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Pearl Harbor attack was 80 years ago today

Eighty years is a long time in anyone’s book, certainly sufficient to dim memories of events, significant and otherwise.

And 80 years is long enough that first-person witnesses to important events are few, especially those where adulthood is principally required.

With that in mind, it’s left to us living today to recall the incident that drove the United States into World War II, not with anger and irritation for the Japanese protagonists, but with a sense of respect and reverance for the sacrifices made that tragic morning, Dec. 7, 1941.

We’re referring, of course to the Japanese surprise attack on U.S. forces in and around Pearl Harbor. Today marks the 80th anniversary of that day of infamy.

U.S. losses in life and material were not less than horrific: More than 2,400 servicemen and women killed, eight battleships sunk or badly damaged, an arrary of other ships hit and disabled and several hundred aircraft destroyed.

But first, a brief bit of history.

In the 1930s and very early 1940s, relations between the Empire of Japan and the U.S. steadily deteriorated. The Japanese had big plans for Asia and the Pacific and had already been conducting a brutal war of aggression; the U.S. had other ideas.

Few of the people actually present at Pearl Harbor remain. The inexorable march of time has taken its toll.

To those who died or were injured that day, to those have gone to their rewards and to the handful that remain with us, we honor your service and sacrifice.

You withstood the onslaught. Your bravery will never be forgotten.

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