The Day That Will Live in Infamy

I’m a bit of a World War II history buff.  I think I relate to it because it was in my parents’ time.  My dad was rejected by the military due to a heart murmur and a bad knee.  But I have visited Pearl Harbor and read so many books about both the European fronts as well as the Pacific.  My goal is to one day visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.  It was an atrocity that should never, ever be repeated.  I know some choose to believe it never happened.  They are wrong. 

My visit to Pearl Harbor was sobering.  If you’re not aware, the memorial in Honolulu sits atop the USS Arizona which was sunk in a surprise attack by Japanese Zero planes on Sunday, December 7, 1941.  To stand above the Arizona and watch the seeping oil bubbles rise to the surface and think about all the bodies of sailors entombed below made it all too real for me. 

So today is Pearl Harbor Day here in the States.  It’s a day that we choose to remember this somber day in history that turned the tide for the US entering the world war.  If you’ve never read the book “Unbroken”, the story of Olympic athlete Louis Zamperini by Laura Hillenbrand, even if you are not into the history of that time frame, you will find it inspiring. Louis gave up his running career to engage in the war and was captured by the Japanese after his plane went down in the Pacific.  It’s one of those books that you cannot put down or ever forget.  I’ve also read a number of books about the death camps and the survivors.  I’m reading one right now. 

The reason I choose to post today is because this is the “day that will live in infamy”.  It changed everything.  It’s a time in history that has prompted so many difficult stories, but also inspiring ones.  I choose to remember and pay homage.  Our world is a complex place.  Ideologies and politics and desires for power play a huge role in what happens in any time frame.  I would hope that we have learned something from the last world war.  And I pray that we don’t know a war of that magnitude ever again.  To all those who still have stories to tell, I am listening.  God be with us all.