Remembering Pearl Harbor
Del.icio.us
|
We take pride in the stories published in every issue of MidWeek, especially our cover stories and Page 6 features. But I’ll admit to being extra proud of this Dec. 7, 2011, issue the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
It starts with Steve Murray’s cover story on members of Ted Tsukiyama, who were students on Dec. 7, 1941, for their recollections of that Day of Infamy, the days that followed and what it was like to be Japanese in Hawaii as their country went to war with a people who “looked like them.” What makes this oral history so uplifting is the way their fellow Hawaii citizens reacted.
In his column, Bob Jones writes about a book written in 1925 that accurately predicted Japan’s attack on Hawaii, and a little known mock attack in 1932 that proved the attack theory doable. It’s quite a read.
Jade Moon, whose father was 8 and growing up in Kalihi on Dec. 7, writes about his recollections, as well as a visit to the peace memorial in Hiroshima. As with Gail Miyasaki’s story, it is ultimately uplifting.
Bob Hogue has a nice Dec. 7 tale with a sports twist, and Jo McGarry writes about the growing popularity of sake here, even as it declines in Japan (who knew?).
I am also quite pleased to introduce a new columnist in this issue Fareed Zakaria whom I regard as good as anyone in journalism today. The editorat-large of Time magazine, host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS and the author of two books, Zakaria is an astute and intelligent observer of world events. The New York Times calls his most recent book The Post-American World “a relentlessly intelligent book” and The Economist calls it “a powerful guide” to facing global challenges. Like The Post-American World, his previous book The Future of Freedom was a Times best-seller and has been translated into more than 20 languages. As a political independent, I take pride in bringing MidWeek readers opinions from right, left and in between. Zakaria doesn’t fit any of those labels. Practical, realist, insightful and really smart are terms I’d use instead.
Oh, and speaking of medals: I didn’t have room for this paragraph in my Nov. 16 column on Leo Thorsness, Medal of Honor recipient:
By protocol, when any member of the U.S. military sees a Medal of Honor recipient wearing the medal, they up to and including the commander-in-chief must stop and salute. “It’s not me,” Leo said, “it’s the medal.”
By the way, in an email he sent the day before Thanksgiving, Leo who looks like he could still fit in his old Air Force uniform offered this parting advice for getting through the holidays without gaining weight: “Eat more turkey and less pie.”
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS Comments (0) |
Most Recent Comment(s):
