quote:

... December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

If you want to learn damned near everything to learn about the attack on Pearl Harbor, here is about a week's worth of excellent videos.











And for those who know Drachinfel, he has three excellent videos on just the salvage efforts.

A legacy of valor: Only 16 Pearl Harbor survivors remain. On the 83rd anniversary, they still share stories of heroism



As bombs fell on Pearl Harbor during a shocking attack, transforming serene Hawaiian waters into a graveyard of twisted metal, burning wreckage and the roar of destruction, Earl “Chuck” Kohler did not hesitate to fight back.

He was 17 when Japanese bombers descended from the sky, killing 2,403 Americans and catapulting the United States into World War II. It was a brutal, unforgiving assault that left the US Pacific Fleet in ruins and the memory of that day seared into history as, in President Franklin Roosevelt’s words, “a date which will live in infamy.”

Kohler had disobeyed direct orders to shelter in a ditch and remain in place. Instead, he ran to retrieve ammunition. Armed and determined, he and his comrades fought fiercely to repel the second wave of Japanese bombers attacking Ford Island.

“Maybe (I was) a dumb farm boy, but I know this is the beginning of that war that they’d been talking about and waiting for, and I know that if I’m going to lose my life here, I don’t want to lose it in that ditch,” Kohler, a Minnesota farm boy turned sailor, said in an interview recorded by the Library in the Congress. “I’m going to want my family and my country to know I died fighting, not hiding.”

Before joining the Navy, Kohler was the son of a sharecropping dirt farmer and the fourth of 10 children. There was so much work to do that there was no time for hobbies besides hunting and helping put food on the table, he told CNN in an interview. But when he turned 17, he voluntarily enlisted into the Navy because he felt it was right for him to be there.

“I had learned early in life that you never run from a challenge or fight, you always run to it. You can’t beat them by running from them,” Kohler told CNN.

“If I am to be considered a representative of people of my generation as I’ve tried to be for all those that were lost at Pearl Harbor, I hope I have done it in a way that will have made them proud and brought to them the well-deserved honor and continued remembrance that they so rightfully deserve.”

Now 100 years old, the veteran is believed to be one of only 16 Pearl Harbor survivors who are still alive, Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, confirmed to CNN. Of those killed, 1,177 served on the USS Arizona. Lou Conter, the last known survivor of the attack on the ship, died in April.

On Saturday, thousands will gather on the shores of Pearl Harbor for the 83rd anniversary of the bombing. They will honor members of the Greatest Generation, a tribute to Americans who lived through the Great Depression and then fought in WWII, “for their sacrifice, courage, and indomitable perseverance.”

In an email this week, Farley pointed to her organization’s motto: “Lest We Forget.” “We have not forgotten the 87,000 active military who were on the island of Oahu on December 7, 1941,” said Farley, daughter of John Farley, who survived the attack while aboard the USS California.

“Several events are planned to honor our beloved Pearl Harbor survivors, our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers who were there, and we know their stories,” Farley said. “May those who have gone before us, fair winds and following seas. We, the Sons and Daughters, will carry on with your history with pride.”

Survivors attend anniversary events in Hawaii and California
At least two survivors – Ken Stevens and Ira “Ike” Schab Jr. – are expected to attend the Pearl Harbor Remembrance ceremony in Oahu, according to Pacific Historic Parks, which manages the USS Arizona Memorial.

Schab, 104, was greeted by the US Pacific Fleet Band and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam Honor Guard upon his arrival at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport on Tuesday, according to a post published by the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. His family had raised more than $5,000 to help him travel to attend the Pearl Harbor Commemorations.

Initially, Schab did not want to return to the island because of how painful the memory was, his family told CNN affiliate Hawaii News Now. But years ago, after seeing the number of remaining survivors slowly dwindle, Schab changed his mind.

“He said, ‘As long as I’m able to make the trip, I want to make the trip for the people that can’t make the trip,’” his son, Karl Schab, told Hawaii News Now.

Sailors walk amongst the wreckage of the American destroyers USS Cassin and USS Downes after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. The battleship USS Pennsylvania is visible in the background.
Sailors walk amongst the wreckage of the American destroyers USS Cassin and USS Downes after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. The battleship USS Pennsylvania is visible in the background. Hulton Archive/Archive Photos/Getty Images
On the morning of the attacks, Schab was a musician in the Navy band aboard the USS Dobbin and had just finished his shower and sat down for his coffee, his daughter said on their GoFundMe page. He was waiting for his younger brother Allen, who was visiting, so they could explore Honolulu together.

But they never got to meet up that morning – and when the attacks began, Schab immediately started feeding ammunition to the gunners. More than anything else that day, Schab remembers “being scared,” he told Hawaii News Now. “Wondering about my brothers. Where they were.”

The attack occurred around 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning, carried out by 353 Japanese planes, 35 submarines and two battleships. More than 160 aircraft were destroyed.

The air was thick with smoke and the acrid scent of burning oil and metal. Ships, once proud and sturdy, were ripped apart by torpedoes and bombs, sending massive plumes of fire and debris into the air. The US battleships, anchored in the harbor, were struck with such force that their hulls buckled and split open, flames engulfing the decks in a blinding inferno.

Bodies of sailors, soldiers and airmen were thrown into the water, some burned beyond recognition, others left floating in the oily sea. The air was filled with the shrieks of men in agony, the crackle of machine gun fire, and the thunderous explosions that shook the ground.

Nearby, Kohler was in an airplane hangar, right in the center of Pearl Harbor, writing a letter to his mother on a typewriter when he heard an approaching aircraft continue to get closer and closer.

