Remembering Pearl Harbor
On the 80th Anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor, we pause to remember the lost lives in that embattled port on December 7, 1941.
Are there connections — ties to war — between the American Civil War and that fateful day during World War II? These previously published blog posts collected from the Emerging Civil War archives explore that idea:
Pearl Harbor and the Gettysburg Address
Civil War Echoes: Pearl Harbor
WWII Burials in Gettysburg National Cemetery
On Dec 7, 1941 my father-in-law’s brother, Ensign Bill Evans, wrote a very poignant letter home. Bill was in Norfolk VA assigned to the USS Hornet and would lose his life as a pilot with Torpedo Squadron Eight at the Battle of Midway. An excerpt (with a Lincoln reference) from his letter;
“…It is growing late and tomorrow will undoubtedly be a busy day. Once more the whole world is on fire – in the period approaching Christmas it seems bitterly ironical to mouth again the time worn phrases concerning peace on earth good will with so many millions hard at work figuring out ways to reduce the other millions to slavery or death. I find it hard to see the inherent difference between man and the rest of the animal kingdom. Faith lost all is lost, let us hope tonight that people, big people, little people, all people throughout this great country have the faith to once again sacrifice for the things we hold essential to life and happiness, let us defend those principles to the ounce of blood – but then above all retain reason enough to have “charity for all and malice towards none” – If the world ever goes through this again – mankind is doomed – This time it has to be a better world.”