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| USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor (Source) |
It was a long time ago, eighty two years as a matter of fact. My mother was eleven years old on that day, she's 93 now. Though she's still pretty sharp, her memory isn't what it used to be. So I'm not sure how much she remembers about that day and, having been 5,000 miles away from Hawaii in New Hampshire, how much that impacted her life in an immediate sense would be hard to guess.
Of those who were there, at Pearl Harbor on the 7th of December, 1941, very few remain. I believe there is only one man still alive from the crew of USS Arizona (BB-39), and he's over a hundred years old. So whatever it was like to be there on that day, if it hasn't been recorded, is lost forever. (Unless we're allowed to discuss such things in the afterlife, and I hope we are.)
The world has changed drastically since aircraft from six Japanese aircraft carriers attacked the U.S. 7th Fleet lying at anchor, but in some ways, it hasn't changed at all. There are still nations whose leaders believe there is no problem with attacking another country to take what they want. Evil still lurks in the dark corners of the planet. It probably always will, at least until the Second Coming¹.
I've been to Oahu² but have never gone out to the Arizona memorial. Someday, I might. It may be one of those places on the planet where my emotions would threaten to overwhelm me. Places like the sunken road at Antietam, the Allied ridge at Waterloo, the old pillbox on the road to Bastogne where I stood next to a marker for a young soldier who died at that very spot. There are more but ...
The attack on Pearl Harbor was the culmination of a number of poorly thought out courses of action, on both sides. Human history is replete with such things.
Sailors will tell you that ships have a soul, a spirit. The machinery itself, the hull, the bulkheads, the superstructure are simply unliving things, they, taken by themselves, have no spirit, no kami (神)³, if you will pardon the use of a Japanese word which just so happens to capture the precise meaning of what I'm trying to say. However, those who served aboard these ships leave part of themselves behind. Those who died aboard these ships even more so.
Over 900 of USS Arizona's crew remain entombed aboard this once proud warship now resting on the bottom of the harbor. She is still leaking oil, 82 years after her destruction. Arizona was destroyed in the first hours of America's involvement in WWII, the ship itself is dead, yet I would argue that her spirit, her kami lives on and will do so as long as there is anyone left to remember.
And therein lies the rub ...
Will there come a day when an American warship steams into Pearl, with her crew manning the rails, and the sailors themselves wonder why they are participating in such a ritual? Will there come a day when the attack on Pearl Harbor is a memory as old and dusty as that of an April morning in 1775 outside of Boston?
I like to think that that won't happen on my watch, my kids, sailors all, know about Pearl Harbor and appreciate the symbolism of the wreck of the USS Arizona. But as I age, will my grandchildren know of such things? Only LUSH's kids were born when she was on active duty. Their father Big Time still serves. But The Naviguesser's and The Nuke's kids were born quite a while after their parents took off the uniform for the last time.
All of them, having been born after 9/11, have never faced an event like Pearl Harbor, but their parents were connected to that event via their service in the Navy. What of those future generations whose parents never served, who may not serve themselves? Are we doomed to forget these things?
I hope not, but I fear it will come to pass.
For now, I will raise a glass to those who died that day, to those who fell in the years before, to those who have fallen in the years since, and to those who will fall in the future. War is endemic to our species, so there will be no end to the dying anytime soon.
But for today, I remember Pearl Harbor.
¹ If you believe in such things, and I do.
² I spent three days at Hickam AFB awaiting transport to Okinawa in 1976. Leaving the MAC terminal to go sightseeing could have resulted in a court martial. Mine.
³ You can read more about kami here.
I think the last Arizonan died this fall. What a horrible day.
ReplyDeleteLCDR Lou Conter is the last surviving member of the Arizona's crew as of June of this year. I can find no evidence to suggest that he has passed in the meantime.
DeleteTime marches on, it's up to we living to remember who and what has passed.
