If some of this looks familiar…it is. That’s the neat thing about anniversaries. You can recycle them.
The Greatest Generation spent their childhood in the roaring 20′s. As teenagers they weathered the Great Depression of the 30′s. Reaching adulthood in the 40′s looked bright until that fateful Sunday afternoon in early December. Every one from the Greatest Generation remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news, much like those who followed now can tell you where they were and what they were doing when they heard of the Kennedy assassination or 9/11.
Many people had no idea where Pearl Harbor was or that our Naval Fleet was berthed there. Yet upon hearing of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, most Americans were filled with rage and a sense of betrayal because of the sneak attack. The Greatest Generation would have their lives unalterably changed forever.
On December 8, 1941 they listened to their president, Franklin Roosevelt, make the following address to Congress:
To the Congress of the United States of America
Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy – the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
The United States was at peace with that nation and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with the government and its emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.
Over 3,000 lives, both civilian and non-civilian were lost in the attack on Pearl Harbor. America had a decimated navy. The politics of war had kept FDR’s hand off the trigger and had kept us out of the war raging in Europe. All but one member of Congress voted to declare war on Japan and within a week war had been declared on Germany and Italy. The United States was fully at war, from the youngest child to the oldest citizen.
On this day, please give a second of your time to remember those who perished and a second to pay homage to that generation who gave so much. Where would we be today without the Greatest Generation? Soon they will be lost to the ages and the annals of time. Those boys who went off to war are now staring down 90 if they are even still with us. That is a sobering thought.