Remembering Pearl Harbor

This week we remember the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that robbed America of 2,400 young lives. That singular event galvanized a peaceful nation, plunging us headlong into what had been considered a European war.

And 60 years later? The media has been flooded with images of Japanese and American survivors in amicable poses. Former enemies shook hands and embraced each other at the 60th anniversary memorial service at Pearl Harbor.

On that same day, President Bush addressed 10,000 crew and veterans aboard the USS Enterprise. "Today we take special pride that one of our former enemies is now among America's finest friends," he stated. "We're grateful to our ally Japan and to its good people. Today our two navies are working side by side in the fight against terrorism. The bitterness of 60 years ago has passed away."

But just because a President who was not at Pearl Harbor proclaims the dissolution of bitterness spawned there does not automatically make it so. Neither is time a salve that heals all wounds.

President Bush added, "The struggles of our war in the Pacific now belong to history. For Americans who fought it and suffered its losses, what remains is the lasting honor of service in a great cause and the memories of ones who fell."

Indeed, each survivor's death inches Pearl Harbor one step closer to a history lesson beyond the reach of anyone's experience. The call to arms in 1941 is surely on our honor roll of compelling war cries. Remember the Alamo! Remember the Maine! Remember Pearl Harbor!

But how will Pearl Harbor be perceived in 40 more years? In 1967, Paul M. Angle wrote of the feelings 100 years after the Civil War. While survivors remained, he noted that friendships developed among former enemies. "Meeting annually and beguiled by the stirring sounds of fife and drum, they came to see romance in what had been a grim lottery for survival."

But after the death of all survivors, those who never knew the war firsthand still lived in its shadow. Mr. Angle comments, "One could only say that the hatreds engendered had not yet been wholly subsidized and that the aspirations of men of good will had not yet been realized."

I admire those American survivors who have found the grace to be reconciled to enemies who murderously attacked them without provocation. Their sufferings are not forgotten, but relegated to a past which permits them to better deal with the present. With ranks rapidly thinning, they seem resolved to lay downs arms and walk through the portals of eternity in peace. I'm not sure I could do as well.

But there is wisdom in setting aside bitterness--whatever the source--and living our remaining days in peace. Impossible as it sounds, the survivors of Pearl Harbor prove otherwise. It's a lesson I need.

Remember Pearl Harbor--and those resolved to do their parts to heal the bitter wounds that were opened there. They are heroes.

Copyright 2001 James McAlister

Printer friendly version

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Parallel Tracks Of Good And Bad

The late Ron Dunn, a preacher whom I highly esteem, coined a truism I frequently lean upon: Good and bad run along parallel tracks and often arrive about the same time. Though some had warned us, nothing could have prepared us for our first visit to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. From children to the aged, the outward devastation of pernicious disease on frail human bodies overloaded our senses. They are courageous souls in hand-to-hand combat with a vicious enemy of seemingly inexhaustible tenacity. But they press on. To cover the almost-inevitable baldness that cancer treatment wreaks, many select colorful head scarves or stylish wigs as banners for their individual battles. Calling cancer a bad thing is a gross and trivial understatement. But even amid their roiling seas of trouble, good persists in bobbing to the surface as cancer patients openly discuss both defeats and victories. Without a hint of bitterness, Mr. Boudreaux relates the loss of a leg and other traumati...
Read more

Learning With Ollie In The School Of Basics

Oliver Wickerham Gatchell wouldn't have stood for it. Nope. He was just too practical. As I saw him do many times, he would have risen up and demanded an accounting. I first encountered him in 1963. I was a college freshman, and he was a crusty, white-headed old engineer teaching the most basic entry-level course. Whispers from the older students warned us: Ollie Gatchell would strike fear in our hearts. And so he did, making that initial engineering course a baptism by fire. On the first day of class, he didn't bother introducing himself. Instead, he instantly solidified his reputation with a challenge: "OK, you prospective engineers. Let's see who can figure out how to get the lead into his pencil." Nobody could. Those mechanical pencils were easily fumbled, but we did learn how to use them--thanks to the demanding Ollie Gatchell. Knowing the necessity of discipline and order in engineering work, he despised inefficiency and imprecision. One class period found u...
Read more