This morning in Honolulu, more than 2,000 U.S. military service personnel, veterans and other observers gathered at Pearl Harbor to commemorate the 71st anniversary of the devastating Japanese sneak attack that killed thousands of people and launched the United States into World War II.
At 7:55 a.m., the exact time on the Sunday morning in 1941 when hundreds of Japanese planes began raining bombs and torpedoes onto Oahu’s U.S. military ships and planes, onlookers across from the sunken USS Arizona once again became respectfully silent.
More than 2,400 Americans were killed and nearly 1,180 injured when stealth Japanese fighters bombed and sank 12 naval vessels and heavily damaged nine others. There are few survivors left, with most in their 90′s. The Pearl Harbor Survivors Association disbanded December 2011.
The USS Arizona still lies beneath the harbor with its dead entombed. The ship sank in less than nine minutes after a 1,760-pound armor-piercing bomb penetrated its decks and exploded in the ship’s forward ammunition magazine. 1,177 sailors and marines onboard were killed; 337 crew members survived.
Other major installations on Oahu, such as Wheeler Field and Kaneohe Naval Air Station, also were attacked. LIFE’s photos of the attack can be seen here.
The Pearl Harbor Visitor’s Center features galleries, interactive exhibits, two movie theaters, an amphitheater and an education center.
For more history, visit the U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service site here and the Naval History and Heritage site here.
USS Arizona Commander Daniel J. Condon was among the survivors of the attack. A medical doctor, he later served as the Medical Examiner for Maricopa County. His sword & belt were salvaged from the ship. His sword is on display at the Arizona State Capital, and his sword belt is displayed at the University of Arizona Museum. Dr. Condon died in 1992.
View President Franklin Roosevelt’s famous “A date which will live in infamy” speech (Original Draft:page 1, page 2 and page 3) and declaration of war following that unprovoked attack.
Thank you for this necessary reminder. History is being reshaped by political correctness or altogether forgotten as our government (once known as “public”) schools have veered left under liberal teacher‘s unions.
I wonder how many of our American students are learning what Philosopher George Santayana said so well: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Hi, Fought For My Country!
Teachers’ unions are only the visible tip of a much larger iceberg.
Redefining Education for Global Citizenship
By Debra K. Niwa
Global education reforms lurk behind the changes being foisted on U.S. schools: redesigning American high schools, promoting universal preschool, expanding technology, increasing data collections, linking secondary and higher education, and more. But where will these lead? In revisiting the old ideas behind reforms, we would be wise to ask, “Do we want the kind of life these changes will bring?”
Lifetime monitoring
Imagine all facets of your life — school, work, health, leisure, and spiritual — monitored and assessed from birth-to-death through one comprehensive “system.” Under the banner of “lifelong education,” such a system is evolving.
Promoted through United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Organisation (sic) for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), the lifelong education principle is influencing school, workforce, and economic reforms worldwide.
Despite formal withdrawal from UNESCO in December 1984 by then-President Reagan, the global lifelong education scheme nevertheless began spreading throughout the U.S. during the nearly 19-year period of non-membership.
Long before President George W. Bush rejoined the U.S. with UNESCO in 2003, the UNESCO-endorsed idea received U.S. tax dollars through federal laws that funded different aspects of the principle.
Upheavals in education are linked to building the system. Included are efforts to: combine the academic with the vocational for all students; use technology for teaching, training, and data collections; eliminate public control through creation of appointed councils; establish school-business partnerships; and much more.
Technology in particular — combined with surveys, assessments, and evaluations — plays an indispensable data-gathering role for monitoring individuals and forcing accountability to those with the power to dictate the systems’ goals.
Strip away the hype — about equality, justice, diversity, human rights, and 21st century workplace skills — and what remains is nothing less than a global system of social and economic control.
http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/2006/mar06/global-citizenship.html
Were you aware of this, Fought For My Country?
‘Moscow Declaration’ Adopted by G-8
Education Ministers — Secretary Spellings Commits U.S.
Incorporating Russian education initiatives, the Moscow Declaration was accepted on June 2, 2006 by the Education Ministers of The Group of Eight (G-8). The U.S. Department of Education explained that the joint declaration is to confirm G-8 member commitment to “cooperation in education at all levels in the 21st century.” (U.S. Dept. of Education, 6-2-2006)
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings remarked at the closing meeting session, “I strongly support Russian Education and Science Minister Fursenko’s call to jointly issue the Moscow Declaration of the G-8 Education Ministers” and “This declaration is more than just words on paper — they are words to live by and words to act on.”
