This past Sunday, on December 7th, a half dozen World War II veterans gathered to honor the 84th remembrance ceremony in Oahu, Hawaii. For the first time since the events on that fateful day in 1941, the anniversary of the air raid on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii passed without the attendance of any surviving veterans who lived through one of the deadliest attacks on American soil.
Only a handful of veterans are known to be living who endured the historic assault. All are over 100 years old now and unable to travel, according to Stripes. Last year, two survivors attended the ceremony: Ken Stevens and Ira Schab. Stevens passed away at the age of 102 this spring, and Schab, age 105, was not well enough to make the trip to the 2025 ceremony.
The Final Bearers Of Living Memory
The Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors maintain a roster of survivors, and report that only 12 veterans of the attack are still living in 2025. The organization works to seek out and identify veterans to maintain the living memory of the events, but the groups says the list may still be missing names even though it is constantly updated.
The commemoration this year carried the theme of “Building Pathways to Peace,” with speakers highlighting the importance of generational continuity and praising the heroic memory of the Americans who answered the call of duty in the nation’s most dire hours.
Stripes reported that Tom Leatherman, superintendent of the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, told the audience:
“Today, we mark a deeply emotional milestone. [The survivors’] absence is felt profoundly… You have carried the torch for so long, and now it is up to us, not only to receive it, but to ensure that its light never fades.”
The Day Of Infamy
On the morning of the air raid in 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) launched 353 aircraft from four aircraft carriers in two waves. The first wave of 183 planes coordinated with midget submarines to surprise the US Navy’s capital ships moored at Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor. Commander Mitsuo Fuchida famously made the radio call, “Tora! Tora! Tora!” (Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!), signaling a complete surprise had been achieved.
A bomb from one of the attacking planes in the first wave struck the forward ammunition magazine of the battleship USS Arizona, causing a massive explosion that sank the ship within minutes and killed 1,177 of its crew members. At airfields across the island, 188 Army and Marine Corps planes were destroyed or damaged. All eight battleships present in the harbor, and 13 other warships, were crippled or sunk.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 2,403 Americans, including 68 civilians, and wounded 1,178 others. The remains of the Arizona were declared a war grave and national shrine, with over 900 men still entombed within its hull. The Pacific Fleet’s three aircraft carriers were luckily at sea and escaped harm, a profound strategic failure of the raid and a decisive factor in the Pacific campaign.
The day after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his “Day of Infamy” speech to Congress. The United States officially declared war on Japan, entering WWII as a direct result of the air raid, which lasted less than two hours. To this day, small droplets of oil continue to leak from the sunken battleship’s fuel tanks, known as the “tears of the Arizona.”
The Price Of Lasting Peace
The Pearl Harbor National Memorial promotes peace initiatives through diplomacy and education through a “sister park” arrangement with the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, which encourages reconciliation and shared educational experiences. Initiatives like this are crucial to international political stability and education as they transform a site of immense human tragedy into a space for learning and reconciliation.
Highlighting the human cost of war and the path toward peace, the memorial and its partner institutions, like the National WWII Museum, underscore the importance of diplomacy and understanding in preventing conflicts. The joint effort with Hiroshima is a tangible example of how shared history, even painful, can be a foundation for enduring friendship and cooperation between former adversaries.
