This coming Monday, Dec. 7, marks the 79th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese.
In 1941, that day was a Sunday. Japanese planes unleashed a bombardment, killing and injuring thousands of American military personnel and many civilians.
This was the act that thrust the United States into World War II, a war that would end nearly four years later with the dropping of two atomic bonds within three days on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
Hundreds of thousands of American men and women are no longer with us to share their feelings, their thoughts about this infamous day in our history.
In the invasion that Sunday morning, more than 350 Japanese aircraft attacked American ships. Nineteen U.S. Navy ships were destroyed or damaged including eight battleships and more than 300 U.S. aircraft were destroyed and damaged.
The attack killed 2,403 Americans, including servicemen and 68 civilians. There were an additional 1,178
There were an additional 1,178 who were wounded in the surprise attack that morning.
There was no state of war when the Japanese planes descended upon Pearl Harbor that day.
The USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor is the final resting place of 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors and marines killed on the ship during the attack at Pearl.
The military, today, is still identifying sailors at Pearl Harbor.
The Japanese strike force included more than 350 aircraft launched from four heavy carriers, two heavy cruisers, 35 submarines, two light cruisers, nine oilers, two battleships and 11 destroyers.
The Japanese lost only 29 aircraft, five midget submarines and 130 of their service personnel were killed.
Japan’s total number of lives lost during the war, though, ranges from 2.5 million up to 3.1 million.
People still alive today who understood what happened that Sunday morning easily recall the significance and magnitude the invasion had on America.
Considered the deadliest military conflict in the history of the United States, 416,800 American soldiers were killed in World War II.
The total of U.S. military and civilian deaths during the war was more than 418,500, according to the National World War II Museum.
According to the same source, 5,474 Oklahomans lost their lives in the war.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says that as of September of this year, only 325,574 of the 16 million who served in the war remain alive today.
Thirty-eight percent, 6,332,000, of the servicemen and all of the servicewomen were volunteers. Of the 16 million men and women who served in the war, 61.2 percent, 11,535,000 were draftees.
And 350,000 American women served in the Armed Forces during World War II. If it weren’t for our veterans,
If it weren’t for our veterans, those who remain alive, the other brave men and women who have passed on and all of those who made the ultimate sacrifice during nearly four years of war, we wouldn’t be under the American Flag today.
That’s why we should be grateful today for them.
It’s because of all of our veterans and their bravery, America has continued to remain free.
Let us never forget that.