7 December 1941.
Another year passes. One feels the cultural memory slipping away.
Again Google ignores it and Bing.com makes a point of showing a USS Arizona Memorial wallpaper pic. Perhaps Bing only does this as a counterpoint to Google. Whatever the reason, it’s good that someone notes the date.
Perhaps some of us here will post more on this anniversary. In the meantime, here’s a link to previous Chicagoboyz Pearl Harbor posts.
Remember.
We don’t get the Arizona picture in the UK, but one of the links across the bottom is:
Commemorating its 70th anniversary today”¦
Which event led to the US joining the Allies in WWII?
I remember the day FDR made his historic announcement…I always remember 7 Dec.
He who does not recall the past has forgotten it.
A Date That Will Live In Infamy…”
It is amazing, this being the 70th anniversary, that hardly a mention is made of it outside of the blogs.
And it was an event that changed America….
I’ve switched my browser search engine to Bing.
Frankly, it’s a sad commentary on how bad Google has become when Microsoft has become preferable.
@Knirirr
Pearl Harbor was for us, a galvanizing event. Up until Pearl Harbor America was divided – 50-50 – over entering “Europe’s War”.
Of course Britain had been fighting for 2 years before Pearl Harbor – and after – while America’s ire was directed at the Japanese Hitler obliged everyone by then declaring war on us.
If you find yourself in Hawaii you must see the Arizona Memorial – over 1600 sailors were trapped in the hull when her magazines blew up.
You can still see oil bubbling up – drop by drop – even 70 years after the fact.
@Bill Brandt
I would be very interested in seeing the Arizona memorial, although it’s unlikely I ever will, unfortunately.
I think I first learned of the attack on Pearl Harbour when I was 9, as a result of watching this film when it came out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Final_Countdown_(film)
@Knirirr
That was an interesting movie. I always seem to remember the scene of the Senator and his “Secretary” in the old boat out in the Pacific.
I think – by the time of Pearl Harbor, Britain was exhausted, having just fought the Nazis to a standstill in the air war over their island.
I remember seeing an excellent BBC production http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157239/ – you really saw
what life was like in these squadrons – and the terrible attrition.
But to the point – we are all “ethnocentric” – expecting the rest of the world as seeing things the way we do – and in the rest of the world Pearl Harbor wasn’t the center that it is here ;-)
This is no accident on the part of Google; they ignored Veterans Day, also, but every harebrained minor OTHER holiday gets a picture or drawing on the Google home page.
I love Bing’s home page. Last year, I believe, they had a panoramic view of Pearl taken from a totally different perspective than I had ever seen, and I thought it showed how Pearl was laid out better than any other picture.
I don’t care why Bing does it, but it does; Google disgusts me.