HONOLULU — Japanese survivors of 1941. bombing of Pearl Harbor have long become the center of a remembrance ceremony held every year on the embankment of the military base.
But today only 12 people remain alive – all centenarians – and no one will be able to make the pilgrimage to Hawaii this year to mark the event planned for Sunday.
That means no one present will have direct memories of serving in the attack that killed more than 2,300 troops and dragged the United States into World War II. This development is not a surprise and is part of an ongoing trend. As survivors disappear, their descendants and the public are increasingly turning to other ways to learn about the bombing.
“The idea that there wouldn't be a survivor for the first time – I just, I don't know – hurt my heart in a way that I can't describe,” said Kimberly Heinrichs, whose 105-year-old father Ira “Ike” Pork chop had to cancel plans to fly from Oregon after getting sick.
Survivors have been present every year recently. except 2020, when the Navy and National Park Service closed the celebration to the general public due to health risks posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
The ceremony begins with a minute's silence at 7:55 a.m., the same time the attack began on December 7, 1941. Solemn rituals follow.
The fighter jets fly overhead in a “missing in action formation” with one plane breaking away to symbolize the missing in action. Survivors lay wreaths in honor of the dead, although in recent years the job has been taken over by active-duty military personnel. Survivors stand to greet active-duty sailors, who salute themselves as their ship passes the USS Arizona memorial, which sits above the submerged hull of the battleship that sank in the attack.
About 2,000 survivors attended the 50th anniversary event in 1991. Over the past decades, several dozen people have visited them. Last year, only two did it. That's out of about 87,000 troops stationed on Oahu that day.
Many survivors, despite the event, were cheerful and happy to meet old friends and pose for photographs. Despite this, the painful memories rarely left their minds.
In 2023, Harry Chandler looked out at the water. telling the Associated Press reporter as he raised the flag at a mobile hospital in the hills above the base when he saw Japanese planes fly in and drop bombs. Chandler and his colleagues at the naval hospital jumped into trucks to help the wounded.
He talked about seeing the Arizona explode and hearing how the sailors were trapped. capsized USS Oklahoma frantically knocking on the hull of their ship to call for rescuers. He helped care for Oklahoma sailors after the crew cut holes in the battleship.
“I can still see what’s going on,” Chandler said. He died next year at a nursing home in Tequesta, Florida.
The bombing has long meant different things to different people, writes historian Emily S. Rosenberg in her book “A Date That Will Live: Pearl Harbor in American Memory.”
Some say it underscores the need for a well-trained military and a vigilant foreign policy. To some, it recalls the “incompetence or deceit” of then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration and the unfair scapegoating of the military. Others focus on Japan's “betrayal” or the heroic actions of individual troops, she wrote.
Asked what he wanted Americans to know about Pearl Harbor, Chandler replied, “Be prepared.”
“We should have known this would happen. The intelligence should have been better,” he said.
Lou Conter, who was Last survivor in Arizona when he died last year at the age of 102, told AP in 2019 he liked to come to remember those who died.
“It’s always nice to come back and pay them respect and give them the highest honors that they deserve,” Conter said.
Heinrichs' father has been there six times since 2016. A former tuba player from the USS, Dobbin likes to walk not only to remember the dead, but also in place of his late bandmates; his three brothers who fought in World War II; and the now-deceased Pearl Harbor survivors he met.
Retired Pearl Harbor National Park Service historian Daniel Martinez said the circumstances were reminiscent of the early 20th century, when Civil War veterans were dying in increasing numbers. There was a growing realization, he said, that they would soon not be able to share their stories of Gettysburg and other battles.
Martinez knew something similar could happen to Pearl Harbor survivors and recorded their oral histories. During the 1998 convention, he gave interviews 12 hours a day for three days. Today, the Park Service has conducted nearly 800 interviews, most of them recorded on video.
“They remain part of the national memory of a day that changed America and changed the world,” Martinez said.
The Park Service displays some of them in its Pearl Harbor museum and intends to add more after renovations, said David Kilton, director of interpretation, education and visitor services for Pearl Harbor.
The Library of Congress houses the collections of 535 Pearl Harbor survivors, including interviews, letters, photographs and diaries. More than 80% online. They are part of the library. Veterans History Project First-hand memories from veterans who served in the First World War. Many were recorded by relatives, Eagle Scouts and other hobbyists interested in documenting history.
Sons and daughters of Pearl Harbor survivors give presentations at schools and march in parades to tell their family stories. The California chapter added six new members this year, including two great-grandchildren of survivors.
“When they all leave, we'll still be here,” said Deirdre Kelly, the group's president. “And we intend to preserve the memory as long as we live.”
