by Joe Snyder
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Monday, Dec. 7, was the 68th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It may have little meaning for those who were not around to share the action and passion of those times. But it is a day I certainly recall, along with millions of other Americans who had the burden of World War II thrust upon them in a most unceremonious manner.
I had been drafted into the Army the month before and as I recall I was mopping the floor of a mess hall at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, (it was called KP in those days) when word came via radio that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor.
Although I had been drafted under the assumption that I would serve only 12 or 14 months, when I heard the news of the devastation at Pearl Harbor I knew that I would not get back home very soon. At that time the United States was spread pretty thin in various parts of the world, defending what President Roosevelt called "Democracy."
There wasn’t any "Hell no, I won’t go" in 1941. In fact I remember well that night I received final instructions from the head of my draft board. He said: "Forget civilian life now son, you’re already in the Army." Actually I didn’t leave for the induction center until three days later, but his point was well made.
It was perhaps a good thing that it didn’t occur to any of us draftees that we ought to simply declare that we weren’t in favor of basic training and didn’t want to fight anybody. If we had Adolf Hitler or his followers might be cultivating his world-wide super race from a magnificent Reichstagg building in the new Berlin – or Washington D.C.
There was a time when I wished the Supreme Court had told us poor saps that we had "rights" way back then instead of waiting many years later.
Since then I have visited Pearl Harbor and seen the Battleship Arizona and the Utah beneath the sparkling waters of the harbor, with tiny oil slicks still bubbling to the surface from their fuel tanks after all those years. I have thought many times of the men entombed in those ships and with how little dignity some men died in that war. Some people say the oil will continue to seep from the Arizona for another 200 years.
I remember some years ago I was very proud, when on behalf of a group of visiting newspapermen, I was permitted to throw a wreath of flowers on the water above the Arizona. It is the grave of 1,102 men who, prior to that infamous day, had the same high hopes and dreams for their lives as I did. Fate put them in their watery grave and left me to ponder the mystery of circumstances and survival.
Oddly enough, a high percentage of visitors at Pearl Harbor today are Japanese citizens. There is no joy on their expressions there, either. They may reveal curiosity and the normal excitement of a tourist at a point of special interest, but they are well aware that victory at Pearl Harbor signaled the beginning of the end for Imperial Japan. There are a lot of us who will never forget Pearl Harbor.
Let us not forget all the men and women who are in the service today going where they are required to preserve peace and harmony in a world that is often threatened by those who seek nothing but war and global turmoil.