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Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
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I was about 10 when we heard it on the radio. It scared us all, but the "Japs" were immediately classified in everyone's mind as subhuman and we'd beat them. Then I heard on the radio that Germany had declared war too and that scared the sh#t out of us.
We learned how to identify all the major axis planes from flash card silhouettes, and there were civilian spotters on the mountain tops in California. I can still identify quite a few.
I still get seriously introspective and a little sick every time a WWII documentary comes on. What we do to each other is unthinkable, and I wonder if we deserve to survive as a species.
But there was a humorous incident a couple of years after the war which still makes me laugh. I was walking down the street in Calistoga with my younger brother Bill, who was about 8 years old. A couple went by talking in German. Bill asked who they were, and I said they were Germans. He went pale, looked back, and asked me, "Are they tame yet?"
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Gene
climber
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And the boys who became men will always keep the memories of their shipmates alive.
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zBrown
Ice climber
Brujò de la Playa
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Day of Infamy - Indeed
Are there some others?
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John Duffield
Mountain climber
New York
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Dec 23, 2014 - 05:21pm PT
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wow interesting
There were some trapped in the USS OHLAHOMA as well
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pyro
Big Wall climber
Calabasas
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Gary
Social climber
Hell is empty and all the devils are here
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I still get seriously introspective and a little sick every time a WWII documentary comes on. What we do to each other is unthinkable, and I wonder if we deserve to survive as a species.
There is a scene in Victory at Sea that gives me hope.
It's short, and towards the end, Iwo Jima or Okinawa maybe. There is a small Japanese girl, maybe 4 years old, sitting on a curb shivering in fright. Next to her stands some GI with the most miserable expression on his face. He's clearly torn. Does he join up with his fighting buddies? But how can he abandon this poor little girl?
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Living side by side with ideological differences, learning to share limited resources, can be excruciating.
But war is hell.
I'm sorry for the soldiers and military support personnel living in Pearl Harbor who experienced such trauma. And the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And countless others across religions and cultures and countries on our planet, most of whom just want to make a better life for themselves and their families, and yet are caught up in the games of powerful and rich men who don't feel powerful and rich enough.
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BooDawg
Social climber
Butterfly Town
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My dad was rejected after trying to enlist after the Pearl Harbor attack. The U.S. had other work for him, trying to protect the physicists who were trying to build the "ultimate" weapon which ultimately ended the war.
When the war ended, my Dad refused to work on the hydrogen bomb project, thinking that it was NOT a project of national security...
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John Duffield
Mountain climber
New York
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My Dad, who is still with us, thinks the atomic bomb saved his life. They were on ships off the coast, waiting to invade Honshu - the big island. They did still invade. They were scared sh!t, remembering the way it flew in the other places. So my Dad, thanks your Dad.
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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I was two years and three months old. My parents said they had to put me on virtual house arrest to keep me from trying to enlist.
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Took a few pictures this May.
My visit to the Arizona.
Taken looking through the ceiling.
The End...now anchored at the beginning.
One of Arizona's sisters looks over her.
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pud
climber
Sportbikeville & Yucca brevifolia
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My mom tells me stories of being strafed by zero's as she was running down the street to her grandmother's house during the attack.
She was 11 years old at the time.
It was a good experience to work on the film 60 years later.
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Winemaker
Sport climber
Yakima, WA
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My father was in the Marine Corp and stationed at Pearl when the attack came. He said the worst thing about the war was being strafed. He was at Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima; hitchhiked back to NZ after the war and married my mother and here I am.......
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Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
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I remember very well hearing of the attack on the radio, and hearing FDR declare war on Japan later.
For some juvenile reason I thought we would take care of Japan pretty quick, but when Germany declared war on Dec. 11th it scared hell out of me.
A funny memory, not quite OT: A year after the war I was walking down the street in Calistoga with my kid brother, who was about ten years old. A couple of men walked by chatting in German. Bro asked me what that language was. I said it was German. He sort of blanched and said, "Are they tame yet?"
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Peater
Trad climber
Salt Lake City Ut.
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I was young and over a friends house and noticed a framed military photo with a medal in it. I asked what it was.
That's our son Kevin, he died at Pearl Harbor.
I didn't really comprehend at the time but never forgot it. And still haven't.
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Our local PBS TV station had two one hour Pearl Harbor attack shows tonight. An hour each, on the battleships Oklahoma & Arizona. Well done, interesting, & sad.
Hopefully, our armed forces will never be surprised that badly again.
The Arizona, the pride of our 1941 Pacific fleet, was launched in 1915, had wood decks, & was obviously not designed to fight aerial attack.
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