RIVERSIDE CEREMONY SALUTES VETERANS

Fifty two years ago, on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, at 7:55 a.m. in Hawaii, the United States sustained the worst military defeat in its history.

Waves of Japanese fighters, bombers and torpedo planes based on Japanese aircraft carriers far out to sea attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor and neighboring Hickam Air Field and Schofield Barracks on the island of Oahu.

When it was over two hours later, 18 U.S. warships were sunk or damaged and more than 200 aircraft were damaged or destroyed. The human toll was 2,400 dead, another 1,300 wounded, and 1,000 missing. Never before nor since has the United States suffered such a loss from a surprise attack.

Japanese loses were much smaller: 100 casualties, 29 planes and five midget submarines.

Fortunately, the Navy's three aircraft carriers and their support ships were at sea when the attack occurred, and more than 30 other warships anchored at Pearl Harbor were not damaged.

The attack on Pearl Harbor, which President Franklin Roosevelt described to Congress the following day as a "day that will live in infamy," brought the United States into World War II against the Axis powers of Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, and the empire of Japan.

During a Pearl Harbor memorial service held Tuesday on the banks of the Mississippi River in Cape Girardeau, Lt. Com. Donald Taylor, commanding officer of the Naval Reserve Training Center at Cape Girardeau, said what occurred at Pearl Harbor will always remain a strong symbol of the need for vigilance and preparedness.

The memorial service was sponsored by the Cape Girardeau chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and Louis K. Juden Post 63 of the American Legion with assistance from the Naval Reserve Center here.

Speaking to the Pearl Harbor survivors, their families and others, Taylor said: "The freedom that you and I take for granted today did not happen by accident. It was fought and paid for with the blood and toil of thousands of brave Americans, who 52 years ago today began fighting a great war to protect our freedom and to save the world from one of the world's cruelest tyrannies every known to mankind.

"We shall not take our freedom for granted," Taylor said, "and we must never forget the bravery and sacrifice of those who fought and died to protect our freedom. The freedoms we have today we owe to our living World War II veterans and to the memories and families of those who did not survive."

Although facts relating to the attack on Pearl Harbor are well known, Taylor said what is not well know is that most of the ships sunk or damaged lived to fight again.

Said Taylor: "As the mythical bird, Phoenix, rises from the ashes to once again fly, so did the U.S. Navy. With the exception of the battleships Arizona, Utah and Oklahoma, all of the other ships that were sunk or damaged in the attack were raised, repaired, and fought again. The story of how these damaged vessels were restored to fighting condition is, in itself, an inspiring record of American skill and determination.

"But the salvage and reclamation of these ships cannot compare to the welding job the Japanese had done on the American people," Taylor said. "Admiral Yamamoto (who planned the attack) could not have devised a method more surely calculated to unite the nation and instill within it the will to win."

Today, the Arizona, still a commissioned ship in the Navy, serves as the final resting place for the 1,177 seamen who died on Dec. 7, 1941. Nearby, the Utah rests on the bottom of the harbor floor, a tomb for the 58 sailors who were on board when it went down. The Oklahoma, which was being used for training with its guns removed, was later raised and was being towed to the west coast for scrap when it sank in the Pacific during a storm.

Taylor said Americans should remember Pearl Harbor, not out of a sense of revenge, but to always be on guard against future threats to the country.

"Remember, Pearl Harbor was the slogan heard during the war," said Taylor. "It was made by then-senator Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin, who said, `Let us say that we pledge this nation to remember Pearl Harbor to the end of time. Not in a spirit of revenge, but so that from now on this nation shall be constantly on the alert.'"