“The mothers suffered the most.” I think the fathers suffer equally. It’s hard to imagine that the ones who died were 17 and 18 years old. That’s the age most kids graduate from high school.
Often Americans envision our military as “fighting men” when actually those men are really someone’s son or daughter. When we are chest thumping and calling for blood, it is prudent to remember who really goes in on the front lines.
The survivors are few now. Pearl Harbor is passing into the ages.
Another personal perspective
More reading: Tom Brokaw: Pearl Harbor is the birth place of America’s “Greatest Generation”
The 75th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor seems particularly important to honor because there are so few WWII veterans left. As someone who is both a veteran and a parent of an ROTC cadet, the loss of those young sailors and soldiers must have been excruciatingly terrible. I think it is going to prove to be more difficult to have a kid in the military than to actually serve in the military.