December
7th 2007
A date which will live in infamy. . .

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Usually I don’t think much about December 7th (except that it’s my friend Elaine’s birthday - happy birthday , btw!), but today I wanted to reflect a little bit on the 66th anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor. Earlier this year I was lucky enough to visit a couple friends in Hawaii and one of the places we went to was the USS Arizona Memorial which was built over the sunken battleship that serves as an eternal grave for 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors killed on the USS Arizona that day. It was a pretty moving experience to stand over the submerged wreckages and gaze down at the rusted hull housing all those soldiers’ bodies.

I’m not a huge history nerd (yet), but World War II has always fascinated, frustrated and challenged me. Perhaps because of its role in Filipino history like the Bataan Death March or maybe it was when I visited Hiroshima while studying abroad in Japan and witness the place where 70,000 Japanese died instanaeously. I won’t try to compare the two tragedies since I don’t beleive human life can me measured like that, but after being dramatically moved at Hiroshima, it was thought-provoking to see Pearl Harbor and the site that marked the United State’s entry into the war and let to the inevitable bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Destroyer USS Shaw exploding after her forward magazine was detonated. [source: wikipedia]

The USS Arizona Memorial.

The inside of the memorial, with the names of all those who gave their lives that day.

Looking up at the sky from within the memorial.

I’d like to think that, thank God, that war is over, and we don’t have to deal with anything like that today. But the truth is that our world is broken and that tragedies due to war are still happening every day. Struggling to grapple with each of these realities, I want to forget about the past and close my eyes to the atrocities occuring each day. Yet, I think we’re all called to take action somehow, but it seems overwhelming to think about it all at once. For me, the least I can do is keep these people, countries and political leaders in prayer and trust that God’s master plan is being worked out somehow. I have to pick my battles carefully and figure out where I can make a difference (even in the smallest way), today. I have a little project I’ve been working on and in the next few days you’ll hear more about how I’m trying to change the world, even one person at a time.

One Response to “A date which will live in infamy. . .”

  1. William on 11 Dec 2007 at 9:30 am #

    I’ve been to that memorial too. It is a hauntingly beautiful place. I vividly remember the sight of the black watery tears.

    It always amazes me to think that there was a time at which 16 million countrymen out of 132 million served in the military to defeat the Axis powers.

    Looking forward to hearing about your side project.

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