WWII veterans gathered at Pearl Harbor welcome Japanese PM’s planned visit
December 6, 2016 - 7:40 pm
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USS Nevada veteran Cliff Burks, center, watches a movie recounting the Dec. 7, 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor with his daughter, Kerry Albritton, left, and grand-daughter Stescha Burks at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center on Monday, December 5, 2016. (Michael Quine/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Vegas88s
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Dick Ramsey poses for a photograph at the USS Arizona Memorial during a tour Monday, Dec. 5, 2016, of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the attack by Japanese warplanes that thrust the United States into World War II. He served on the USS Nevada from 1943 to 1946. (Keith Rogers/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @KeithRogers2
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Barbara Emerson, daughter of USS Nevada veteran Joe Calvin Hays, awaits the start of a movie recounting the Dec. 7, 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center on Monday, December 5, 2016. (Michael Quine/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Vegas88s
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Barbara Emerson's father, Joe Calvin Hays, left, served on the USS Nevada during World War II. Her son, Andrew Emerson, right, currently serves on the USS John C. Stennis, the flag ship at the Pearl Harbor 75th commemoration event.
(Photo courtesy of Barbara Emerson)
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USS Nevada veteran Ansel Tupper watches a movie recounting the Dec. 7, 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center on Monday, December 5, 2016. (Michael Quine/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Vegas88s
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Barbara Emerson's father, Joe Calvin Hays, (front row, second from left) appears in the USS Nevada aviation unit group photo in front of the ship's Kingfisher scout plane during World War II. (Photo courtesy of Barbara Emerson)
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American ships burn during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1942. (AP Photo)
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Three U.S. battleships are hit from the air during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Japan's bombing of U.S. military bases at Pearl Harbor brings the U.S. into World War II. From left are: USS West Virginia, severely damaged; USS Tennessee, damaged; and USS Arizona, sunk. (AP Photo)
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In the predawn hours of Monday December 5, 2016, the USS Arizona Memorial sits peacefully over the 1,177 men who died onboard during the December 7th surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. (Michael Quine/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Vegas88s
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The sun rises on the number three turret of the USS Arizona which sank during the December 7th surprise attack on Pearl Harbor with the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis moored across from Ford Island on Monday, December 5, 2016. (Michael Quine/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Vegas88s
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Oil still rises to the surface at the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor creating a prism of colors and reminding visitors of the sunken hull that lies below with it’s crew of 1,177 men killed during the December 7th surprise attack. Monday, December 5, 2016. (Michael Quine/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Vegas88s
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The USS Arizona’s hull numbers, BB 39, seen from inside the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor on Monday, December 5, 2016, where are written the names of the 1,177 men killed during the December 7, 1941 surprise attack. (Michael Quine/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Vegas88s
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On the morning of Monday December 5, 2016, the USS Arizona Memorial sits peacefully over the 1,177 men who died onboard during the December 7th surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. (Michael Quine/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Vegas88s
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USS Nevada veteran Charles (Cliff) Burks, right, with his daughter, Kerry Albritton, displays a book with the USS Nevada during the December 7, 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center on Monday, December 5, 2016. (Michael Quine/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Vegas88s
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Guests to the Pearl Harbor Visitors Center during the 75th Commemorative events at the national park head for their tour bus on Monday, December 5, 2016. (Michael Quine/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Vegas88s
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The USS Arizona Memorial and USS Battleship Missouri Memorial can be seen from the air in Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii December 5, 2016. REUTERS/Hugh Gentry
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The USS Arizona Memorial and USS Battleship Missouri Memorial can be seen from the air in Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii December 5, 2016. REUTERS/Hugh Gentry
HONOLULU — World War II veterans and family members gathering for Wednesday’s 75th anniversary observance of the attack on Pearl Harbor expressed support for a planned visit to Hawaii this month by the Japanese prime minister to pay respects to U.S. victims of Tokyo’s sneak attack.
“Why would I have any animosity?” asked Dick Ramsey, 93, of Brooklyn, New York, who served as a boatswain mate on the USS Nevada from 1943 to 1946. “If it was right after the attack on Pearl Harbor, I’d want to kick him in the ass. … (But now) I have no hate for the Japanese.”
Cliff Burks, 91, a seaman first class on the USS Nevada from 1942 until the end of 1945, echoed those sentiments. He called the visit by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later this month a “nice” gesture that recognizes the important relationship between the countries that grew after the war’s end.
“Our idea was to protect our freedom,” said Burks, of Galveston, Texas. “We beat them, but we didn’t take control of their country. We will live in harmony, but we will protect our country.”
White House spokesman Josh Earnest acknowledged Tuesday that some WWII vets could feel “personally embittered” if Abe doesn’t apologize for the attack on Pearl Harbor during the planned visit with President Barack Obama to the USS Arizona Memorial on Dec. 27 – the first by a Japanese leader.
But Earnest expressed confidence that even they would “set aside their own personal interests and prioritize the ambition and opportunity of the American people.”
The attack on Pearl Harbor in the early hours of Dec. 7, 1941, killed more than 2,300 U.S. servicemen and propelled the United States into World War II. The conflict ended nearly four years later, shortly after U.S. warplanes dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing and wounding 225,000 Japanese, by conservative estimates.
Earlier this year, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the memorial in Hiroshima for victims of the U.S. atomic bombing of that city.
Despite the carnage wrought by the former adversaries, signs of bitterness were in short supply among the World War II vets and their family members assembling on the Hawaiian island of Oahu to attend Wednesday’s commemoration events.
Ramsey, the former USS Nevada sailor from Brooklyn, said younger generations in both countries have never known the animosity that once gripped his generation and their counterparts in Japan.
“At this point in time the young people of Japan, just like the young people in our country, don’t know much about what happened during the war,” he said.
Lisa DuPere, of Las Vegas, whose father Lenoard Nielsen, 94, rescued sailors from the burning oil slick around the sinking USS Arizona after the Pearl Harbor attack, said Abe’s visit will be “an amazing experience to bring the countries together.”
“It’s very important. We want to make sure that we keep the honor going for Pearl Harbor and what happened, and that it’s never forgotten,” she said at Waikiki Beach, where she brought her family to observe the commemoration events even though her father remained behind in Las Vegas.
Barbara Emerson, whose father, Joe Calvin Hays, served as an aviation radioman second class on the USS Nevada’s Kingfisher scout plane , also made the trip without her father, who died in 2009. But she had a another reason to keep the memory of Pearl Harbor alive: Her son, Andrew Emerson, is a machinist mate on board the USS John C. Stennis, the flagship aircraft carrier at the 75th Pearl Harbor commemoration events.
She said Abe’s visit is symbolically important to bury any ill will that remains between the former adversaries.
“(He’s) making a statement for people of his country to pay homage and ask for forgiveness of mistakes from their past, and to carry on with positive things for the future,” she said.
Contact Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308. Find him on Twitter: @KeithRogers2
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