December 7th, 1941: Remembering "A Day of Infamy"

Sixty-nine years have passed since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Bro (my older brother) and I always noted this anniversary since we were old enough to walk.  December 7th -- a date filled with dread, anger and the satisfaction of having crushed the empire who had carried it out.

Wreck of the USS Utah (Google Earth)

There are many photos and memorials to the USS Arizona, a battleship sunk at its moorings on that fateful day, but not so many for another ship that also rests on the floor of Pearl Harbor, the USS Utah.

The USS Utah was obsolete when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened, and was used only for training purposes.  The Japanese pilots didn't know that though, and sank her along with most of the other battleships that day.  Six Navy officers and 52 members of her crew died in the attack.  Most of these are still entombed inside the wreck.

An onshore memorial to the Utah has been built on the land overlooking the wreck, which continues to deteriorate.  Its cement decks have finally crumbled and fallen off.  Smitty, of the Other McCain, has some recent pictures of Pearl Harbor that are worth a look, here.

I wasn't born yet, but the date of December 7, 1941 will always be for me as President Roosevelt described it:  "a date which will live in infamy."  Hear his speech in the video below, which also shows striking photographs of that day.



Wreckage from the war remains. Here's a Japanese Zero for whom the war didn't work out so well.