The United States observed the 83rd anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on Saturday in an unstable world — one in which enemy regimes are falling, but new challenges continue to arise.
Though the world has changed many times over since that fateful day in 1941, the fact is that surprises — good and bad — continue to happen.
Even before the day had ended on Saturday, the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, backed by Iran, appeared to have been destroyed, with Syrian rebels advancing on the capital city of Damascus. Few expected that even a few weeks ago.
However, the fact that the rebel include sworn enemies of the United States — such as the Al Qaeda terrorist group, and elements of the so-called “Islamic State,” or ISIS — means that the world still does not know what to expect.
The fall of the regime could mean new opportunities for peace in the Middle East — or new threats of war.
The players in World War II were known, but it was unclear, even on the morning of December 7, 1941, what was in store.
Bob Fernandez, one of the last living survivors of the attack, recalled the tragic events of that day:
Fernandez was working as a mess cook on his ship, the USS Curtiss, the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, and planned to go dancing that night at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki.
He brought sailors coffee and food as he waited tables during breakfast. Then they heard an alarm sound. Through a porthole, Fernandez saw a plane with the red ball insignia painted on Japanese aircraft fly by.
Fernandez rushed down three decks to a magazine room where he and other sailors waited for someone to unlock a door storing 5-inch (12.7-centimeter), 38-caliber shells so they could begin passing them to the ship’s guns.
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The ship’s guns hit a Japanese plane that crashed into one of its cranes. Shortly after, its guns hit a dive bomber which then slammed into the ship and exploded below deck, setting the hangar and main decks on fire, according to the Navy History and Heritage Command.
Fernandez’s ship, the Curtiss, lost 21 men and nearly 60 of its sailors were injured.
“We lost a lot of good people, you know. They didn’t do nothing,” Fernandez said. “But we never know what’s going to happen in a war.”
After the attack, Fernandez had to sweep up debris. That night, he stood guard with a rifle to make sure no one tried to come aboard. When it came time to rest, he fell asleep next to where the ship’s dead were lying. He only realized that when a fellow sailor woke him up and told him.
The “day that will live in infamy,” as President Franklin D. Roosevelt called it at the time, remains a fixture on the American calendar, a chance for reflection, for mourning — and for gratitude for the service of those who saved the country and the cause of freedom.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
