As strong a memory as 9/11 is for those who witnessed the event either live or via television back in 2001, there was another equally shocking event that galvanized the nation and which occurred on December 7th.

Today marks the 74th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day.  On this day in 1941 the Japanese attacked the U.S. military base on Hawaii in the hopes of critically injuring the U.S. fleet and therefore have free reign on the Atlantic Ocean.

The shocking attack, however, turned out to be Japan’s biggest miscalculation.

Not only did the attack formally bring the U.S. into the Second World War -there were many politicians and prominent personalities railing against joining the war up to that point- but the attack itself, as harrowing as it was, wasn’t as successful as the Japanese hoped it would be.  The U.S. fleet wasn’t crushed and, as history attests, our nation was more than able to contain and eventually defeat the Japanese advance.

Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the attack, reportedly had second thoughts regarding the action and came to realize it was a big mistake.  One of the most famous quotes linked to him (though there is no hard evidence he said it) is that the attack on Pearl Harbor “Awoke a sleeping giant“.

Way, way back when I was in Hawaii, I made it a point to visit the Arizona Memorial.  As others have noted, there is still oil coming from the sunken ship.  But the experience, in the end, was both haunting and sad.  One immediately realized, upon arriving at the memorial, the number of people lost to this attack as well as those who were soon to be lost in the war that followed.

I haven’t been to New York since 9/11 but I suspect the same feelings must fill visitors to the site of the Twin Towers.

There are great wounds left upon the land and tributes to the same.  The wounds of December 7th and the war that followed, through the passage of time, have led to healing.  Perhaps one day the same can be said for 9/11.