Soon No Pearl Harbor Survivors Will Be Alive. People Turn to Other Ways to Learn About the Bombing

[rangerrebew]

Soon No Pearl Harbor Survivors Will Be Alive. People Turn to Other Ways to Learn About the Bombing
 
Sunday, 07 December 2025 06:08 AM EST
 

Survivors of the 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor have long been the center of a remembrance ceremony held each year on the military base’s waterfront.

But today only 12 are still alive — all centenarians — and this year none is able to make the pilgrimage to Hawaii to mark the event, scheduled for Sunday.

That means no one attending will have firsthand memories of serving during the attack, which killed more than 2,300 troops and catapulted the U.S. into World War 2. The development is not a surprise and is an evolution of an ongoing trend. As survivors fade, their descendants and the public are increasingly turning to other ways of learning about the bombing.


“The idea of not having a survivor there for the first time — I just, I don’t know — it hurt my heart in a way I can’t describe,” said Kimberlee Heinrichs, whose 105-year-old father Ira “Ike” Schab had to cancel plans to fly in from Oregon after falling ill.

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/pearl-harbor-remembrance-survivors-anniversary/2025/12/07/id/1237383/

[rangerrebew]

I think democrats already have the problem figured out.  They'll just erase it from history so no one can learn from it.

[MeganC]

I think democrats already have the problem figured out.  They'll just erase it from history so no one can learn from it.

The Democrats will soon enough blame American racism and white supremacy for Pearl Harbor where Americans shot down and killed innocent Japanese pilots.

[rangerrebew]

The Democrats will soon enough blame American racism and white supremacy for Pearl Harbor where Americans shot down and killed innocent Japanese pilots.

Blame it on Trump?  If they do, the MSM will take it and run with it.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

USS Arizona During the Attack

USS Arizona (BB-39) was moored inboard of the repair ship Vestal (AR-4) when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor. Early reports claimed that she had been hit by one torpedo in the first part of the action. However, this appears not to have been the case, and the destruction of the ship was entirely the work of Japanese horizontal bombers, which struck her with several bombs. Some of these caused damage to her after and midships areas, but their effects were minor compared with what resulted from one that penetrated beside her forward turrets.

The massive explosion that followed has never been fully explained, since the bomb apparently did not pierce Arizona's armored deck, which protected her magazines. Many qualified authorities have blamed powder storage outside of the magazines as the cause, but this is conjectural and probably will always remain so. In any case, the battleship was utterly devastated from in front of her first turret back into her machinery spaces. Her sides were blown out and the turrets, conning tower, and much of the superstructure dropped several feet into her wrecked hull. This tipped her foremast forward, giving the wreck its distinctive appearance.

 

Blazing furiously, Arizona quickly settled to the bottom of Pearl Harbor, a total loss. She burned for more than two days and was subsequently the subject of only partial salvage. Over 1100 of her crew were killed, including Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, Commander Battleship Division One, and the ship's Commanding Officer, Captain Franklin Van Valkenburgh. Their sacrifice, and that of the other men lost at Pearl Harbor, is now permanently memorialized by the USS Arizona Memorial, erected over her sunken hull in the berth it has occupied since shortly after 8 AM on 7 December 1941.
https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/wars-and-events/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor-raid/battleship-row-during-the-pearl-harbor-attack/uss-arizona-during-the-pearl-harbor-attack.html

[Kamaji]

USS Arizona During the Attack

USS Arizona (BB-39) was moored inboard of the repair ship Vestal (AR-4) when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor. Early reports claimed that she had been hit by one torpedo in the first part of the action. However, this appears not to have been the case, and the destruction of the ship was entirely the work of Japanese horizontal bombers, which struck her with several bombs. Some of these caused damage to her after and midships areas, but their effects were minor compared with what resulted from one that penetrated beside her forward turrets.

The massive explosion that followed has never been fully explained, since the bomb apparently did not pierce Arizona's armored deck, which protected her magazines. Many qualified authorities have blamed powder storage outside of the magazines as the cause, but this is conjectural and probably will always remain so. In any case, the battleship was utterly devastated from in front of her first turret back into her machinery spaces. Her sides were blown out and the turrets, conning tower, and much of the superstructure dropped several feet into her wrecked hull. This tipped her foremast forward, giving the wreck its distinctive appearance.

 

Blazing furiously, Arizona quickly settled to the bottom of Pearl Harbor, a total loss. She burned for more than two days and was subsequently the subject of only partial salvage. Over 1100 of her crew were killed, including Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, Commander Battleship Division One, and the ship's Commanding Officer, Captain Franklin Van Valkenburgh. Their sacrifice, and that of the other men lost at Pearl Harbor, is now permanently memorialized by the USS Arizona Memorial, erected over her sunken hull in the berth it has occupied since shortly after 8 AM on 7 December 1941.
https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/wars-and-events/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor-raid/battleship-row-during-the-pearl-harbor-attack/uss-arizona-during-the-pearl-harbor-attack.html

No doubt sabotage masterminded by Roosevelt to ensure that America was galvanized enough to enter the war.   Or maybe  Churchill did it. 

[mountaineer]

The last Civil War veteran died around 66 years ago, and look how completely ignorant people now are of that history.

Social media now ensure that ignorance takes hold even more quickly, which explains why some people call everything under the sun "fascism," demonstrating how little they understand WWII.

[Free Vulcan]

These things are inevitable, the heroes of past generations die off and new ones take their place.

This is why I learn from the past but do not live in it, recounting old glories long gone away.

It's time for the living to take the torch and press forward.

[Fishrrman]

Vulcan suggests:
"It's time for the living to take the torch and press forward."

Indeed.
The wars to come -- with the left and with islam -- will rival the Civil War and WWII.
And the odds against Western Civilization defeating both will be far, far greater.