Last month, I had the privilege to visit Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii. We experienced the audio tour, which had many interviews with survivors and other citizens on the island.
The Stars and Stripes at Pearl Harbor
In 2006, I had the privilege to visit Normandy, France. We visited the American Cemetery, as well as the Omaha, Utah, Gold, and Sword beaches.
For days after my visit to Pearl Harbor, I could not get the the parallels and juxtapositions between these two places (and also the events of 9/11) out of my heart and head. With deep apologies to those who already understand better than I ever will the events of January 7, 1941, I would like to offer these reflections.
Pearl Harbor and 9/11
Even though the U.S. had some intelligence that there would be attacks soon, both the attacks of January 7, 1941 and 9/11 came as a surprise.
They had both been carefully planned. The Japanese had worked on the Pearl Harbor plan for over a year. Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden had worked for longer than that. They both were coordinated attacks on multiple targets to happen in a single morning. (I had not realized that there were multiple targets that morning; not just Pearl Harbor. The Japanese also attacked other U.S. and British bases, as well.)
They both happened during peacetime.
They both would usher us into war. I didn't realize before our visit how bad the relationship was between the U.S. and Japan. I didn't know that Japan had been aggressively expanding their territory for a decade.
Of course, 9/11 wasn't sponsored or carried out by a particular country, in that, the events differ widely.
The attack on Oahu was the first time that radar had been used as anything more than a technological curiosity. (I also had the opportunity to see where radar was developed during a boat ride on the Potomac, so I get interested in the history of radar.) Unfortunately, the blips that the radar was giving were assumed to be inbound planes expected from California, instead of the 353 Japanese airplanes that were involved in two different waves of attack.
https://www.census.gov/history/pdf/pearl-harbor-fact-sheet-1.pdf
It was also a permanent shift and change in the methodology of warfare. Before Pearl Harbor, ships would battle one another at sea. December 7 began the era of the aircraft carrier; ships, planes, and other targets would be hit from the air rather than out at sea.
Although the interviews during the audio tour occurred years after the event, you could hear the defeat in the voices of the personnel that survived that day: "We didn't know. We couldn't have guessed what was coming. Even if we had understood, I don't know that we could have prevented it." My feeling is that those at Pearl Harbor felt as if they had let the U.S. down, that they should've known, that they could have protected better in some way.
I believe that feeling was present around the events of 9/11. Who could have guessed that airplanes would be used as missiles? Before 9/11, there were hijackings, yes. But only to go someplace other than the planes' original destinations. Unimaginable!
Because of 9/11, this Gen-Xer felt very deeply the disorientation, surprise, and defeat of those service people as I heard their stories of December 7.
Pearl Harbor and Normandy
The American Cemetery at Normandy is vast; I took time to walk the length of it. The amount of American service people interred boggles the mind. It's a very sobering place.
American Cemetery at Normandy
Touring the beaches of D-Day was also an undertaking to be done with reverence. Craters, bunkers, and tank roadblocks are still present.
Pointe du Hoc; between Utah and Omaha beaches
Although the feeling in Normandy is very somber, it is also very different than the feeling at Pearl Harbor.
At Pearl Harbor, there was a sense of futility, defeat.
In Normandy, there is a noble feeling. Pearl Harbor was the first salvo in a six year war. D-Day was the turning point in that war. D-Day marked the climb upward.
So much life was lost on French beaches that day. Yet there is a feeling that we, the United States, were doing something good. Good for France, good for the world. Instead of defeat, victory. Instead of getting caught by surprise, we were the "white hat" guys.
Thoughts and Questions
I learned about the Axis and Allied powers grouped together in a history class. Because of this, I lumped together all the efforts of Germany, Italy, and Japan in my mind as if they were working in complete concert with one another. Now, I'm not sure that's what was happening. I have so much I don't know. I know that in ways they were working in concert, but I am now more awake to the similar ideological lines and military actions that formed separately but brought them together. The more I learn, the more questions I have.
Having lived during the era of 9/11 and also having visited Normandy made my feeling about Sunday, December 7, 1941 quite intense. Days later, I got teary talking through these thoughts with Mom and Jim.
I have much gratitude to the historians and others who put together the visitor's center at Pearl Harbor so well. It is because of their good work that I am able to interact with these thoughts and feelings.
Because I am a post-Enlightenment American with a sitcom-long, episodic orientation, I wish for a lesson to learn. I wish for some retroactive solution and comfort that I could give to those on Oahu that day; or to the nation as a whole.
But all I can do is bear witness. Bear witness to the parallels, the juxtapositions, the surprise, the loss of life. The loss of heart.
As I get older, I realize that bearing witness to tragedy is sometimes all there is to be done. But I am also convinced that it is more important than I could have realized.
I am thankful that I've had the chance to see and think over these things.
To bear witness.
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