The day, that will live in infamy ... Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941.Anybody, who has gone to the USS Arizona Memorial, seen the oil still leaking out of it, seen the names of the 1,177 sailors who died, seen Japanese visitors throw flower wreaths into the water, watching it float over the body of the ship ... that moment, never leaves you, never.God Bless Elvis. Who donated his time and talents for a benefit concert in March of 1961. Though the King’s concert brought in over $64,000 it was just one part of an effort to ensure the memorial was built in 1962.Although the federal government required the monument to be privately funded, President Eisenhower did grant $200,000 in subsidies.My Mom, Anne Makichuk, cherished her Pearl Harbor pin. She made a point of giving it to me, for safekeeping, before she died in Swan River, Man.It is now with my daughter, Rica.And it’s a day I will never forget, nor should you.Things can change in one day, folks. They can. Don’t be fooled by the peace we now enjoy.Here are ten facts, about Pearl Harbor, you may not have known: 1. Coming in from all directions, the defenders had no idea which direction they should fire. Wave after wave, Japanese planes arrived, targeting airstrips, ships, buildings, and storage areas. Dive bombers, fighters, torpedo bombers and high-level bombers blanketed the sky, dropping their deadly payloads across the island of Oahu. The two waves of aircraft enacted a heavy toll on their targets on Battleship Row. The attack lasted one hour, and 15 minutes. 2. In the surprise attack on ‘Battleship Row,’ the Arizona and Oklahoma were damaged beyond repair by bombs or torpedo hits. Three more battleships (the California, West Virginia and Nevada) sank upright in the shallow water of the harbor. They were salvaged, and while many vessels did not return to the battlefield for several years, most suffered repairable damage. . 3. The day before the attacks, the USS Arizona took on a full load of fuel, nearly 1.5 million gallons. Much of that fuel helped ignite the explosion and subsequent fires that destroyed the ships, but amazingly, some fuel continues to seep out of the wreckage. According to the History Channel, Arizona “continues to spill up to 9 quarts of oil into the harbor each day.” This adds to the emotional gravity of this memorial and those visiting often refer to this phenomenon as the “tears of the Arizona” or “black tears.” 4. The Americans lined up their planes on the runways, instead of keeping them inside armoured hangars. They reasoned this made it easier for patrols to protect them from saboteurs. Unfortunately, this meant the Japanese planes could just shoot them up in the open when the attack began, lined up as they were in straight lines on the ground. 5. Although the attack was a complete surprise, many American servicemen were able to fight back. Doris ‘Dorie’ Miller, a Messman Third Class, was on board the USS West Virginia when it was hit by torpedoes. The African American rushed to report for duty. Miller helped move the wounded Captain to safety and then operated a Browning .50 caliber anti-aircraft gun, which he fired until out of ammunition. As the ship sank Miller also helped move wounded sailors to the upper deck, saving countless lives. 6. The Japanese plan to attack Pearl Harbor was devised by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, a former student at Harvard who had served as Japan’s naval attaché in Washington. Yamamoto knew that the US had far greater resources, and that his country could not win a protracted war. Yamamoto believed that Japan’s only chance for success was to stage a surprise assault that would knock the U.S. fleet out of action for a year or more.. 7. Japanese forces trained for about a year to prepare for the attack. They added wooden fins to their aerial torpedoes and made other modifications, so that they could work on short runs at the 45-foot average depth of Pearl Harbor. 8. The Japanese opted not to launch a third wave of aircraft against Pearl Harbor, and instead turned around and headed back across the ocean, in part because their fuel was running low. 9. Despite inflicting heavy casualties, the Japanese attackers failed to achieve their objective of disabling the U.S. fleet. Strangely, no U.S. aircraft carriers were at Pearl Harbor that day, and the Japanese were unable to destroy vital infrastructure such as repair shops and fuel tanks.. 10. Did FDR know about the attack, beforehand? Most historians say no, but new evidence suggests FDR failed to act, despite warnings. Three days before the Japanese attack, FDR was warned in a memo from naval intelligence that Tokyo's military and spy network was focused on Hawaii. In the newly revealed 20-page memo from FDR's declassified FBI file, the Office of Naval Intelligence on December 4 warned, "In anticipation of open conflict with this country, Japan is vigorously utilizing every available agency to secure military, naval and commercial information, paying particular attention to the West Coast, the Panama Canal and the Territory of Hawaii.".We will never know, if FDR did know, or chose not to know. But the results put America into the war, and would drive 134,000 Americans to volunteer.One more fact, I must share … one that you must read. You're probably wondering, did they try to get those trapped sailors out.Yes, they did.“A diver had nearly died trying to rescue men from the USS Arizona, which is one of the reasons they didn’t go into the West Virginia,” says naval historian Michael Lilly, a founding director of the USS Missouri Memorial Association and author of the book Nimitz at Ease. “The Navy decided it was too dangerous to try and extract them.”The former Navy officer pauses, adding, “It would haunt me if I was one of those sailors who heard those guys banging around down there for two weeks. It would never leave me. It’s despairing to think we couldn’t do anything to bring them up. It’s a sad, sad tale.”
