Pearl Harbor Day

“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.

“… The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.” — FDR

Chris and the rest of the crew manned the rails of the USS Michael Murphy this morning as it sailed around Pearl Harbor in the 77th anniversary of the attack that launched America into WWII. This year’s ceremony did not have any of the remaining five living veterans of the attack present; the youngest is 95 years old, and none of them was able to make the trip. Entire generations later, it blows my mind to think, “My son was born in Japan because of what happened here 77 years ago. We live here now because of that day.”

The ship glided past the Mighty Mo, the ship where the documents of surrender were signed in Tokyo Bay, now a museum accessible via Ford Island. It passed the USS Arizona Memorial, still closed for repairs, where the war here began.

And in the clouds between them, from his ship in the middle of the harbor, Chris spotted a glimmer of rainbow. No matter where we are in the war, between the beginning and the end, we are never without hope.