Remember Pearl Harbor
MIAMI (CBS4) - The moon landing, the assassination of JFK, the 9/11 attacks, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. They are events and days that defined recent American history like no others.
And then, there's "the date which will live in infamy."
That date was seventy years ago today, when Japanese planes started raining bombs on Pearl Harbor, as people ate breakfast.
Eighteen ships and hundreds of American aircraft were destroyed or damaged. Twenty four hundred Americans were killed and almost thirteen hundred were wounded in what remained the deadliest attack on a U.S. territory until 9/11.
It turned out to be one of the greatest miscalculations in military history. The Japanese objective was to neutralize America's power in the Pacific, hoping to have free reign for its expansionist ambitions. Instead, the attack on Pearl Harbor awoke the sleeping giant and the U.S. entered World War Two, changing history.
About a hundred twenty of the few survivors still with us attended today's commemorative ceremony in Hawaii; all patriots, members of the Greatest Generation, whose service and sacrifice we so gratefully honor.
