Yesterday, December 7th, 2016, marked 75 years since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the event which marked the direct entry of the United States into World War 2. Rather than talk about what Pearl Harbor is like now, or just cover the normal anniversary events, I thought I would share my perspective on the fact that it’s been 3/4ths of a century since this event. I’m sorry if it’s a bit of a ramble, it’s yet another article typed as a stream of thought.
When I was younger, it seemed like World War 2 was forever ago. As a person gets older, their understanding of time grows more, and they begin to be better able to place events in relation to their own lives and, oddly, even as time continued to move forwards, that war made more sense to me in its place in time. World War 1, which, oddly, we would be 100 years ago right in the middle of, really does feel like a far gone time, but the second World War, not so much.
It’s hard to phrase, really, but for someone like me, born in the 80’s, to think back to events 40 years before they were born and see them as “relatively recent” does make sense, but 75 years ago sounds like a long time. Hell, just thinking back to the technology of 2001 seems like ancient history, so to think back 75 instead of 15 years, and not see it as “that far back” is odd. I’m certain though it’s the fact that the events are baked into our collective consciousness, much like 9/11 will be for my generation; a moment frozen in time, and somewhat timeless in its own right, for good and for bad.
The truly sad thing is that those men and women who were around for these events are mostly gone now. A decade ago I used to pretty regularly see men with World War 2 veteran hats on, and I would thank them, ask them a bit about what they did, if they wished to talk to me about it. I would learn a small fragment of someone else life, in regards to one of the most, if not the most critical event in human history.
These days, I just don’t get that chance anymore, and it hurts. Much like how there are no people alive, in any capacity today, who participated actively in World War 1, soon, all the men and women who were involved in the second world war will be gone, and their stories, and memories, that have not yet been documented in some way, will be gone as well.
Time keeps moving forwards. At Pearl Harbor, some buildings still show damage from the attacks, and the hull of the USS Arizona still remains where she was sunk 75 years ago, becoming a critical symbol in the United States drive to defeat Japan during the war.
There is some irony, you could say, in that my pseudonym online is Japanese themed, and that as I grew up what else did I enjoy but animation and game consoles created by Japan. This, however, shows the healing nature of time, and is a direct echo of the war: when it was all said and done, we helped rebuild Japan and push it forward into the “modern” age, and they went with it and haven’t looked back! While some people forever held resentment to Japan for the attack on pearl (my great grandmother was one of these people) this is a case where they were products of their time, and as we move forward, future generations grow up knowing of these events, but not being directly affected by them as much as their predecessors. Perhaps children coming in the next few generations will not share the same scars that my generation does, it would seem, from 9/11.
Time has a way of healing things, but to forget history is to be doomed to repeat it, and Pearl Harbor still stands as an example of the mistakes of the past, and the repercussions of these mistakes.
Of course, it doesn’t stand alone on the grand scheme of history, nor does it stand alone in the legacy of World War 2, but today, I thought I would share my thoughts on what this anniversary made me feel.