Pearl Harbor, a naval base renowned for the 1941 attack that drew the United States into World War II and reshaped global history, continues to tell its story as a memorial site, reminding people the profound cruelty of war.
The naval base lies on the O'Ahu Island in Hawaii, 3,500 kilometers from the closest continental landmass.
On Dec 7, 1941, Japan launched a pre-emptive strike on the U.S. Pacific fleet, ahead of the seemingly inevitable start of hostilities, sinking six of its eight battleships and killing more than 2,100 Americans.
Kathi Hayashi, president of the Infantry Battalion Veterans (Club 100) established by World War II veterans, said her family lived less than two kilometers from the naval base, and her grandfather was injured in the attack.
"It was a lot of trauma. You got anti-aircraft, bullets coming in from the battleships, and the Zeros coming over. My grandfather was sitting on his bed, and all of a sudden, a bullet came through the roof, right through his hand," she said.
Japan had feared a U.S. armed response to its plan to seize control of Southeast Asia for its natural resources, and its attack on the U.S. fleet stationed in Hawaii sought to cripple the U.S. Navy with a single blow.
Having previously wavered over direct involvement given its politics of isolationism, the attack dragged the United States into World War II.
The attack set off a chain of events which led ultimately to the advent of nuclear warfare. Four years later, Japan's refusal to surrender saw U.S. planes drop atomic warheads on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
A guide on USS Missouri Battleship Memorial, the old site of Japan’s surrender ceremony that lies at the Pearl Harbor, said the war led to millions of casualties, of which most were civilians.
"Conservatively we estimate that about 69 million people died during World War II in all theaters of combat. Of that 69 million, about 50 million were civilians and non-combatants,” said the guide.
The Japanese attack also had immediate impacts on ethnically-Japanese in Hawaii. More than a third of Hawaii's population in 1941 were ethnically-Japanese -- the territory's largest ethnic group -- resulting from decades of labor migration to its sugar plantations. Suspected by American authorities, many were taken to internment camps.
"Because the Japanese played such a major role in the sugar economy, they couldn't incarcerate the entire population, so they went after leadership. They targeted business owners, community leaders, religious leaders. It was very very dismal for a lot of the prisoners," said Nate Gyotoku, president of the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii.
Today, the memorial site receives over 1.5 million visitors every year. The memory of the attack on Pearl Harbor is still visible in Hawaii today, in the rusted remains of the multiple sunken American battleships that still poke out from beneath the waves.
"I'm a navy veteran myself, so it has a special meaning for me to be here and see it for the first time," said Steven Tiefel, a US Navy veteran.
"We’re still seeing some of these things happen in the modern-day world. Heightened tensions, suspicion without due process, and I think we can look at what happened to Japanese-Americans and other populations as a way to learn hopefully from history," said Gyotoku.
Pearl Harbor reflects on WWII history, confronts war's cruelty
