Off The Record: 80 years ago marked day that continues to live in infamy

By Chris Spangler

My parents were good friends with a Madison couple of Japanese descent, and I attended Dudgeon Elementary School with their children. Mrs. Saiki was Japanese-American, having been born in Hawaii to Japanese parents. And as readers might guess, they were living in Pearl Harbor when it was attacked Dec. 7, 1941 … 80 years ago Tuesday.

The Imperial Japanese Navy decimated the U.S. Pacific Fleet on that lazy Sunday morning. By the time the Japanese Zeros, bombers and fighters returned to their aircraft carriers, 2,403 servicemen and women were dead, many having been trapped in sunken battleships, cruisers, destroyers and other vessels.

What President Franklin D. Roosevelt later would call “a date which will live in infamy” changed the world as the Saikis — and all of America — knew it.

Indeed, as Japanese Admiral Yamamoto predicted, the surprise attacks awoke a sleeping giant. Overnight, the nation shed its isolationist skin and declared war on Japan and then, a few days later, Germany. The resulting global conflict killed or wounded more than 1.07 million Americans in the next four years, while at the same time defeating despots and making the United States the superpower it continues to be.

But it also whipped up fears about anyone of Japanese descent, people like Mrs. Saiki. She and her family were among the 110,000-plus Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps, essentially losing everything they owned. Her childhood years behind barbed wire were ones of which she never would speak.

So it is with conflicted feelings that I remember Pearl Harbor today. Of course, I have great admiration and respect for the men shot down on the tarmac of Hickam Air Base and entombed in the USS Arizona. I have visited both sites and the site of oil slowly bubbling up from the battleship eight decades later continues to haunt me. I salute their bravery and sacrifice, as well as that of the countless others who followed, fought and, in many cases, lost their lives in faraway places like Midway and Stalingrad.

There are fewer than 100 Pearl Harbor military survivors left today, and their number is declining rapidly. Thus, it is imperative that we hear and remember their stories now so the importance of this historic date never fades.

At the same time, we also must not ever forget the unwarranted suspicion and outright racism that the Pearl Harbor attacks spawned against our own people. We live today in the shadow of terrorism, and witnessed similar reservations about Muslims and those of Middle East descent after 9/11. We must redouble our efforts so that this country never again repeats the transgressions against fellow Americans just because they don’t look or talk like us.

Freedom does not come free, and if Pearl Harbor taught us anything, it is that living in a country of tolerance — where we can speak, pray and live as we choose — is worth fighting for.

At home, as well as abroad.

By the way, the historical societies and museums of Jefferson County are creating a shared exhibit that explores what life was like in Jefferson County prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

“Before the Storm: Jefferson County Prior to WWII,” opens this Saturday at the Hoard Historical Museum in Fort Atkinson and will remain through the end of the year. 

Special programs Dec. 11 include the documentary, “Pearl Harbor: Into the Arizona,” at 10:30 a.m.; a 1 p.m. talk on the attack and oral histories of soldiers from Jefferson County and Wisconsin by Jennifer Van Haaften, assistant director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum; and a 2 p.m. ceremony recognizing Jefferson County World War II service personnel. 

That will be followed by a dramatic vignette including President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s address to a Joint Session of Congress on Dec. 8, 1941, one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. During this address, Roosevelt asked for a declaration of war against Japan. 

It should be informative, as well as very moving. Hope to see you there!

Chris Spangler, a former longtime Fort Atkinson journalist, is a regular contributor to Fort Atkinson Online.