Do You Remember Where You Were?

[Carl Eyman]

On December 7, 1941? Well, most of you weren't anywhere, but there are a very few of us that do rememberr and do remember where we were for the next 4 1/2 years. That is why I still won't buy a Japenese brand car and don't even like to talk about Japanese style woodworking tools. Forgive, yes, but forget, Never!

[Bryan Somers]

Actually I had not realized it is that anniversery date untill I saw your post. 1941 was well before my time but my dad sure remembers. He enlisted in the NAVY shortly after and fought in the Pacific theater.

[Jim Becker]

Not even a gleam in my parent's eyes yet....but today is their anniversary, too. 52 years.

[Adam Bauer]

Wow I feel young, my parents weren't even born yet!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Nope.........My parents hadn't even met yet. But....my father enlisted in the Navy and fought in the South Pacific too!

[John Kain]

How things have changed for future generations.

Many of my best friends are Japanese 1st generation US citizens.

I own a Japanese SUV. I own all sorts of Japanese made products. I love sushi above all else. I have even read the "Bushido" based on Yamamoto's writings.

I can't wait to get to Japan for a vacation. Maybe I can visit Stu's dungeon!

I actually have an anti-discrimination thing going when I meet a Japanese citizen.......I just automatically assume they are exceptionally caring and friendly.


Funny how my generation doesn't even have a hint of negative feelings for Japan or their people.

60 years makes for alot of healing.

[Ken Garlock]

I was a little over one year old. While I don't remember this event, but later I do remember my Mother and me sitting in the dark with the window shades down at night. I remember my Dad putting on this Civil Defense armband and grabbing his nightstick to go out with the other men of the neighborhood.

About 10 miles east of us was Goodyear Aircraft and the big dirigible hanger. When we drove buy you could see acres of Corsair fighters waiting shipment. Of course we didn't do very much driving due to rationing.

I remember my Mother having a little change purse in which she kept her ration tokens for use at the grocery store.

I could go on, but then I would get into todays politics. :(

[Cecil Arnold]

About two months after this event I became a gleam in my parent's eyes. My father finished a hitch in the Army while they were engaged, then joined the Navy before I was born.

[Jim Becker]

For those of you interested, there is an article on MSNBC.com (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16086023/) about the scientific study going on relative to the USS Arizona and how it is changing in its underwater environment.

[Tyler Howell]

For those of you interested, there is an article on MSNBC.com (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16086023/) about the scientific study going on relative to the USS Arizona and how it is changing in its underwater environment.

Interesting!!!
Not a Glimmer

[Keith Outten]

I've heard both of my parents speak of Pearl Harbor and the Great War many times. My Dad served in the Navy when he graduated from high school just after the war started. My Mother never got over the war and never forgave the Japanese. My Dad was stationed at Pearl about two years after the attack for a very brief time then transfered to the carrier "Boxer".

There are oly 4 million of 16 million WWII veterans alive today. We came so close to losing WWII, most of the younger Americans don't realize how lucky they are and how much another generation suffered and sacrificed.

.

[Don Bergren]

That was before my time, but my dad was there. He was in the army and stationed at Schofield Barracks. In earlier years he never talked about it much, but in later years he has. At age 84 he seems a little bit more comfortable discussing it now, although he doesn't do it often. Each year on the anniversary he, my mother and I, always sit for a bit and talk about that day, and listen to what he may reveal that we never knew before. Sometimes he tells us something new, while other times he keeps those bad things locked away. We feel that being there to listen is important, and if he wants to talk about he can.... and if not, then that's okay too.

This morning as we were sitting with our coffee and talking, my mother asked him if the events of that day, as well as the following days, still seemed just as real to him all these years later. He said that it did.

My folks have owned Subaru's for years.

[jeremy levine]

My parents would not meet for 20 or so years.

I have been to Pearl Harbor and I hope to take my children there someday.

[Dan Gill]

I was born long after Pearl Harbor. My father was in the Army Air Corps during the war, and his brother was in the Merchant Marine. I have been twice to the Arizona Memorial, taking my kids once. There is one Gill listed among the dead, although nobody in the family knows if he was related to us. It is a solemn, humbling thing to stand over that sunken ship and know that so many men are entombed there.

My sister-in-law is Japanese/Hawaiian, and her father was part of the 100th Battalion/442nd Combat Infantry Group, made up of Japanese-Americans, the most highly decorated unit of its size in the history of the U.S. Army.

It think perhaps the most amazing turnaround in history was the way Germany (well, West Germany at the time) and Japan became our allies after the war.

[Dan Forman]

I was born 10 years later, to the day.

Dan

[Earl Reid]

I was 11 at the time, When they interupted the radio and said Pearl harbor was bombed My dad sent me to several neigbortha didn't have radios to tell them. I remember the air raid wardens and the scrap drives. my Dad was drafted in 1943, He was 35 at the time. I have been to Pearl Harbor. At the Arizona Memorial, I saw the name of a fellow worker's brother's name. I'll never forget.
Earl

[John Kain]

That was before my time, but my dad was there. He was in the army and stationed at Schofield Barracks. In earlier years he never talked about it much, but in later years he has. At age 84 he seems a little bit more comfortable discussing it now, although he doesn't do it often. Each year on the anniversary he, my mother and I, always sit for a bit and talk about that day, and listen to what he may reveal that we never knew before. Sometimes he tells us something new, while other times he keeps those bad things locked away. We feel that being there to listen is important, and if he wants to talk about he can.... and if not, then that's okay too.

