Below is the full address given by FDR December 8, 1941:
This Reuters interviews features the comments of Pearl Harbor survivor Don Stratton:
Don Stratton is correct when he says that people forget. I wonder what will be remembered about 9/11 70 years from now?
There was an apochryphal story in my ex-husband's family. His grandparents had friends living in Hawaii in December 1941. They were American citizens of Japanese extraction. December 7th was a Sunday. The wife had gone into town on an errand while her husband relaxed in his kimono in their livingroom, reading. Suddenly, the front door burst open. His wife charged into the room.
"Stand up!" she ordered. Bewildered, he got out of his chair. Before he could stop her, she ripped the kimono off his back, ran outside and stuffed it into the trash incinerator. When she came back she yanked a brand-new, American-style bathrobe out of a shopping bag and threw it at him.
"Put this on," she snapped. "We're in trouble."
We remember stories like this now, and stories of the Japanese internment. But at the time of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese military was remembered for their barbarous behavior during the Rape of Nanking in 1937:
On December 9, the Japanese troops launched a massive attack upon the city. On the 12th, the defending Chinese troops decided to retreat to the other side of the Yangtze River (Yangzi Jiang). On December 13, the 6th and 16th Divisions of the Japanese Army entered the city' s Zhongshan and Pacific Gates. In the afternoon, two Japanese Navy fleets arrived. In the following six weeks, the occupying forces engaged in an orgy of looting and mass execution which came to be known as the Nanking Massacre. Most experts agree that at least 300,000 Chinese died, and 20,000 women were raped. Some estimate the numbers to be much higher - 340,000 and 80,000 respectively.
(Image Credit: Nanking-massacre.com)
Things are forgotten because narratives compete over time. It does not seem appropriate to dwell on the documented atrocities of Nanking while the peaceful Japanese nation of today struggles with the Fukushima disaster. Likewise, guilt over the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined with the memory of our own civil rights struggles in the 1960s have brought Japanese Internment to the forefront of American memory in recent times.
Both of these narratives contain important truths, yet neither tells the entire story. The piece that we re-examine and honor today is the sudden attack on O'ahu and the brave Americans who gave their lives resisting it: 2,043 dead (68 civilians), 1,178 injured.
Some interesting links:
History.com- a thorough treatment of the subject, with articles and video.
CNIC.navy.mil- The official Pearl Harbor Joint Base website, with complete, up-to-date reports on the observances taking place there today.
British Pathe.com- an outstanding collection of histoic videos covering all aspects of the attack, including the Japanese reaction and event in Hawaii.
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