ASSOCIATED PRESS
Officials from the Japan Religious Committee for World Freedom bowed their heads yesterday after ceremonies marking the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The delegates have been attending the ceremony for 23 years.
Veterans and
dignitaries remember
fateful SundayAn admiral hails
the courage shown
by the Dec. 7, 1941,
defenders
The sun peeked through the clouds yesterday, moments before the ceremony at the USS Arizona Memorial marked 62 years since the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Those at the memorial wiped away tears as dignitaries dropped flowers and leis into calm waters to honor those who lost their lives that Sunday morning.
About 130 people, including 16 Pearl Harbor survivors, attended the event, which started at 7:55 a.m., the time the first wave of attacks hit Pearl Harbor.
Blue skies were spoiled with smoke, flames and chaos, Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, said in his commemorative address.
"Yet wherever the enemy attacked on Oahu, he was met with courageous redress," said Fargo. "The actions of the enemy may forever live in infamy, but the valor of our citizens lives more boldly in history."
Guests included U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, Japanese Consul General Masatoshi Muto and Philippine Consul General Rolando Gregorio.
Pearl Harbor survivor Charles Everett Bussell visited the memorial for the first time since the attack. Bussell, 83, lives in Spokane, Wash., and was accompanied with his son Charles and grandson Alexander.
Bussell joined the Navy when he was 19 and was a boatswain's mate first class on the USS Nevada on Dec. 7, 1941. He recalled getting ready to go to sleep that morning when he heard a loud noise. Bussell said he stuck his head out of the porthole and saw smoke.
"We fought fire until we ran aground," said Bussell. He also remembered he and other soldiers recovering bodies and taking injured soldiers to Hospital Point.
Bussell, who long refrained from visiting the memorial because of painful memories, said he finally decided to go because he is getting older and did not know whether he would have another chance.
"I was very impressed," Bussell said of the ceremony.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Actor Ernest Borgnine, a World War II veteran and Academy Award recipient, visited the USS Arizona Memorial yesterday as keynote speaker at the 62nd annual Pearl Harbor Day commemoration.
Engines from four Hawaii Air National Guard jets roared over the memorial in a missing-man formation. Sailors raised the flag to half-mast, and Marines delivered a 21-gun salute. Dignitaries and representatives from military installations and organizations dropped red anthuriums and purple orchids into waters directly above the USS Arizona.
The Japanese surprise attack sank 21 vessels, destroyed 164 planes and killed 2,405 military personnel and civilians.
Another Pearl Harbor survivor, who was also assigned to the USS Nevada, recalled smoke and flames billowing from the USS California and USS West Virginia.
"We didn't know what the hell was going to happen," said Woodrow Wilson Derby of San Diego, Calif., who was a 23-year-old second-class storekeeper when the attack occurred. Derby remembers water flowing into his ship after a torpedo tore a hole in the hull.
Derby, now 85, said he was planning to play tennis that morning before the attack.
Though Derby has visited the memorial eight times, he is still moved by the names of those killed, etched into the marble wall.
"That's when it gets to me," he said.
Hundreds also attended a commemoration at the Arizona Memorial Visitor Center with WWII Navy veteran and Academy Award winner Ernest Borgnine, who had a role in "From Here to Eternity." Borgnine delivered the keynote address for the program called "Hollywood Remembers Pearl Harbor."
"I remember the ship when she was whole," Borgnine said after visiting the white, 184-foot-long memorial that straddles the Arizona.
Kristi Hancock, of Cheyenne, Wyo., said her first visit to the memorial was touching, especially during a time when U.S. soldiers are continuing their fight in Iraq.
"It makes it much more meaningful when you're in the middle of it," said Hancock.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
