husband is a 9/11 survivor.

Not sure if any of my ancestors were on the Titanic...

[Liberal In Texas]

12. Very sad that the past is startiing retreat.

The Arizona is deteriorating as is the memorial itself.

The earth will reclaim. The wreck and the monument will return to dust.

It's like when I see the photos of the Titanic wreck. She is dissolving and will soon be gone.

I guess this is the progression of life and death and we should learn from it.

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[Stinky The Clown]

13. Sad. The very idea of that made me feel very sad.

To them all:

[Raine]

15. This is so sad

to hear.