Sunday, December 7, 2008 was the 67th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day and very little mention was made of it. Perhaps that is because you must be in your 70s to have been alive when it happened. It will soon be just another forgotten or distorted piece of American History if the liberal revisionists have anything to do with it. Even now, people in our own country are trying to belittle what our country did for the rest of the free world in its role in defeating the Axis powers. Few Europeans want to admit they owe their very sovereignty to the brave fighting men of the United States. We gained no foreign soil except as graveyards for our young boys. Yet we are criticized and denigrated on a daily basis for our lack of sophistication when we display our patriotism and the liberals of this country agree with them!
Only five years old at the time, I was playing outside on a warm December Sunday. Mother had just baked some cornbread and I buttered a piece and took it outside with me as I joined my sister and brother in play. When they saw what I was eating, they too wanted some and we went back inside just in time to hear the radio blaring: “The Japs have bombed Pearl Harbor.” Yes, they said “Japs” and we didn’t think it an offensive word; it was just a short way to say Japanese. People weren’t as touchy in those days. I was only in the first grade and didn’t know where Pearl Harbor was and wasn’t really sure who the “Japs” were. But we knew something very important and frightening had happened because of how our parents reacted. Our house was on a hill and we ran down toward the road shouting “The Japs Bombed Pearl Harbor!” Just like a headline on a newspaper, we shouted to no one in particular and I don’t know if anyone heard us at all. Yet, I’ll never forget that day, December 7, 1941.
America has since been embroiled in Korea, Viet Nam, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other battles where American lives were lost in an attempt to protect the freedom of others. Still, the only ground we have gained is that of a burial site. I suppose we should learn our lesson and become isolationists but is it ever right to stand by and watch when we could actually help others? That hasn’t been the American Way but I’m not sure there will even be an “American Way” in the future.
Most Americans over twelve remember 9/11 but even now that memory seems to be fading in relevance and importance. If this trend continues, will America lose its courage and honor and no longer answer in kind to an act of war against us?
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