JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii –
On the 80th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day in 2021, about 135 World War II veterans attended the observance of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. Last year, fewer than 30 veterans attended Dec. 7 events.
As veterans and Pearl Harbor survivors pass away, their legacy lives on with the next generation of service members.
This year’s 83rd Pearl Harbor Day commemoration features a series of observances co-hosted by the National Park Service and Commander, Navy Region Hawaii (CNRH), including the interment of a former Pearl Harbor Day survivor aboard the USS Utah (AG-16) and the Blackened Canteen ceremony. Young service members play an active in the commemoration rituals, reinforcing this year’s theme of Forging Ahead.
Units from the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps will be participating in events and the granddaughter of a Pearl Harbor survivor will be the keynote speaker at the main Dec. 7 ceremony. “Although we honor those who passed away, we want to look forward to the future,” explained Jim Neuman, history and outreach manager for CNRH and one of the lead planners for the Pearl Harbor Day observance.
This year, the remains of Pearl Harbor survivor Gilbert Meyer will be interred aboard the wreckage of the USS Utah. Meyer passed away in 2023 at the age of 100. He served in the Navy for 22 years and retired as a Chief Petty Officer. He was an 18-year-old Fireman First Class assigned to the USS Utah when it was hit by a torpedo. On his 100th birthday last year, Meyer donated two acres of land in his hometown of Lytle, Texas, to the Veterans of Foreign Wars for a new meeting hall. He also wrote a book about his time in the Navy and how he survived the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Meyer’s nephew, Gilbert Benton, 79, said the interment ceremony for his uncle will be especially meaningful for his family.
“I’ve seen three of these interments over the years and it’s so moving to watch that, but it will be so special for us this year because it’s him,” said Benton, who emphasized how important it will be for his uncle to join his shipmates at rest.
To date, a total of 16 interments have taken place aboard the USS Utah.
The Pearl Harbor Day commemoration concludes on Dec. 8 with the Blackened Canteen ceremony aboard the USS Arizona Memorial (BB-39).
“This actually is in connection to the Park Service’s mission here at Pearl Harbor,” explained David Kilton, the interpretation, education, and services lead for the National Park Service. “We are the keeper of those stories that are brought to us and then we share them and try to honor all the different aspects of those stories.”
Kilton explained how this unique remembrance ceremony began:
On the night of June 20, 1945, during a bombing raid over Shizuoka, Japan, two B-29 aircraft collided and crashed, killing 23 crewmen. When a local Shizuoka businessman and farmer pulled fatally wounded U.S. airmen from the wreckage, he found a blackened canteen in one of the aircraft, distorted from heat and bearing what appeared to be the seared handprint of its late owner.
The farmer, who was a devout Buddhist who believed all life is precious, started conducting an annual ceremony honoring the Japanese and Americans who lost their lives as a result of the war. The ceremony included a silent prayer and the pouring of bourbon whiskey from the blackened canteen onto the crash site as an offering to the spirits of the fallen. Two monuments were later erected near the crash site in memory of those who died.
The Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Ceremony on Dec. 7 is the main ceremony of the annual commemoration. It’s held at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, which is dedicated to the memory of more than 2,300 service members and civilians who died during the Pearl Harbor attack. Central to the memorial is the USS Arizona Memorial, which rests above the remains of the sunken battleship and commemorates the 1,177 crewmen who died aboard. The USS Arizona suffered half of all casualties on the day of the attack.
Neuman explained how the design of the Arizona Memorial highlights the dual focus on the past and future and emphasized how he seeks to emulate this focus when he plans the details of Pearl Harbor Day.
“This ties into how I look at the ceremony,” he said. “It’s a memorial to the past because we’re honoring the greatest generation. We’re honoring those who gave their lives on Dec. 7, 1941. It’s a memorial to the future because when you look at the design of the memorial it starts out high, which is before the attack on Pearl Harbor. As you come aboard the memorial, you’re at a high point. It goes low over the center of the memorial, the center of the wreckage because Dec. 7, 1941 was a low point. Then it tapers to a high point over the shrine room.”
Alfred Preis, the architect who designed the Arizona Memorial, used the shrine room to accentuate the ideals of peace, renewal, and remembrance of those who lost their lives on the day of the attack, Neuman explained.
“On either side of the shrine room, you’ve got the Tree of Life. From a biblical perspective, that would be the Book of Revelations, healing of the nations, and from Alfred Preis’ perspective, it was the idea of renewal and lasting peace,” said Neuman. “We’re honoring those who were lost on Dec. 7, but we’re also looking forward to the future because he hoped that the victory at the end of World War II would be one that would lead to lasting peace and renewal and partnerships with our allies.”
The last survivor of the Arizona crew, Lou Conter, 102, passed away on April 1, 2024.
Neuman acknowledged the significance of that loss and said our generation’s ability to move on resembles how veterans and survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack were forging ahead with their lives with resilience and tenacity, which is part of the reason why “forging ahead” is this year’s theme for the observance.
“Part of honoring that legacy is knowing that they did push ahead within their lives with the trauma and horror of war,” explained Neuman. “For those of us who live in 2024, we see that memorial and it reminds us that if we’re going to carry on this lasting peace that the greatest generation fought and died to secure, it’s going to be up to our generation and the generations moving forward.”