In Memoriam - Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial is "ground zero" of the beginning, December 7, 1941, of World War II for the United States.
President Roosevelt declared, "Yesterday, 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." Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander of the Japanese forces which attacked Pearl Harbor stated: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant..."
The USS Arizona serves as the final resting place for many of the of the battleship's 1,177 crew members who lost their lives on December 7, 1941.
When visiting the Arizona Memorial, there is an eerie quiet among the visitors, and a sense of terrible history. While it was said 145 years earlier, at another battlefield, you can't help but feel these words of President Abraham Lincoln are fitting, "It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Read MorePresident Roosevelt declared, "Yesterday, 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." Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander of the Japanese forces which attacked Pearl Harbor stated: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant..."
The USS Arizona serves as the final resting place for many of the of the battleship's 1,177 crew members who lost their lives on December 7, 1941.
When visiting the Arizona Memorial, there is an eerie quiet among the visitors, and a sense of terrible history. While it was said 145 years earlier, at another battlefield, you can't help but feel these words of President Abraham Lincoln are fitting, "It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