“Suddenly and almost simultaneously there was this tremendous roar and bomb fragments and window glass came crashing into the back of my head, ears, neck and shoulders,” Kohler said during the interview published by the Library of Congress.

Earl “Chuck” Kohler when he was 17 years old and had just enlisted in the Navy.
Earl “Chuck” Kohler when he was 17 years old and had just enlisted in the Navy. Kohler Family
Despite being threatened to be reported for disobeying his officer’s direct orders to stay sheltered in the ditch, Kohler kept running. He grabbed a 50-caliber machine gun and ammunition and helped shoot at attacking warplanes.

“What affected me the most was seeing those ships explode, capsize, and knowing that with every one of those events there were a lot of lives being lost,” Kohler said.

Kohler is not in Hawaii. Instead, he will be speaking at the annual Beacon lighting ceremony held by conservation nonprofit Save Mount Diablo in California to pay tribute to the lives that were lost and honor surviving veterans. The Beacon on Mount Diablo was installed and illuminated in 1928 to aid in transcontinental aviation. But it was extinguished during the West Coast blackout following the Pearl Harbor attack out of fear it may lead to an attack on California.

It stayed dark until Pearl Harbor Day in 1964, when Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief of Pacific Forces during World War II, relit the Beacon in a commemorative ceremony and suggested it be illuminated every December 7th to honor those who served and sacrificed.

“In my way of thinking it gives the few survivors that are left an opportunity to reach back across the miles and the years and reconnect once again with our sunken shipmates and fallen comrades,” Kohler told CNN.

Kohler says he believes that if those who were lost there that day had a voice of their own, they would say, “Remember us.”

I just read a very good book called "Ghosts of Honolulu". It is about Japanese espionage and the Americans trying to stop it.

I posted this last year and I feel it is appropriate today: https://sigforum.com/eve/forum...610041805#2610041805

I was reading recently on what might have happened if the Japanese hadn't attacked Pearl Harbor. That led to Hitler declaring war on the US a few days later.

As of the week before the attack, there was still a strong anti-war America First opinion, due the horrible memory of WW1. The Gallop poll in late November 1941 showed that only 30% of Americans wanted anything to do with joining the Europeans or Asian countries in the fighting.
One week after Pearl Harbor, the situation had changed drastically to 90% for entering the war.

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Originally posted by 220-9er:
I was reading recently on what might have happened if the Japanese hadn't attacked Pearl Harbor. That led to Hitler declaring war on the US a few days later......

Or if Pearl Harbor would have occurred a couple weeks later, would Hitler have even declared war on the US in mid December 1941 at a time Germany's advance through Russia was halted?

Another thing to find depressing these days is that it was necessary for the The Wall Street Journal to add this as an explanation of what happened that day in its brief coverage of the remembrance.

“Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day on Sunday marked the 84th anniversary of the Japanese aerial assault on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii in 1941, which killed 2,403 and catapulted the U.S. into World War II.

“A total of 350 Japanese aircraft flew from six naval carriers positioned offshore and destroyed a large part of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.”

One of the things I remember Jeff Cooper’s commenting about years ago was how unfortunate it was that news obituaries of important people had to explain why they had been important. The country has largely forgotten the momentous lessons of the past that should be remembered for their critical relevance to today’s events.
Some day those lessons will have to be learned again, and I can only wonder if the outcomes will be the same.

It is somehow human nature to discount what happened in ancient times. For me, born in 1960, WWI was "ancient". Definitely the Civil War was ancient, even though I recall hearing news stories of people dying who had been born a slave.

WWII was relevant because my parents and grandparents talked about it from person experience.

Anyhow, my point is anything prior to our personal memory seems ancient and not too relevant. As we get older, we realize that 15 years is a short time, which was how long before I was born that WWII was still going on.

At least here in the USA, people think we are immune to evil, so history isn't relevant. Maybe we should partly blame public education.

Briefly, I've posted this previous 12/7's, my high school history teacher's father was at Hickam field that day. He came into class and told us about it. He had a big effect on my perception of "ancient" events.

I agree with everything you said, except that I would eliminate the “Maybe” from this.

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Originally posted by Fly-Sig:
Maybe we should partly blame public education.

During my sophomore year at the US Army-run Paris American High School in France 17 years after that country was liberated, the first half of our world history class was primarily devoted to William Shirer’s book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. That learning experience not only gave me an abiding interest in history in general, but also taught me the dangers of totalitarianism and cult worship; that evil needs only the slightest acceptance to explode beyond imagining; the dangers of appeasing aggressive, murderous despots who invade their neighbors while at the same time manipulating naïve “peacemakers” like puppets on strings; and many other lessons.

What are children—not to mention adults—taught today? That the men who established the (once) greatest nation in the history of the world owned slaves and therefore everything they accomplished should be destroyed?

sigfreund, I agree completely. I would observe that your time in Europe was a distinctly different experience due to them having been on the front lines. Not only did you get exposed to the dangers of totalitarianism in school, everybody and everything around you was a reminder. It is easy for people to be soft and stupid who've never seen the world outside.

My mother's town was bombed during WWII, which she still tells stories about. A few summers ago when I was visiting she took me to the house she grew up in during the 1930's and through WWII. She pointed out the cracked bathroom window from the concussion of one of the bombings, which still hadn't been replaced.

Contrast that with my father, who grew up in Dearborn, with his father being a fairly key man at Ford in the war effort. They had extra gas rations, and he never mentioned any kind of food shortage in his home. Certainly there was never any actual battles there. Though he was always a true conservative, he always hesitated about confrontations with enemies, suggesting more negotiations and more compromises.