ReplyDeleteIt does, I get the feeling that fewer and fewer care to remember.
DeletePearl Harbor Day means something to me but it meant a lot to my parents, it was a day that changed their world. I suspect that to my kids it's one of those days where it's a "oh ya, they said this was an important day" when they read about it...
ReplyDeletePearl Harbor is just history now.. like the battle of Waterloo or Antietam or the war in Viet Nam. Something that happened way back when.
"Just history ..." words that tear deep into my soul. It's a big part of who we are today, as people, as a nation.
DeleteI was on R and R from Viet Nam combat infantry in 69-70 when I got to visit this memorial. It had a strong effect on me back then and still does.
ReplyDeleteNice to make your acquaintance, Barney. I'll have to get your blog up over on the sidebar, you have some good stuff over there.
Delete"this once proud warship now resting on the bottom of the harbor"
ReplyDeleteI would argue that she is still a proud warship, even though resting on the bottom of the harbor. A sorely wounded warrior still safeguarding our shores, and the souls/spirits/eternal essence of those aboard her standing their watches, ever vigilant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiGU-0iElko
They should not be forgotten.
DeleteSarge, I would argue you are using the term kami (神) as it was meant to be used. One of the great disasters of Modern Western Thought is that we have eliminated all sense of the mystery or divine out of the world around us and replaced it with flow charts and science that brooks no mysteries (and yes, before someone hollers, a supernatural Nature and God are not at odds. Go read the Psalms where the trees rejoice and the earth leaps with gladness and get back to me).
ReplyDeleteThe analogies are thick and out there, of course, but the closest thing we have to Pearl Harbor is 9/11, in the sense that (like Pearl Harbor) everything changed about the world in an instant. Even after the end of World War II, nothing went back to the way it was. In that sense - like 9/11 - it was a clear delineation, a stage gate which once passed through could never be re-entered.
I have been to the USS Arizona once long ago, although my memory betrays me if we went out to the memorial itself due to the seas. I will have to see if I can find the pictures.
Rest easy, Friends, on your eternal watch.
Concur with the mess that Modern Western Thought has done to our innate sense of wonder and curiosity. The further we get from Nature, the more our souls suffer.
DeleteCrusty Old TV Tech here. The USS Arizona is both a ship with its own collective soul as you noted, and a war grave, Arlington National Cemetery, West as it were. It, therefore, holds an especially hallowed place in the American consciousness. Resquiecat in Pace USS Arizona sailors, you are not forgotten.
ReplyDeleteSarge, you stirred the thought in the rusty recesses of my feeble brain. Yes, ships, aircraft, buildings seem to hold a little of their past and present occupant's spirit, expressed as you did in Japanese. In the case of a ship lost at sea, the imprinting is strong. But, even a place like an old imploded missile LF can hold such a "Kami". One day, I hope to visit the site of Titan II LF 374-7 near Republican, AR. An Airman lost his life there, many more were gravely injured, and the worst thing that can happen to an ICBM LF on alert, happened. All the PTS, Pneudralic, Comm Weenies, Missile Combat Crews, SP's, et. Al., who served at that place left an imprint, along with SrA David Livingston, killed in the line of duty. All that, the massive explosion, grave injuries, death, and it is now just a grassy field with some concrete pads as reminders. That field is not silent, for those with ears to hear. Neither is the USS Arizona.
"In Flander's fields, the poppies blow..."
Amen.
DeleteOne of the many advantages to my Post-School assignment to USCINCPAC HQ Camp Smith HI was my Office, IMHO had the second best view in the entire HQ. (The guy wearing 4 Stars view was better. Hard to believe, I know.) My view took in all of Pearl Harbor in the right side of the window and Diamond Head on the left (had to lean forward a bit to see that). It was very easy to get oriented on Pearl Harbor as the Arizona Memorial stood out quite well against the background, both Green and Blue. Couldn't see the ship from there, but knew it was present. I gotta say it kept me focused on my mission. Reminded me of the cost of making mistakes.
