Monday, December 7, 2009

Pearl Harbor: Scraps of Memory

With today being Pearl Harbor Day in remembrance of the Japanese attack there on December 7, 1941, here are two pieces of selected evidence. One is before the fact; the other immediately following. The first item is interesting because it foreshadows what is to come in an ironic way, and the second confirms the human practice of scavenging physical evidence as memory.

First is a scan of a news item from the Klondike Miner, the newspaper of Skagway, Alaska, published August 4, 1940. It reads, "The Japanese Government objected yesterday to the embargo recently announced by President Roosevelt against exportation of aviation gasoline to countries outside the Western Hemisphere."



Next is an image of a wing salvaged from one of the attacking aircraft that day, with the Rising Sun insignia having been cut away by souvenir keepers.


5 comments:

  1. I'm sorry to say that until this I'd forgotten today's significance. I usually remember. Thanks for the reminder.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I forgot too. Thanks for the great post.

    ReplyDelete
  3. What can I say; it gives me a chill.

    ReplyDelete
  4. December 7th is my mother's birthday -- somewhere in the archives of this house I have a newspaper clipping re: how my mother's fifth birthday party was abruptly ended by the announcement on the radio of the attack on Pearl Harbor...you know, "We interrupt this regular programming to inform you that we are now at WAR!" Well, the article is an embarrassment to my mother because the reporter asked my then five year old mother if she knew who the Japanese were and she proceeded to stretch the outer ends of her eyes using her index fingers and bucked her teeth over her bottom lip to make some sort of horrible face...all the adults, including the reporter were greatly amused by this and it was printed as a light piece in the paper! Thank goodness there was no photo!

    ReplyDelete
  5. In the context of the times, the response to her caricature was understandable. The truth is that Japan's armed forces killed two thousand four hundred and two American servicemen that day, and injured many, many more in a surprise attack.

    ReplyDelete