Memory of Pearl Harbor still vivid 81 years later
The ferry ride out to the Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii, is a solemn one.
The guides remind tourists that the monument also marks the resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors and Marines killed on USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and a hush settles over the group as they near the gleaming white building situated atop the sunken remains of Arizona.
So many decades later, we find ourselves struck by the anniversary in the days leading up to it, and often for several days after.
Upon disembarking, the guide moves through their monologue with practiced surety as one is free to wander the space. As your eyes settle on the surface of the glimmering water, they catch kaleidoscopic colors swirling over the otherwise-clear surface.
The source? Inky clouds of oil that still rise out of the wreckage.
The Black Tears of the Arizona, as they’re called, are the result of residual oil that did not blow up in the attack. The chilling, heart-wrenching prophecy?
When the last survivor passes away, the tears will cease to fall.
This week, Eagle staff had the opportunity to speak with George Pann, who was stationed at nearby Fort Ruger for his Army service at the time. His memories of Pearl Harbor represent the people who were lost in the devastating attack, their names wrought in marble on a massive wall at the shrine.
Most of the men, like Pann, were exiting their teen years in 1941. It doesn’t take long after one moves past that phase of life to realize the infancy of ages 17 and 18. Most of us couldn’t handle the experiences of that day in our thirties, and the survivors have carried them for a lifetime.
This, right here, is why veterans deserve respect. There’s no way to fully wrap words around the heaviness in the air at that memorial. Even on the most picturesque day, vibrant hibiscus flowers popping out of the landscape on the distant shore, one’s heart is weighed down by the sheer significance.
Our sincerest gratitude is forever with those survivors as well as those who never left the decks of the ship.
We owe you a debt that can never be repaid.
— CM
