Lessons from Pearl Harbor

On this 79th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, it is good to reflect on those events and consider their implications for today. I had the opportunity and privilege to visit Pearl Harbor twenty years ago, and I was struck by the profound symbolism that I observed there.

Our guide was a veteran of those events, and his description of what happened that day was vivid and emotional. When we traveled out to see the USS Arizona Memorial, I read the names of all of the men who had died there and stared down into the water at the outline of the ship that now rests forever on the floor of the harbor. At that time, we could still see little drops of oil trickling up from the wreck below us - like the ship was still bleeding. It was the perfect representation of the death, devastation and defeat that had happened there. The story, however, did not end there.

From there, we traveled to the USS Missouri and walked along the deck where Douglas MacArthur accepted the Japanese surrender which concluded the Second World War. And, from the deck of this symbol of America's ultimate triumph, one could see the memorial over the wreck of the USS Arizona. The juxtaposition of these two symbols of defeat and victory had a profound effect on me and many of the folks who were a part of our tour.

On this important anniversary, we are reminded of the suffering, perseverance and eventual victory of a generation of Americans that Tom Brokaw named America's greatest. We are also reminded that defeats can also be turned into triumphs - that the darkest hours are often followed by a bright dawn. Many years now stand between us and those events, but we still have so much to learn from what happened there so long ago.