There are a few dates that are seared into the American consciousness – Sept. 11, 2001, Nov. 22, 1963, Dec. 7, 1941.
Anyone who can remember those awful days can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing.
Most of us today have no memory of that Sunday in 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and thrust the United States in World War II. But we must never allow that date – one that “will live in infamy” – to slip into obscurity.
They say that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. It may be easy today to brush off that advice as irrelevant. It just couldn’t happen today.
But that’s precisely the way most Americans felt on that Sunday morning. Military and government leaders knew that war with Japan was inevitable, but despite the conspiracy theories, no one expected an attack on Pearl Harbor.
“Pearl Harbor was still asleep in the morning mist,” one of the Japanese pilots later reported.
America was not prepared on that day. We were complacent. Before the day was over, 2,403 Americans were dead, and our Pacific Fleet was in ruins.
The attack, of course, changed the course of history, pulling the nation into a global conflict and thrusting America into the role of world leader, whether we wanted it or not.
Today, as the United States seems to be backing away from that position of global leadership, we would do well to remember that. America should not abandon its role on the world state, a place we earned with blood in the war that began on Dec. 7.
The attack may be straying from the national consciousness, but 4,000 people tour the site of the attack each day, and 1.5 million visit the USS Arizona Memorial every year.
But the gathering of Pearl Harbor survivors, who are now in their late 80s and 90s, grows smaller every year.
America is losing its World War II veterans at a rapid rate. An estimated 294 members of the Greatest Generation die every day.
Here in Macon County, several WWII veterans have passed over the past year.
According to Department of Veterans Affairs statistics, 389,292 of the 16 million Americans who served in that war are still with us.
America slept on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, and that date stands as a stark reminder that we cannot afford to be complacent ever again.
So take a moment on Saturday, the 78th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, to remember those who lost their lives that day, and to give tribute to all Americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice.