Japanese leader Abe to visit Pearl Harbor with Obama

Jim Hal Johnston was killed 75 years ago today during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Here’s Wayne Yoshioka from Hawaii Public Radio.

Much like September 11, 2001, is for the current generation, December 7, 1941, is the seminal moment of horror for what author and television newsman Tom Brokaw aptly termed the “Greatest Generation”.

The attack devastated the US fleet, sinking or severely damaging 18 ships, as well as destroying 161 American planes and seriously damaging 102 more.

It would provide us with a unique opportunity to honor those who experienced the emotional awakening triggered by the attack, said Admiral Thomas B. Fargo in a statement released by the anniversary committee. Ceremonies took place in Pearl Harbor and at the National World War Two memorial in Washington.

(AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy). In this Monday, Dec. 5, 2016 photo, Ray Chavez, a Pearl Harbor survivor from Poway, Calif., pauses while eating breakfast in Honolulu. He was a 19-year-old Navy signalman in 1941. After Pearl Harbor almost every able bodied person had to step up and do their part, whether in the European or Pacific theater or at home building the machines of war. I saw it from 180 feet in the air looking down.

“Every time I pull a sheet, I think about, it was bad”.

His ship, the USS West Virginia, was hit by nine torpedoes. She took nine torpedoes. After the United States dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan, Mr. Henry became the first wire service journalist to interview the pilot of the Enola Gay, the very B-29 Superfortress that dropped the bomb over Hiroshima. We resolve that we will keep faith with those we have loved and lost.

Navy divers will inter John’s cremated remains in the No. 4 turret of the USS Arizona.

“I watched the whole thing”. So I feel like I’m living through him, for my country and everything.

The Veterans History Project has produced more than 600 oral histories of American veterans and civilians who experienced wartime events, in the hopes that future generations can benefit from these firsthand accounts, according to the project website. It’s a small thought that crosses your mind, but it’s a thought that never prevails.

CONTER: We don’t want it to happen again. “We all got along friendly, we didn’t call them this or racist, or this or that, or the other thing”.

YOSHIOKA: The Pearl Harbor Survivors Association once had 18,000 members.