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.