Pearl Harbor is always a strange topic for me to think about because in my head I relate it so much to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. I know this isn’t a fair comparison- but with such similar causality numbers, similar suddenness, and similar effects it had on the American people, it’s hard not to see the parallels.
Last week, December 7th, 2016, was the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor back in 1941. People made Facebook posts in memory of the event, Obama put out a statement of remembrance, and the nation mourned the loss of lives and innocence that the attack brought not just to the country but ultimately, arguably, the world.
But did everyone truly mourn the loss or did some simply toss this important piece of history to the wayside?
It may be startling for some people to consider, but there are a significant number of people living in the United States- millennials, adults, or otherwise- who do not know anything particular about this attack, why it happened, or what it lead to. People may not believe that, but I personally know people who would not know during what month the attack occurred if it were not currently December and would not know anything about the attacker or the state of the world at the time of the attack.
In my opinion, it’s scary but understandable. History is not most people’s favorite subject, and most of the history classes that I took in high school didn’t make it to more modern time periods. If there was not a preexisting interest in knowing, the information simply would not get learned.
Not to mention if an event happened so far before one’s lifetime, or even one’s parent’s lifetime, it’s hard to have a genuine interest. Even now, in terms of the 9/11 attacks, I was too young to remember them. But my parents and the people around me remember the day, so it still has meaning- although in a detached way.
Realistically, as time goes on, less and less people were impacted directly by this event at Pearl Harbor and the legacy begins to fade. It’s less real to people and becomes simply history.
Boring, outdated, useless.
I fear that this is what all history eventually turns into, and that scares me because it’s when society starts to forget that they repeat their mistakes.
It’s just very real to put it into the context, too, of the 9/11 attacks, still pretty fresh on everyone’s minds, still looming as a reminder of the realities of modern terrorism, and still necessitating healing as a nation.
It will be a strange day in the future for me the day that I realize that the children being born do not know the details of the 9/11 attacks when we honor the anniversary. They won’t know who made the attack, why, or the repercussions. It will just be another boring historical event, back from when their parents were kids, that’s been over and resolved for 50 years.
Again, this scares me.
I feel like when we start to forget our history and our heritage as a nation, we start to lose control of the future. We repeat mistakes or become careless and apathetic to recurring threats. We misunderstand trends or realities and end up stuck in the same place we were before.
Keeping in mind Pearl Harbor this week, I hope everyone takes the time to educate themselves on events of the past or the rest of the history happening around us every day. Enjoy the times you’re in and realize that you’re living history. But also remember those events that happened so long ago, important and meaningful, that shaped us as people and will continue to shape us for millennia to come- as long as we keep on remembering.
