Tomorrow will be the 65th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. As in the past, the survivors of the attack will gather to remember the day, but it will be their last time together:
For decades after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, survivors returned to retell their stories and recite their mantra: “Remember Pearl Harbor.”Now the people who survived the surprise attack that killed more than 2,400 people and led to America’s entry into World War II are in their 80s or older. Dying or too frail to travel, they say this week’s reunion will be their last official gathering at the sacred site.
“We’re getting to be fewer and fewer in numbers,” says Lee Soucy, 87, of Plainview, Texas. Soucy recalled treating injured sailors who jumped from flaming ships during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet. He was in Hawaii this week for the last time.
“Some of us are dying off and some of us are getting incapacitated,” he says.
And it’s not just the gathering in Hawaii that’s folding:
With the attack now 65 years in the past, even local chapters of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association are folding, says Norman Lancaster, 92, treasurer of the Arlington, Va., chapter. “We feel that we’ll come to a point where there’s not enough people.”
Hopefully, even when they’re all gone, America won’t forget them.
