Dec 7th - Day of Infamy ... over 75 years ago, today!
“Today with be a day of infamy, forever.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt, 75 years ago.
“Forever!” … Yeah, right - Forever is a long, long time. And time, has a way of changing things.
Granted, history does remember Pearl Harbor as the sneak attack that launched America into World War II, but beyond that, does ANYONE from my generation know more than that?
Doubtful. History in High School was a while back, and events that happened during my grandparents day, were glossed and skimmed over - World History is not kind to any era; it merely summarizes a few thousand years of history into one short semester class, and cannot devote much time to a single decade.
World event like WWI and WWII did get a little bit more coverage than something like Martin-Luther-King-Jr and his “I Have A Dream” (which was explored more in English classes), or Muhammad Gandhi and his peaceful protests against British Oppressors. Not even Mother Theresa and her compassion for the orphans of the world got more than a “history will note”.
“Today will be long remembered as a day of sorrow” - Might have been more accurate.
For two generations - almost eighty years - people have remembered the events at Pearl Harbor on December 7th with sorrow and tears.
How much longer will December 7th remain alive in the hearts and minds of people, instead of being reduced to a footnote in history? Well, for as long as there are veterans who Fought in World-War-II, remember to tell people what they saw, heard, experienced. Sadly, many soldiers find it hard to talk about the war. They just can’t talk about the fighting, the killing, what they say and did.
My parents remember, because it directly impacted the families - many were the widows and fatherless, silent testimony to the fallen buried overseas.
“Today will be a day of infamy in history” ~ very plausible.
History is written not by the victors, not by the losers, but by the survivors. Those who lived to tell their side of the story.
The attack on Pearl Harbor left survivors - both the Japanese pilots who’d hoped by their actions a then-superpower who could turn the entire course of battle, would remain neutral, and stay out of the action happening on the other side of the globe; and the families of those who died in their bunks, who wanted the killers of their sons, their brothers, their fathers, to pay for those killed in blood.
Day of Infamy - December 7th 1941.
Unfortunetly not forever.
My generation - just two removed from WWII - doesn’t believe the Holocaust actually happened/was real. About half the people my age (give or take five years), are under the delusion that the Moon-Landing (and Neil Armstrong’s “That’s one giant leap for Mankind”) was faked; many of us (again, my generation), would rather not use civic right to vote - and people within seven years of my age believe ignoring our patriotic duty dives us the right to complain, grumble, moan and riot when things don’t go the way we want.
Our (great) Grandparents fought in WWII - the men on the frontlines, risking life, limb and heath; the women by making armament and other manufactured items; the families (parents, children, brothers sisters) by going without to help supply the soldiers with basic necessities.
Sadly, of my grandparents who lived in that era, only one still lives to pass on history -lessons learned in frugality, stretching meals, waiting in quiet anxiously, wondering if their husband/boyfriend/brother/son was dead or wounded, but alive after every news report of battles fought.
Many of that generation are gone. Some fell in battle (too many fields were bathed in bullets, blood, and are still fertilized by bone); many others fell on the wayside back home, with no family to love or remember their sacrifice and their calm support.
(EDIT: apparently I can't do math - otherwise I would have realized 2016 minus 1941 equals seventy-five (three quarters of a century) rather than seventy-four.)
“Forever!” … Yeah, right - Forever is a long, long time. And time, has a way of changing things.
Granted, history does remember Pearl Harbor as the sneak attack that launched America into World War II, but beyond that, does ANYONE from my generation know more than that?
Doubtful. History in High School was a while back, and events that happened during my grandparents day, were glossed and skimmed over - World History is not kind to any era; it merely summarizes a few thousand years of history into one short semester class, and cannot devote much time to a single decade.
World event like WWI and WWII did get a little bit more coverage than something like Martin-Luther-King-Jr and his “I Have A Dream” (which was explored more in English classes), or Muhammad Gandhi and his peaceful protests against British Oppressors. Not even Mother Theresa and her compassion for the orphans of the world got more than a “history will note”.
“Today will be long remembered as a day of sorrow” - Might have been more accurate.
For two generations - almost eighty years - people have remembered the events at Pearl Harbor on December 7th with sorrow and tears.
How much longer will December 7th remain alive in the hearts and minds of people, instead of being reduced to a footnote in history? Well, for as long as there are veterans who Fought in World-War-II, remember to tell people what they saw, heard, experienced. Sadly, many soldiers find it hard to talk about the war. They just can’t talk about the fighting, the killing, what they say and did.
My parents remember, because it directly impacted the families - many were the widows and fatherless, silent testimony to the fallen buried overseas.
“Today will be a day of infamy in history” ~ very plausible.
History is written not by the victors, not by the losers, but by the survivors. Those who lived to tell their side of the story.
The attack on Pearl Harbor left survivors - both the Japanese pilots who’d hoped by their actions a then-superpower who could turn the entire course of battle, would remain neutral, and stay out of the action happening on the other side of the globe; and the families of those who died in their bunks, who wanted the killers of their sons, their brothers, their fathers, to pay for those killed in blood.
Day of Infamy - December 7th 1941.
Unfortunetly not forever.
My generation - just two removed from WWII - doesn’t believe the Holocaust actually happened/was real. About half the people my age (give or take five years), are under the delusion that the Moon-Landing (and Neil Armstrong’s “That’s one giant leap for Mankind”) was faked; many of us (again, my generation), would rather not use civic right to vote - and people within seven years of my age believe ignoring our patriotic duty dives us the right to complain, grumble, moan and riot when things don’t go the way we want.
Our (great) Grandparents fought in WWII - the men on the frontlines, risking life, limb and heath; the women by making armament and other manufactured items; the families (parents, children, brothers sisters) by going without to help supply the soldiers with basic necessities.
Sadly, of my grandparents who lived in that era, only one still lives to pass on history -lessons learned in frugality, stretching meals, waiting in quiet anxiously, wondering if their husband/boyfriend/brother/son was dead or wounded, but alive after every news report of battles fought.
Many of that generation are gone. Some fell in battle (too many fields were bathed in bullets, blood, and are still fertilized by bone); many others fell on the wayside back home, with no family to love or remember their sacrifice and their calm support.
(EDIT: apparently I can't do math - otherwise I would have realized 2016 minus 1941 equals seventy-five (three quarters of a century) rather than seventy-four.)