Pearl Harbor Day Ceremony Honors Past, Passes Legacy to Young Service Members > U.S. Indo-Pacific Command > News Article View

On the eightieth anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day in 2021, about 135 World Battle II veterans attended the observance of the Dec. 7, 1941, assault on Pearl Harbor. Final yr, fewer than 30 veterans attended Dec. 7 occasions.

As veterans and Pearl Harbor survivors cross away, their legacy lives on with the following era of service members.

This yr’s 83rd Pearl Harbor Day commemoration encompasses a collection of observances co-hosted by the Nationwide Park Service and Commander, Navy Area Hawaii (CNRH), together with the interment of a former Pearl Harbor Day survivor aboard the USS Utah (AG-16) and the Blackened Canteen ceremony. Younger service members play an lively within the commemoration rituals, reinforcing this yr’s theme of Forging Forward.

Models from the Junior Reserve Officers Coaching Corps might be collaborating in occasions and the granddaughter of a Pearl Harbor survivor would be the keynote speaker on the foremost Dec. 7 ceremony. “Though we honor those that handed away, we need to look ahead to the longer term,” defined Jim Neuman, historical past and outreach supervisor for CNRH and one of many lead planners for the Pearl Harbor Day observance.

This yr, the stays of Pearl Harbor survivor Gilbert Meyer might be interred aboard the wreckage of the USS Utah. Meyer handed away in 2023 on the age of 100. He served within the Navy for 22 years and retired as a Chief Petty Officer. He was an 18-year-old Fireman First Class assigned to the USS Utah when it was hit by a torpedo. On his one centesimal birthday final yr, Meyer donated two acres of land in his hometown of Lytle, Texas, to the Veterans of International Wars for a brand new assembly corridor. He additionally wrote a e book about his time within the Navy and the way he survived the assault on Pearl Harbor.

Meyer’s nephew, Gilbert Benton, 79, mentioned the interment ceremony for his uncle might be particularly significant for his household.

“I’ve seen three of those interments over time and it’s so shifting to observe that, however it is going to be so particular for us this yr as a result of it’s him,” mentioned Benton, who emphasised how vital it is going to be for his uncle to hitch his shipmates at relaxation.

Up to now, a complete of 16 interments have taken place aboard the USS Utah.

The Pearl Harbor Day commemoration concludes on Dec. 8 with the Blackened Canteen ceremony aboard the USS Arizona Memorial (BB-39).

“This truly is in connection to the Park Service’s mission right here at Pearl Harbor,” defined David Kilton, the interpretation, schooling, and companies lead for the Nationwide Park Service. “We’re the keeper of these tales which are dropped at us after which we share them and attempt to honor all of the completely different points of these tales.”

Kilton defined how this distinctive remembrance ceremony started:

On the evening of June 20, 1945, throughout a bombing raid over Shizuoka, Japan, two B-29 plane collided and crashed, killing 23 crewmen. When an area Shizuoka businessman and farmer pulled fatally wounded U.S. airmen from the wreckage, he discovered a blackened canteen in one of many plane, distorted from warmth and bearing what seemed to be the seared handprint of its late proprietor.

The farmer, who was a religious Buddhist who believed all life is valuable, began conducting an annual ceremony honoring the Japanese and People who misplaced their lives because of the warfare. The ceremony included a silent prayer and the pouring of bourbon whiskey from the blackened canteen onto the crash website as an providing to the spirits of the fallen. Two monuments have been later erected close to the crash website in reminiscence of those that died.

The Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Ceremony on Dec. 7 is the principle ceremony of the annual commemoration. It’s held on the Pearl Harbor Nationwide Memorial, which is devoted to the reminiscence of greater than 2,300 service members and civilians who died in the course of the Pearl Harbor assault. Central to the memorial is the USS Arizona Memorial, which rests above the stays of the sunken battleship and commemorates the 1,177 crewmen who died aboard. The USS Arizona suffered half of all casualties on the day of the assault.

Neuman defined how the design of the Arizona Memorial highlights the twin deal with the previous and future and emphasised how he seeks to emulate this focus when he plans the main points of Pearl Harbor Day.

“This ties into how I have a look at the ceremony,” he mentioned. “It’s a memorial to the previous as a result of we’re honoring the best era. We’re honoring those that gave their lives on Dec. 7, 1941. It’s a memorial to the longer term as a result of whenever you have a look at the design of the memorial it begins out excessive, which is earlier than the assault on Pearl Harbor. As you come aboard the memorial, you’re at a excessive level. It goes low over the middle of the memorial, the middle of the wreckage as a result of Dec. 7, 1941 was a low level. Then it tapers to a excessive level over the shrine room.”

Alfred Preis, the architect who designed the Arizona Memorial, used the shrine room to intensify the beliefs of peace, renewal, and remembrance of those that misplaced their lives on the day of the assault, Neuman defined.

“On both aspect of the shrine room, you’ve bought the Tree of Life. From a biblical perspective, that might be the Ebook of Revelations, therapeutic of the nations, and from Alfred Preis’ perspective, it was the concept of renewal and lasting peace,” mentioned Neuman. “We’re honoring those that have been misplaced on Dec. 7, however we’re additionally trying ahead to the longer term as a result of he hoped that the victory on the finish of World Battle II can be one that might result in lasting peace and renewal and partnerships with our allies.”

The final survivor of the Arizona crew, Lou Conter, 102, handed away on April 1, 2024.

Neuman acknowledged the importance of that loss and mentioned our era’s means to maneuver on resembles how veterans and survivors of the Pearl Harbor assault have been forging forward with their lives with resilience and tenacity, which is a part of the explanation why “forging forward” is that this yr’s theme for the observance.

“A part of honoring that legacy is realizing that they did push forward inside their lives with the trauma and horror of warfare,” defined Neuman. “For these of us who stay in 2024, we see that memorial and it reminds us that if we’re going to hold on this lasting peace that the best era fought and died to safe, it’s going to be as much as our era and the generations shifting ahead.”