Column: Infamy of Pearl Harbor attack still rings 75 years later

The morning of Dec. 7, 1941 started out for many Americans about the same as any other Sunday.

Households rose at dawn to feed the stock, catch the morning paper riding by, prepare a hearty breakfast and get ready for church services. By the end of the day, though, the nation and the world would be changed forever.

That morning 75 years ago was anything but ordinary, especially for the residents of Honolulu, Oahu, part of the Hawaiian Island chain.

Flying in low off the coast and cruising over Diamond Head Peak above Waikiki Beach, dozens of Japanese naval bombers made their approach toward Pearl Harbor, where most of the United States Pacific Fleet sat anchored.

A little before 9 a.m. Hawaii time and 11 a.m. in Nevada, the first wave of attacks had commenced at Pearl Harbor. The fleet's pride of battleships, anchored along "battleship row," were sitting ducks for Japanese dive bombers, which made effective use of the harbor's shallow depths to inflict maximum damage on about 18 warships.

When a torpedo struck the forward magazine of the U.S.S. Arizona, the deafening roar of an explosion ripped the mighty ship apart and had fully awakened an island still sleepily trying to make sense of what was happening.

Most of the fleet's battleships -- five in total -- were either sunk or damaged beyond repair from the attack.

Only the battleship U.S.S. Nevada BB-36, named after the Silver State, had gotten underway from "battleship row" and was attempting to exit the harbor. But it, too, sustained heavy damage that caused it to go aground off Hospital Point.

The Nevada lost 76 crewmen aboard her on Dec. 7, 1941. But unlike the rest of the battleships at Pearl Harbor, Nevada would live to see another day and ended up surviving the war, too.

About 2,400 Americans were killed in the attack, including more than 1,100 sailors entombed aboard the Arizona as she crumbled into a shallow, watery grave.

The Japanese strike was almost flawless. Most of the Pacific Fleet was anchored in one place on Sunday, Dec. 7, enabling Imperial Japan to cripple the U.S. Navy with a single, decisive blow.

Aircraft at Hickam Field, too, was grounded when the attack occurred. Most of the war planes sitting on the island of Oahu -- about 180 -- were destroyed in the melee, seemingly also rendering American air power useless in the Pacific.

But the attackers failed to take out the fuel tank farm at Pearl Harbor, and it turns out the fleet's contingent of aircraft carriers was away from Pearl Harbor on maneuvers at the time.

As such, the U.S. Navy was only temporarily disabled.

Once the American war machine was sparked to life, it didn't take long for Japan to meet its match in the Pacific region. Within about six months, the U.S. Pacific Fleet had routed Japanese forces at Midway.

Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander of the Japanese Imperial Combined Fleet who was educated in the United States and later became mastermind behind Pearl Harbor, was believed to have lamented after the attack, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."

The Pearl Harbor attack of Dec. 7, 1941 was described by U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his address to Congress as "a day that will live in infamy."

He was right.

America has never failed to remember Pearl Harbor every Dec. 7 since.

The events of Dec. 7, 1941 set in motion a new era for the United States and the world. A mighty war machine turned the Great Depression into a memory and put women to work by the millions, ushering in a new robust economy and the promise of a stronger nation full of hope by war's end.

But it was the response of the People, those of the "Greatest Generation" in American history, that turned Pearl Harbor into a victory for the United States and the world. Few before or since circled the wagons and rallied to the cause of liberty the way the generation of World War II did.

Congress's declaration of war against Japan also made war against its Axis allies, Germany and Italy. The Third Reich -- which had invaded, conquered and ruled most of Europe by the end of 1941 -- would meet its end soon after America joined the Allies in their fight against fascism.

Roosevelt did not live to see the end of World War II or the aftermath of American might in challenging communism that rose from the ashes of fascism.

Over the years, Pearl Harbor Day, Dec. 7, has grown into more than a day of infamy as coined by Roosevelt. Like the Battle of the Alamo more than a century before it, Pearl Harbor became a battle cry of a nation steadfast in its defense of liberty around the world.

By honoring those who gave the ultimate sacrifice at Pearl Harbor, we are respecting the cost of freedom and the struggles to achieve greatness through grace and in the name of liberty.