Pearl Harbor: 70

From Yahoo News:
"Nation marks 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor"

In wheelchairs and on walkers, the old veterans came Wednesday to remember the day 70 years ago when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. But FDR's "date that will live in infamy" is becoming a more distant memory. Fewer and fewer veterans who experienced the attack on Dec. 7, 1941, are alive to mark the anniversaries and most of them are in their 90s, many prevented by health problems from traveling to Hawaii. One survivors' group said it would disband because age and infirmity made it too difficult to carry on "People had other things that they wanted to do with the remainder of their lives," Pearl Harbor Survivors Association president William Muehleib said. "It was time." The 2,390 Americans who died in the attacks are not forgotten. Besides Pearl Harbor, there are remembrances elsewhere. In Phoenix, the goal every year is to draw 1,177 people — the number who died on the USS Arizona — to march through the city, but organizers don't come close to that anymore. Those who made it to Pearl Harbor were treated to a hero's reception. The 5,000 spectators whistled, shouted and applauded loudly as the 120 or so survivors stood to be recognized, and others asked for autographs and took photos with them. The association — founded in 1958 — has 2,700 members, he said. There are an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 Pearl Harbor survivors. President Barack Obama hailed the veterans in a statement proclaiming Wednesday as "National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day."

^ We should never forget what happened at Pearl Harbor. We may now be friends with Japan, but that doesn't mean the nearly 3,000 Americans that died that day did so in vain. They were serving in the US military and even though we weren't at war when we were attacked that fact isn't diminished. I think we should make it an official Federal holiday (just like we should 9-11.) ^

http://news.yahoo.com/nation-marks-70th-anniversary-pearl-harbor-010321602.html