December 7, 2020 (Monday)
The date, December 7, 1941, lives in infamy. Seventy-nine years ago, Pearl Harbor in Hawaii was attacked by a fleet of Japanese war planes, drawing the United States into World War II.
For those of us who were alive at that time (I was ten years old), it hardly seems possible that seventy-nine years have come and gone since that fateful day. Almost all of the survivors of that attack have died. Many of those asked that their remains be placed inside the USS Arizona, which exploded and was sunk, killing 1177 people. That ship has remained below the water and a beautiful memorial has been built above it.
The war had already been happening in Europe and other places, but the entrance of the United States changed the picture. It would all be over by 1945, but at a cost of millions of lives and enormous amounts of money and property.
Jesus warned us of future “wars and rumors of war,” and his prophecy has come to pass. Let us remember that he gave us the Beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”
A patriotic song that was popular during the war: