Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
for the Honorable Dirk Kempthorne,
Secretary of the Interior
Pearl Harbor 65th Anniversary
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
December 7, 2006
Through the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior is custodian of a significant part of our nation’s military history. We oversee 88 national battlefields, memorials and related military sites throughout our country.
Six weeks ago, I had the honor of speaking at the 225th anniversary of the Battle of Yorktown, the victory that won our nation’s independence.
Today, we commemorate another anniversary: one of the most devastating blows ever inflicted on our country – the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. This attack claimed the lives of nearly 2,400 of our countrymen and plunged us into a World War that once again tested whether liberty and justice would endure.
Historic events such as the Battle of Yorktown and the attack on Pearl Harbor are part of the mural of American military history.
This is a mural seemingly painted with a wide brush, with each era’s conflicts and triumphs depicted in broad relief as more than two centuries have passed.
But if we look closely, we find that this vast mural actually comprises thousands of small brush strokes – each one representing a single person who fought, and sometimes, died for our country.
Each soldier, sailor, marine, or airman nurtured by a mother as a child.
Each perhaps taught to hunt and fish or to swim or to ride a bike by a father.
Each helped to read and write by dedicated teachers.
Each an expression of who we are as a people.
Each precious.
Each a hero.
The circumstances change, but the spirit and courage of these men – and more recently women in battle -- do not.
Throughout our history, the names of the battles are a roll call of courage and sacrifice – Saratoga, Fort McHenry, Antietam, Gettysburg, Shiloh, and Battle of the Bulge. The list is endless.
At Yorktown, I walked the field where a young American soldier named Joseph Plumb Martin charged British guns along with hundreds of fellow patriots. Martin enlisted in the Continental Army when he was 15 and endured six years of deprivation, brutal winters, and bloody battles to win our liberty.
Here at Pearl Harbor, we honor Martin’s 20th Century comrades in the defense of liberty. Some of these men woke up on a Sunday morning and never had a chance, dying below decks before they could even muster a fight. Others, barely dressed, grabbed whatever weapons they could find and fought back against the swarms of warplanes.
Master Technical Sergeant Emil Peters and Private William Turner were two of these men. As Japanese planes strafed them, Peters and Turner did not duck for cover. Rather, they climbed into the rear cockpit of a damaged dive bomber and used its machine gun to down an enemy plane. The other Japanese planes swarmed them, killing Peters and wounding Turner.
This past Thanksgiving, another of Pearl Harbor’s heroes, Kenneth Taylor, died at age 86. Taylor and a fellow pilot named George Welch had been at a black tie event the night before. When the attack began, they climbed into their tuxedo pants and, while being strafed by enemy aircraft, managed to get their fighters into the air. Together they shot down at least six enemy aircraft.
We have survivors of the Arizona with us today. I read in the paper this week that Lonnie Cook had just gotten out of the shower when the ship was hit in that area. Taking a shorter shower that day saved his life.
Glenn Lane was a 23-year-old radioman who was literally blown off of the Arizona by an explosion. Joseph Langdell was a newly minted ensign billeted in the bachelor quarters on Ford Island. He watched from shore as his ship sank, unable to help.
Their shipmates are here.
Each man has a story.
Each man is small brush stroke on the mural of American patriotism and heroism. We honor them today.
This afternoon, we will dedicate another memorial to honor the men who fought and died on the U.S.S. Oklahoma.
I am also pleased that we will soon have a new visitor’s center that will tell Americans today and Americans still unborn the story of the “day that will live in infamy.” The center will also provide a gateway to the entire Pearl Harbor complex, where visitors can learn not only about the attack here but also about the war that followed, culminating on the deck of the Missouri and victory in the Pacific.
To better tell this story, I am pleased to announce the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Navy will be working together with our partners to take a fresh look at how we can improve historical interpretation throughout Pearl Harbor.
I also want to congratulate the Pacific Aviation Museum for its opening today. The museum tells the story not only of heroes here but also throughout the Pacific theater -- Guadalcanal, Midway, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Leyte Gulf, and other battles where brave men gave their lives that their country and other countries might be free.
As we look across the hallowed waters of this harbor, we also see the Battleship Missouri. Missouri was not here when the war began. But her deck was the place where the war ended -- the place that declared the ultimate triumph of the brave men who perished here at Pearl Harbor and across the Pacific.
It is appropriate the Mighty Mo is here because she represents what at that time was a uniquely American approach to military victory. For arguably the first time in history, a conquering nation sought no gain, either in land or in treasure, from its defeated foes. In fact, the opposite proved true. Americans invested in the restoration of these countries and then gave them back to their people. In the end, we chose peace and liberty for the nations we defeated rather than vengeance and retribution.
Today, we celebrate this choice as well – welcoming our one-time enemies who are now our friends.
I understand this is likely to be the final reunion in Hawaii of those who survived the attack -- the last time you will gather together at Pearl Harbor to honor those who fought and died here.
I want to assure you on behalf of the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service that we will continue to be vigilant and that we will ensure that this site is preserved as an eternal memorial to all of you.
As the cabinet secretary given the sacred responsibility for overseeing our battlefields and memorials, I am humbled to be here on the 65th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
To those who fought so nobly and have come back yet again to this hallowed site, we honor you.
To those who sacrificed their lives in this place, we honor you.
To those whose loved ones rest below these waters, we honor you.
To those who have died defending our country in battle for more than 200 years, we honor you. God bless you.