Rep. Ron Kind honored the victims of Pearl Harbor in a tweet on the 80th anniversary of the attack. | Twitter/Rep. Ron Kind
Rep. Ron Kind honored the victims of Pearl Harbor in a tweet on the 80th anniversary of the attack. | Twitter/Rep. Ron Kind
Dec. 7, 1941 was called by President Franklin D. Roosevelt the “date which will live in infamy” after 2,403 Americans were killed in a Japanese attack on the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii.
On the attack’s 80th anniversary, government officials from around the country took to the internet to show their respect for those who perished in what was the deadliest attack on U.S. soil to that point, and brought America into World War II.
“Eighty years later, Dec. 7 remains a day that lives in infamy,” tweeted U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI). “Today please join me in honoring the lives lost during the attack on Pearl Harbor. We will never forget the courage and sacrifice of our heroes in the Greatest Generation who defended the freedoms we hold dear.”
According to history.com, just before 8 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the Pearl Harbor naval base in Honolulu where they destroyed 20 naval vessels – including eight battleships – and 300 planes. More than 1,000 people were also wounded in the attack, which led President Roosevelt to ask Congress to declare war on Japan the next day, Dec. 8.
The day after the attack, President Roosevelt delivered an address to the nation in which he said, “As commander in chief of the Army and the Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.”
The Wisconsin Veterans Museum has preserved the accounts of Wisconsinites who were in Hawaii on the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Some, like Arthur “Art” Rortvedt from DeForest, survived and went on to tell their tales. Others like the Barber brothers from New London, who were ages 19, 20, and 22, lost their lives in the attack.
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