Sunday, 7 December 1941 "A Day That Will Live in Infamy!" ~F.D.R.

On this day in 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. I'd like to share some pictures of my 2005 visit to O'ahu with you.

Loving history as I do, I was very interested in the historic sites. My brother, Ian, was great at pointing out different things to me. I was taking pictures of a beautiful sunset when he told me I was looking at the pass the Japanese flew through to attack Schofield Barraks and Wheeler and Hickam Air Bases.

From the Pearl Harbor Visitor's Center Memorial:

"At dawn on 7 December 1941 more than half of the United States Pacific Fleet, approzimately 150 vessels and service craft, lay at anchor or alongside piers in Pearl Harbor. All but one of the Pacific fleet's battleships were in port that morning, most of them moored to quays flanking Ford Island. By 10:00 a.m. the tranquil Sunday calm had been shattered, 12 vessels lay sunk or damaged, the fighting backbone of the fleet apparently broken. Smoke from burning planes and hangars filled the sky. Oil from sinking ships clogged the harbor. Death was everywhere.

The fleet in Pearl Harbor, the focus of the attack by Japanese air and naval forces, suffered the greatest loss; almost half the total casualties occurred when the USS Arizona blew up. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps across the length and breadth of Oahu, from Kaneohe to Haleiwa to Malakole, bore their share of death and destruction. Hickam, Wheeler, and Bellows Army Air Force bases lost 217 men and 77 aircraft. Naval air stations at Ford Island and Kaneohe lost 19 men. Pacific Fleet naval aircraft losses in total, were 92. At Ewa Marine Corps Air Station, 4 men were killed and 33 aircraft were destroyed. Civilians from Waikiki to Pearl City were killed by exploding anti-aircraft munitions (friendly fire)."

One thing I will never forget as long as I live is my visit to Pearl Harbor, specifically the USS Arizona Memorial.

Even my niece Breanna, who was only 2 1/2 at the time, understood this was a special place, a place for reverance and paying respects. Breanna paid our respects for us, laying leis at the marble wall which lists all the men who died aboard the Arizona and by throwing orchids from other leis into the water on top of the ship's remains.
I can't describe in words what it meant to stand in front of that wall of marble with those 1,177 names engraved on it. The feeling it brought was one of peacefulness, even when so much violence and chaos once existed there. Today parts of the Arizona are still visible above the water line, and oil still leeches from within the remains of this once great Lady.
~In memory of those who lost their lives on Sunday, December 7, 1941.

To read more about the attack on Pearl Harbor, visit the National Park Service's USS Arizona Memorial site.