HONOLULU — With an eye on the immediate aftermath of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, thousands of World War II veterans and other observers are expected today to commemorate the 67th anniversary of the devastating Japanese military raid.
The theme of the event — “Pacific War Memories: The Heroic Response to Pearl Harbor” — is something of a departure from the past.
Usually, the commemoration focuses on the attack on the USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor and several other installations on Oahu.
But this year’s remembrance ceremony will center more on the months after the raid, said Eileen Martinez, chief of interpretation for the National Park Service.
One of two keynote speakers will be Thomas Griffin, a surviving member of the pilots and crew who answered the Pearl Harbor attack four months later with an aircraft carrier-launched bomber raid on Tokyo.
The B-25 mission, led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle, inflicted little damage on Japan but boosted morale in America and led the embarrassed Japanese government to launch an ill-fated attack on Midway Island.
At 7:55 a.m., when the attack began 67 years ago, a moment of silence will be observed.
The destroyer USS Chung-Hoon will render honors to the USS Arizona, which still lies beneath the harbor with its dead.
Almost 2,400 Americans were killed and nearly 1,180 injured when Japanese fighters bombed and sank 12 naval vessels and heavily damaged nine others on Dec. 7, 1941.
