Today marks 75 years since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and in honor of the day, I'm reposting what I wrote in September, 2012, after my visit to the Arizona Memorial:
Yesterday we toured the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor and the USS Missouri Memorial, both of which were fascinating and very moving. I was surprised to learn that after 71 years since the attack in 1941, there are 13 Pearl Harbor survivors still living. When a survivor dies, if the family wishes, the Navy will conduct a memorial service out on the white Arizona memorial structure, then send a diver with the cremated remains down under the water. The specially packaged remains are then inserted into a crack in the Arizona, allowing the veteran to be interred with his fallen comrades for all eternity.
On the Missouri, I was most intrigued to see the actual site of the Japanese surrender, which brought World War II to an end. My favorite tidbit: As they were setting up for the ceremony on the deck of the Missouri, apparently General Douglas MacArthur arranged for the tallest soldiers and sailors on the ship to be lined up along the pathway where the Japanese officials would walk - one last bit of in-your-face intimidation for the much-shorter representatives from Japan.
You can read the entire post here.
I find myself wondering what the world will be like on September 11, 2076, which will be the 75th anniversary of 9/11.
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