ReplyDeleteRest in Peace, Gentlemen.
juvat
History can count the dead, but we always need to remember, these were people, like you and me.
DeleteBeen to the Memorial. Good friend stood watches there back before the Nav gave her to the Smoky Bear people. Dress whites, medals and sword; now the Park people have the watch -sorta. Not being disrespectful of them, but it's diminished in my view.
ReplyDeleteAnd Sarge, that April morning is still very alive for me and mine.
Boat Guy
I live and breathe these things.
DeleteAs do I - and mine.
DeleteAnd yes, kami is a real thing.
BG
👍
DeleteWWII impacted my parent's lives. The Missouri was berthed in Bremerton years ago and a small portion of the deck where the Japanese surrender was signed was open to visits. My parents were visibly moved when we visited. Their Hawaii visit was before the Memorial was built but they did take a harbor tour.
ReplyDeleteTo the end of his days, my father would flinch is a multi-engine plane passed with engines not synchronized. Seems that was a Japanese tactic to make identifying their location more difficult.
Those who were there can't forget, those of us who weren't must not.
DeleteWhen I was young, those that fought in WW2 were still raising their children, remembering the day Pearl Harbor was bombed as though it was yesterday, and hoping their children would never face the horrors brought by tyranny. There was an important lesson to be learned from the errors of politics, delusions of power, and economics corrupted by those willing to destroy for gain. Hopefully, the memory of Pearl Harbor will never disappear, and the Arizona memorial considered a waste of money for those wanting to spend it on personal projects. Brave men died never having the option to fight back, and the horror they faced should be a perpetual reminder of how tenuous peace can be.
ReplyDeleteGood words, Jess.
DeleteI still remember the cold on a hot summer's day as I stood and tried to read all the names. And watched the tears flow out of the Arizona (for that's what many call the oil that still leaks to this day from her.)
ReplyDeleteA very sobering visit. Still haunts me some 53ish years later.
If you ever get a chance to go, do so. Her sailors need to be remembered and welcome a visit.
And, yes, kami. Nowhere in the Bible (Old or New Testament) does God say that things don't have spirits. Too many people have too many experiences with 'just things' having, hmmm, 'energy.' Not souls, but something's there. Spirits. You can pick up an old tool that's rusty, dusty and not in the best of shape and feel the previous craftsmen who held it. You can walk a field and feel the contentment from being taken care of, or feel the screaming of being ill-treated. During Japan's brief foray into Christianity in the 1700's, Kami didn't disappear, they existed side by side with the Trinity.
I pity the ship or object used and touched and worked on, by and with people that doesn't have a spirit. I am sure that you, OAFS, felt some F-4s were more... alive than others, no? This one was a good lady, that one was a crotchity grouch, that type of thing.
And, you know, I still to this day tear up when I think about that day I walked over her.
DeleteBeans #1 - Yes, each F-4 had a spirit, or kami, just as you say.
DeleteBeans #2 - All I need to see is a picture of that place to get that effect. I will go there someday, and hope not to have a complete breakdown considering the immensity of their sacrifice and how it's been squandered by these feckless "leaders" we are burdened with.
DeleteThe lessons of USS Arizona are vitally important today. But, they must be learned in the context provided by expanding your perspective to include the USS Missouri (BB-63) now a historic museum ship two berths away from the Arizona.
ReplyDeleteThe first part of the lesson includes the foolishness of ignoring foreign threats, and failure to consider their intentions and capabilities, and to take their threats seriously. Another is the importance of the ungentlemanly warfare in the cryptology, cyber, elint, and other intelligence sources which can, AND MUST BE exploited with extreme diligence in peacetime as well as during hostilities. The public, and adversaries need to know nothing about what we are doing, or how successful we are, but our security depends on knowledge. It also depends on leaders with keen intellect and sound judgement to understand and act upon good intelligence. Sadly, we are sorely lacking in such leader ship now, in uniform or suits.