Globalized Education
The Moscow Declaration stated: “Ministers recognized that the internationalization of education is a reality.”
http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/2006/june06/moscow.html
eubykdisop:
Thanks for this information.
I sent the link to this Seeing Red post to my Navy vet dad in Wisconsin.. He told me he was glad to see the words “sneak attack” in the first paragraph. Political correctness has often obscured that fact.
I had the honor of meeting a number of vets who were at Pearl Harbor on December 7,1941. They never forgave BECAUSE it was a sneak attack.
Here’s a link where you can read Joe Biden’s comments and speechs directly promoting the “New World Order” by name:
http://www.channelingreality.com/NWO_WTO/joe_biden_and_NWO.htm
Today is a very sad day for me but not for the reasons you might think. My sadness springs from the difference in the response by our governement to December 7, 1941 and it’s response to September 11, 2001.
After Pearl Harbor, we were determined to vanquish our enemies and to be victorious. Today, the President of The United States defends building a mosque at ground zero.
Yes. Even the great-grandfather of today’s liberalism, Franklin Roosevelt, decisively addressed what actions needed to be taken and followed through with conviction. Can you imagine if the submissive and bowing Obama were President of the U.S. in 1941? He would have apologized for any American slight he assumed might have driven the sneak attack on our country.
Yes, Stanford, and Harry Truman had the guts to order the use of atomic weapons to bring an end to the war in the Pacific. Whatever people may think of Truman overall, he had the “right stuff” when it came to WWII.
George H.Dubbya sed, “kinder & gentler…”
…Wwweeeeellll we see what that BOOLSHEET got us…
Hey, Doc, that’s almost as good as sending our military out to “win hearts and minds”! Is our military supposed to be Dr. Phil now?
Most of us don’t think too much about the Coast Guard, or tug boats, so I hope that you take the time to read this.
There are the two surviving vessels that played an important role during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Here’s their amazing stories:
The US Coast Guard Cutter TANEY is one of the famed Secretary/Treasury Class Coast Guard cutters built in the
mid 1930s.
On the eve of Pearl Harbor, TANEY was officially assigned to the US Navy’s Destroyer Division 80, though she retained her Coast Guard crew. When Japanese aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor and other American military installations in Hawaii on 7 December 1941, TANEY was tied up at Pier 6, Honolulu, where she was able to repeatedly engage Japanese planes which over flew the city. When the attack subsided, TANEY immediately commenced anti-submarine patrol duties off Pearl Harbor.
By the late 1960s, TANEY had become the last United States vessel still in commission that had seen action during the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack on Hawaii. Consequently, from that time on she was often referred to as “The Last Survivor of Pearl Harbor.”
On 7 December 1986, after more than 50 years of continuous service, TANEY was decommissioned at Portsmouth, Virginia, and donated to the City of Baltimore to serve as a memorial and museum.
And a Tug Boat: USS Hoga is a Woban class district harbor tug. Her name is translated from the Sioux word for fish. Built in New York, she was commissioned in May 1941 in Norfolk, VA, and soon made her way to Pearl Harbor. When the Japanese attack commenced on the morning of December 7, Hoga was underway quickly working to save lives and ships in the chaos of the harbor. She picked up sailors floating in the water, and provided assistance to the damaged ships USS Vestal and USS Oglala. As the fight raged, the battleship USS Nevada got underway, making for sea and firing back at the enemy aircraft. But she was heavily damaged and her captain ran her aground at Hospital Point to avoid blocking the channel. Hoga was dispatched to aid the battleship. With the assistance of another tug, the massive Nevada was refloated and moved to a more secure position where she would not sink in the channel. Hoga was fitted with firefighting gear, which enabled her to battle the fires on Nevada. For the next 2 days, she continued to fight fires along Battleship Row, and following that assisted with the ongoing cleanup of the battle-scarred Navy base.. The tugboat ex-USS Hoga (YT 146) is currently on blocks in drydock in California, undergoing repairs and maintenance. When completed, Hoga will be towed to the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum (AIMM) in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
Thanks, Saguaro Sam! Hats off to the United States Coast Guard!
Also interesting is the Arizona connection to the USS Arizona and Dr. Dan Condon. Good bit of history I had not previously heard.