SHENANDOAH - Veterans gathered Friday morning at the American Legion Anthony P. Damato "Medal of Honor" Post 792 in Shenandoah to remember the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941, and honor those who lost their lives.
The sneak attack by the Japanese military at the Navy and Army Air Corps bases in the Hawaiian islands led the United States into World War II and is still remembered 72 years later.
The day after the attack, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed Congress, beginning his speech asking for a declaration of war with the following: "Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."
More than two dozen veterans from Shenandoah, Mahanoy City and Girardville attended the brief ceremony Friday, which began outside during a drizzle. An honor guard of four veterans stood near the fence at Legion Memorial Garden, located next to the post home, who provided the rifle salute, followed by the playing of taps by Joseph A. Cocco Jr., the post's finance officer, past commander and immediate past commander of the American Legion Department of Pennsylvania.
After the outside ceremony, the veterans moved into the post home for a breakfast provided by the Shenandoah Senior Community Center and were welcomed by Post Commander Daniel Krauson.
"If it wasn't for veterans keeping it alive, I don't know if this new generation would remember," Cocco said before the breakfast. "But we never should forget Dec. 7. On behalf of the Damato post, I want to thank everybody for showing up today. It was a very nice turnout. I'm very proud to be a Legionnaire, especially with the Anthony P. Damato post."
State Rep. Neal P. Goodman, D-123, a Marine Corps veteran, spoke about memories of important events in different generations.
"Every generation has had a moment that is forever in their memories - seared in their memories that they can't forget." Goodman said. "In my generation, it would be the attacks of 9/11. The generation before me it would be the assassination of John Kennedy. But for the Greatest Generation, it's Dec. 7, 1941, and the vicious attack on Pearl Harbor, which led us into World War II."
Goodman said it was so different in the 1940s when there were no instant communications as today.
"You have to think back and imagine what it must have been like for the people at the time," Goodman said. "There were no satellites in the sky, no cellphones, no Twitter or Facebook. People were huddled around the radio wondering what was going on and where their loved ones were, especially here in Schuylkill County. At the time of the attack, 152 Schuylkill Countians were in Hawaii. We were there. They described it as 110 minutes of hell on earth. Three Schuylkill County residents died that morning."
On the following day, Goodman said, shock turned to anger, anger turned to a commitment to win the war, with young men and women going to recruiting centers to serve in the military, and that it took four years to defeat Japan.
The Japanese attack was prompted by its need to remove the American naval fleet's capability to interfere with Japan in its military aggression throughout the Pacific region. To thwart Japanese efforts, the United States had already imposed an oil embargo on Japan.
"A lot can be learned from your generation in the actions after the Pearl Harbor attack," Goodman said. "If we would come together as a nation like that again, just imagine what we would be able to accomplish."