The second part of the lesson is that from the USS Missouri. The Pacific is an unfathomly vast expanse, requiring massive naval forces and bases to defend, or to conquer. We have neither and are slowing divesting what little we have. China, has surpassed us, and is accelerating. David and Goliath have exchanged their capabilities in the last decade.
The third lesson is that a surprise attack may have "awakened a sleeping giant," but that is not the same as disrupting a slumbering dwarf.
(continued below)
John Blackshoe
Having flown over the Pacific numerous times, and having been at sea on one of our carriers on that same body of water, it's immensity is mind-boggling.
DeleteWest Taiwan, or Commie China, is rapidly entering the same stage as the USSR did in the early 1980s. Population drop, severe monjetary crisis, lack of faith by the populace. Which could 'inspire' the CCP to have a 'short, victorious war' over Taiwan or over India. Thing is, if Chyna jumps west into India, well, that won't work well, and if it jumps to the east, then India will push eastwardly, the Philippines will declare open warfare on any ChiCom ship, military or otherwise (like anyone actually believes that all those fishing vessels aren't part of the Peoples' Liberation Army's Navy.)
DeleteThings are getting interesting in a bad way in the Pacific and Indian Ocean theaters.
C
Such systems do not last, the Chicom fall is inevitable. My only hope is that it only hurts them, but I know it won't.
Delete(continued)
ReplyDelete"The Japanese strike force consisted of 353 aircraft launched from four heavy carriers. These included 40 torpedo planes, 103 level bombers, 131 dive-bombers, and 79 fighters. The attack also consisted of two heavy cruisers, 35 submarines, two light cruisers, nine oilers, two battleships, and 11 destroyers." (Source: Google "Japanese forces at pearl harbor attack")
But, today similar results against U.S. naval forces in the Pacific could be achieved with a few dozen ballistic or cruise missiles, either sea launched or land based from Asian locations. (Regardless if they speak Chinese or Korean.) Done with less than 30 minutes from launch to impact. Throw in an EMP attack on CONUS and we are wayback to the 1880s in a flash.
Domination of the seas is not an exclusive and endless right of the U.S. Navy, nor the Royal Navy, nor the Dutch, or Portuguese.
International borders have shifted continuously since Og the caveman and his tribe forcibly seized women, dinosaur herds, desirable real estate, or whatever from weaker neighbors. It is what people do, and no declaration of national boundaries has ever been permanently unchanged. (Otherwise Hawaii would still be a sovereign nation; Alaska a Russian Colony, the Pacific northwest the province of the Hudson Bay Company, our midwest and western states would be French or Spanish. Western Florida would be English, Jacksonville (and Ft. Caroline) would be French, St. Augustine, Spanish, and most to the south controlled by the Seminoles. The Dutch would control the Hudson River valley. Sweden would control the mid-Delaware valley. And, perhaps the Norsemen would control Little Rhody.)
Keeping that in mind, Americans need to be VERY RELUCTANT to commit to preserve territorial claims over islands off the Chinese coast which have been dominated by various warlords, the Portuguese, Japanese or some brand of Chinese nationalism. All during times when mainland China was a tumultuous mix of feuding warlords, ethnicities, or religions, not a unified "nation." Indeed, the U.S. had troops stationed on mainland China from the 1850s to the 1940s, when modern China emerged. And, in Northern Russia Murmansk region and Russian SIberia near Vladivostok for a few years after WW1. So much for our respect for foreign territorial integrity.
We can complain, refuse to engage in trade, pray, or cry all we like over Chinese threats to Taiwan, and any of those options will be about as ineffective as the others. But, to sacrifice our Pacific fleet to a sneak attack, or throw it away piecemeal in "an away game" we are destined to lose simply from the mathematical facts, is a greater threat to our national security than to abdicate poor decisions promising to support nominal allies many decades ago, in a changing world context.
