Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Essay

On December 7, 1941 the United States was forcefully launched into World War II by the attack that the Empire of Japan had set in motion. Pearl Harbor, on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, with her blue waters and tropical greenery is a beautiful gem of the Pacific Ocean. On “a date that will live in infamy” Japanese pilots proceeded to blitz the presumed “non-torpedo-able” harbor in a maelstrom pulse of terror. Japanese Zeros with their arsenal of modified torpedoes assaulted, destroyed, and damaged several ships leaving the Pacific Fleet of the Navy crippled. Death tolls rose to more than two-thousand service men. The day was a grim and sudden. Army Major Shawn Russell agrees, “to have that taken away so violently on December 7th must have felt like a violation of what that place was supposed to be. So as a location, it symbolizes the difference between how beautiful a place can be and yet how quickly it can be taken away, your whole world--the whole world--changed forever” (Russell). It has been almost 74 years since the attack and it is still a major part of American history and culture. From that day forward pop culture continues to remember, acknowledge, grieve and memorialize the …show more content…
Held just a few minutes away from the harbor, Parade participants march the course paying tribute to the dead. Some participants are survivors themselves. The Parade’s website states, “the purpose of the parade is to honor and pay respect to the Pearl Harbor survivors, our veterans, active duty military and their families" (Pearl Harbor Memorial Parade). It involves the local community that grew up with the history or those that were a part of the history. It also welcomes participants from all over the country to be a part of a truly patriotic salute to heroes, and allowing those from other parts of the country to practice their