Four men ventured to Hawaii this week to pay tribute to more than 1,000 of their shipmates.
They went to the USS Arizona Memorial, which sits proudly in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
They are the last survivors of the crew that was hit on Dec. 7, 1941 by Japanese warplanes. The men who perished on the Arizona are still entombed in the water below the memorial. These four comrades say they won’t go back for future services marking, in President Roosevelt’s words, “the date, which will live in infamy.”
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/survivors-gather-remember-pearl-harbor-attack-27427171
But they came this weekend to honor those who died on the terrible day 73 years ago.
They’re old men now. In their 90s. They’re frail, but as an article noted about their return, it’s as if in their minds that time has stood still since that horrific Sunday morning. Of course, time hasn’t stood still for anyone.
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The coverage of today’s event reminds me of a story told to me by a good friend here in Amarillo about a visit he made recently to the memorial. The shortened version is as follows.
My friend, Roy, watched an elderly gentleman struggle to get off the water taxi that ferries visitors from the island to the Arizona memorial. The gentleman finally got off the craft and shuffled toward the exhibit inside the memorial.
It was then that he noticed the gentleman was of Asian descent. A Coast Guardsman on duty at the time told my friend that the fellow was one of the Japanese pilots who inflicted such grievous damage on the U.S. Pacific Fleet that day, and he was coming back to Hawaii to pray for the souls who died that day and to seek forgiveness.
It’s instructive to hear these stories, if only to remind us that the “enemy” comprised young men who were doing their duty, just as our young men — and women — were doing theirs.
Those pilots are now old men. Their ranks are dwindling. Soon they’ll all be gone.
Let us not forget that emotional pain is universal. It follows no ideology. It’s as real to those who fought on the other side as it to our side.