On Monday, veterans and members of our military gathered together for a remembrance ceremony for the victims killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor, which included hundreds of sailors who died that die aboard the battleship U.S.S. Oklahoma.
Advertisement
In attendance at the ceremony were 95-year-old Clyde Stephenson from Appleton and 93-year-old King resident Chuck Davis, both survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack.
Monday marks the 74th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
“I’m thankful for the experiences that I had in the navy and I’m thankful that I am in pretty good health”, said Jack Evans, Pearl Harbor survivor. The infamous attack claimed the lives of 2,403 Americans and marked the United States’ entry into World War II.
“It brings back some lousy memories”, said Irwin, of returning to Pearl Harbor. Germany and Italy declared war on the US a few days later.
LePage encouraged veterans and their families to participate in a program called the Legacy Project, in which the Maine Bureau of Veterans Services record the oral histories of World War II veterans and their families.
Like the 9/11 terror attacks that occurred almost 60 years later, the Pearl Harbor attack became a rallying point around the flag.
In Hawaii, the USS Arizona Memorial commemorates the attack, and the Battleship Missouri symbolizes the end of WWII.
The Japanese air and naval assault on Dec 7, 1941, a date that US President Franklin Roosevelt said “will live in infamy”, took 2,390 American lives.
“You can’t discount the people that stayed home and didn’t go, everyone pitched in and did something”, said Walker. More than 3,000 people joined the survivors.
“I was on duty in the dining room”, Loyd said. We don’t know what they would’ve become.
Mr Schuler, from San Jose, California, said: ‘I come back just to renew my acquaintance’.
Advertisement
“For 74 years, we’ve remembered Pearl Harbor”.
