In Pearl Harbor, watching Japanese battleships

Reflections on December 7, 1942. The day that shall live in infamy.

The island of Oahu is a living testament to the damage that was inflicted on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, prior to the US entering WWII. There are abandoned bunkers in the hills and mountains of the island. If you know where to look, or look closely, you can easily see the scarring left in the landscape from the attack on Pearl Harbor. There is the ever present USS Arizona National Memorial and museum.


It was mid June 1997. Jack and I went to the Navy Exchange at Pearl Harbor to pick up some items for his full inspection before shipping out in July. We emerged from the Exchange with our packages and prepared to head back home. We stopped briefly to look at the ships docked in the Harbor.

Directly in front of us, only several hundred yards away was a Japanese Navy ship. Her colors were flying. Hundreds of Japanese sailors in their dress whites poured off the ship for some shore leave. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, I was chilled to the bone and desperately struggled to get my mind around what I was seeing. Japanese sailors freely disembarked from their ship, and walking around the Leeward side of Oahu and looking for a good time.

How could this be? The Japanese military killed thousands of US military [personnel, and countless innocent Hawaiians only one generation earlier. The answer is simple, but certainly not easy to comprehend. Times have changed and the Japanese are now among the US Allies.

I tried desperately to talk to Jack about this very disturbing scene. He would not even pretend to listen to what I was saying. Several months after he deployed, I had the chance to talk with a female sailor about this very subject. She explained to me that death is part of life in the military. Part of the day-to-day life of being a sailor is the knowledge you might have to lay down your life at any time. I am still, to this day, both baffled and in awe of that conviction. I do not think I could do that.