So, absorb all the lessons. Learn from the past.
John Blackshoe
And if we don't ...
DeleteWe are surely doomed.
Brother,
DeletePretty sure Kido Butai had all six carriers for the 07 Dec attack.
Having said that, I agree completely with your assessment; even though Taiwan is much more deserving of our aid than zelensky and his criminal cronies.
Boat Guy
BG is correct:
DeleteAll six of Japan's first-line aircraft carriers, Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Shokaku and Zuikaku, were assigned to the mission. With over 420 embarked planes, these ships constituted by far the most powerful carrier task force ever assembled. (Source)
I appreciate the correction. Point I was trying to make was that an attack force of that magnitude was no longer needed from traditional surface assets when missiles are the norm today. We might also ask how many US Carriers we have today, and how many of those are available for WESTPAC ops? And, what escorts with ASW and AAW abilities can accompany them in a non-permissive environment? Better also ask what ship repair facilities we have west of Sandy Eggo, and plan B if any of those are taken out in an early strike? Pick our wars wisely over issues of vital national security interests, not just comparative anatomy contests between leaders.
DeleteJB
The quote attributed to Albert Einstein as to what weapons would be used in WWIII seems appropriate to such a discussion ...
DeleteI know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
As to the Arizona herself, she went on, in pieces and parts, to fight the whole rest of the war. Metal from her superstructure was used to repair other ships, her guns were used in shore batteries on Oahu (only fired to celebrate VJ Day) and installed on USS Nevada and were fired at Okinawa and Iwo Jima.
ReplyDeleteWaste not, want not. We used to believe in such things.
DeleteTurrets Number 3 and 4 were transferred to the US Army, who put them in a battery to defend Oahu. The guns of Battery Pennsylvania were only fired once, and Battery Pennsylvania was scrapped after the war, which is a shame.
Delete👍
DeleteI've been to Pearl Harbor a couple of times. I actually met a guy who was on the Arizona that morning (this was 20 years ago). I also like the symbolism of the Missouri docked next to the Arizona. One symbolizes the start, the other the conclusion.
ReplyDeleteI have loved the idea of mooring the Missouri there since they made that happen.
DeleteThe end in stark contrast to the beginning.
Or…don’t start something you can’t finish!
Deletejuvat
Oh yeah.
DeleteThe first time I went to Pearl Harbor I flew there from Treasure Island via Travis on a C5. We landed at Hickham and then set up camp on the seaplane ramp on Ford Island, initially and then shifted our tents to the ball field over by the Fleet Landing and clubs (which were mostly closed the 2 weeks I was there. I took the opportunity to visit the memorial and to walk around Ford Island many times including making passage by the wreck of USS Utah. It was a kind of semi-magical place where one wreck was shrouded in honored glory and the other wrecked battleship was completely unknown, forgotten and ignored except by a handful of people who lived or worked on the island.
ReplyDeleteAnother great post Sarge!
JB mentioned USS Utah in his post the other day. It's sad that she is forgotten.
DeleteTo be fair, Utah was converted into a training ship and had minimal loss of life even though she took two torpedoes and sunk and rolled pretty quickly. She was in shallow enough water that many could just easily swim away, while others recovered cutting tools and torches from USS Raleigh, also damaged, and cut holes in the hull to let trapped crew out.
DeleteThere is a memorial for her at Pearl, on the banks and on a platform over the water where she sunk and was unable to be salvaged.
Still, she gets scant mention.
DeleteI love that the Navy is steeped in tradition and never forgets it history. We had a Pearl Harbor remembrance celebration today at work which was well done- and by sailors who were barely even born when the last attack on U.S. soil occurred 22 years ago.
ReplyDeleteTradition is how an organization remembers, and honors, its predecessors. The Navy is good at that. My own service? The less said the better.
Delete