This morning as we were sitting with our coffee and talking, my mother asked him if the events of that day, as well as the following days, still seemed just as real to him all these years later. He said that it did.



It seems, on very a limited basis, my father is the same way in discussing Vietnam. In my 30+ years, I've only heard him discuss it vaguely a couple times. I don't ever plan on asking about it. If he wants to tell me something, he will.

[Bryan Somers]

Dad used to would rarely talk about his time there but now after he's been invited to talk with some history classes at high schools and the community college he talks more freely.

He loves to show his American Flag with 48 stars before Alaska and Hawaii were states and the two different chits they had to show when operating in the Chinese area and regularly says
"You better know wich one your showing, if you showed the wrong one you would loose your head."

He now enjoys telling the students about his time there and they are fasinated by his stories.

[Doug Shepard]

Dad missed out on that one and did his army stint in the Korean War, after which he and Mom met.

And I wont eat their darn sushi either, though I don't know if that's a WWII retribution thing or just an aversion to eating bait.

[Frank Chaffee]

Carl,
I can sort of imagine how you feel about this day 65 years ago: My future mother was 11 years old, and lived with brown-outs and rationing coupons. My father left college and joined the US Army. He was about your age, and he would never speak of his war experiences.

Later, I was born and we lived in Married Student Housing; an entire village of veteran families dwelling in salvaged military barracks and Quonsets.

I sure hope that we can keep world relations from ever degrading to the level they did at that time.

Thank you Carl, for your courage and commitment during those trying times.

Frank

[Ken Salisbury]

I remember it well. I was 9 years old. After we came home from church in the early afternoon my Dad gathered us up and we all sat around the living room listening to the tragic news on the radio.

[Ben Grunow]

My grandfather was in the horse cavalry in the late 30s and when he realized the war was going to start he joined the air corp. As senior man, at 21, he was a flight commander (B 24) and flew 12 missions until shot down over Germany. Plane managed to get over Poland where he parachuted and ran on the ground for 2 days only to be captured by farmers with pitchforks when he stumbled into a clearing where some German women were doing laundry.

Off to prison camp for 18 months, death march or two and home to see his bride of 2 years (married after 6 dates). We have letters indicating he was KIA, MIA and POW from the Army. All by age 24... What did you do before age 24. I know what I did and needless to say, it was not as important or impressive.

It is easy to understand why some people dont buy Japanese cars or German cars as these types of feeling dont die easily.

On the other hand I think that most people are inherently good and my grandfather wsa able to travel to Germany and do business with the Germans throughout tht 60's and 70's. I had a Japanese college friend that my grandfather absolutely loved.

Any one who has traveled knows that wherever you go, people are basically the same. Work, food, family, housing, the same list of important items- just different languages and locales.

[John Kain]

My grandfather was in the horse cavalry in the late 30s and when he realized the war was going to start he joined the air corp. As senior man, at 21, he was a flight commander (B 24) and flew 12 missions until shot down over Germany. Plane managed to get over Poland where he parachuted and ran on the ground for 2 days only to be captured by farmers with pitchforks when he stumbled into a clearing where some German women were doing laundry.

Off to prison camp for 18 months, death march or two and home to see his bride of 2 years (married after 6 dates). We have letters indicating he was KIA, MIA and POW from the Army. All by age 24... What did you do before age 24. I know what I did and needless to say, it was not as important or impressive.

It is easy to understand why some people dont buy Japanese cars or German cars as these types of feeling dont die easily.

On the other hand I think that most people are inherently good and my grandfather wsa able to travel to Germany and do business with the Germans throughout tht 60's and 70's. I had a Japanese college friend that my grandfather absolutely loved.

Any one who has traveled knows that wherever you go, people are basically the same. Work, food, family, housing, the same list of important items- just different languages and locales.
I think you hit it on the head. The majority of good people dutifully do what they are told to do. The most steadfast soldiers are the probably the world's best people. War makes individuals do things horrific; and amplifies the criminal mind in those who make it accessible. It is hard to justify a hatred for a nation based on war. That fact has held true throughout human existance.

[Jack Dickey]

Dad had not met mother yet ..
He was in AAC , B17 crew with the 8th AF .. He never talked about it for many years .. We lost him in 1999 , a few months shy of his 90th birthday .. His brother was in 101st Airborne , and werked with the French underground , as he spoke fluent French ..
Mothers oldest brother was a medic , and was on the beach , for D Day .. he never talked about it .. NEVER .. Until , during the first Gulf War , dad was in the hospital , he came by to see him , and he sat it a corner with me , and talked to me for a couple hours about it ..
I spent 12 years in the Navy , and I figger he felt I would understand more than anyone else ..
Was stationed at Pearl for about two years , and was part of the Honor Guard , for one of the ceremonies .. The highlight of my career , I might add ..
That is Hallowed Ground .. You feel it ..
Dad forgave the Germans , not the Japanese ..
I have never owned nor will I own a Japanese automobile , cant afford a German one .. I will not buy Japanese products , if an American product is available ..
No prejudice , just old habits are hard to break .. I see my dad and several million others who gave their all , looking over my shoulder and frowning ..