In memoriam
... all those whose lives were sacrificed December 7th and after
Commemorating
the forever altered lives of so many.…so our families could survive in a
continuing free nation.
…some of us
recall the day
…some of us
recall our parents describing the day
…some of us
recall a school history book account of the day
…war’s horrors had once more been set in motion
December 7th
gives me pause each year to remember…..that Sunday morning in 1941…..
Mother and
I learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor while attending our regular weekly church
service. We had arisen that Sunday
morning as usual, dressed, ate our breakfast, caught the city bus near our
house to ride down town, then walk the few blocks to our church while my high
school age brother slept at home. He
had taken a job in a supermarket meat department, working until early Sunday morning
hours beginning months earlier. Mother didn’t expect him to attend church,
knowing he needed the rest.
She remembered WWI – the sacrifices affecting
family and friends when she was a young single woman. She had learned then of war’s horrors so knew
what another war, possibly on our shores, could mean. She
was now the mother of a son who could be called to fight.
I would begin
to learn what war meant in the months to come.
The ensuing
WWII impacted all our lives in multiple ways.
Following high school graduation,
because that was the earliest our Mother would
sign for him to enlist, my
brother finally joined the U.S. Navy where he served in the Pacific Theater –
thankfully uninjured when he mustered out at war’s end.
Years after WWII ended he lived on Hawaii's Oahu. Circumstances were such I was with him on an occasion
to await the arrival of a young non-military loved one returning from summer
employment on Eniwetok -- a Pacific coral atoll – site of a WWII battle – years
later the site of the first U.S. H-Bomb
test.
Standing on
the landing area at Hickam Air Base which had been so viciously strafed – where
our Air Force had experienced so much loss that Sunday morning in 1941 – I was acutely
aware those many years later of my surroundings tragic history. I
also was reminded watching the handsome young man deplaning that he would not
have been present had his father not survived his WWII Pacific arena military service. I
thought then, and each December 7th, about how many others were not so
fortunate.
The veterans
who survived the 1941 attack have dwindled in number just as have all WWII
veterans, including my brother where he lived his last years on the Big Island
of Hawaii. We honor those lives specifically lost on that
fateful December 7th. We must not forget those individuals, the lessons
of that day, or that war -- World War II.
We want to continue to honor all
those who contributed to our countries survival as a nation.
How many people realize that had our country
and our Allies in other countries not prevailed in WWII that the USA would not
exist as the democratic republic in which we’ve been privileged to live?
The greatest tribute we can offer those who
have given so much is to insure our system of government is preserved.
