Pearl Harbor

Mike Mansfield, an 8th grade dropout, became interested in Asia during Marine duty in the Philippines, with visits to Japan and China, in 1921 and 1922. He returned to his home state of Montana and was admitted to Montana School of Mines as a special student, required to earn high school credits while he took college courses. Eventually, he became a professor of history and political science at University of Montana. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1942 and to the Senate in 1952, where he eventually became majority leader.

"I REMEMBER IT as a clear and beautiful day, with scattered clouds and not much wind." Joe Taussig was looking out at a gray day from his Annapolis home on Weems Creek, a vast distance from where he was on that other day, 58 years ago tomorrow.Then-Ensign Taussig bounded topside into that lovely weather to assume command as officer of the deck of the USS Nevada. It was 7: 50 in the morning."The Nevada band was supposed to play `The Star-Spangled Banner' at 8 o'clock sharp, and I remember being worried about the size of the flag for the ceremony.

It's 1700 hours, Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941. Nathan Miller exits the Garden Theater at South Charles and Cross streets, its matinee over, walks to his home nearby, turns on the radio."

They were the good ol' days: November 1941.In Middle River, Harry Eugene Mettee was a year out of high school and already working as an inspector at Glenn L. Martin Co., helping to build airplanes for Britain's frantic defense against Nazi Germany.He made good money -- $31 a week. He expected the country to be dragged into the war soon. But, like most 19-year-olds, he was thinking mainly about his job, girls and flashy cars.In downtown Baltimore, Walter Thomas worked as a waiter at the old Emerson Hotel.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor came out of the blue, right?Well, not exactly. There was abundant evidence 50 years ago of an imminent assault. Relations with the country were quickly souring. Intercepted Japanese communications hinted strongly -- even giving the time -- of a raid. And an imperial submarine was sunk near Pearl Harbor only hours before the attack on Dec. 7, 1941.But of all the unheeded warnings, perhaps the most frustrating was that received by Joseph Lockard, then a 19-year-old Army private.

Raymond Kursch still trembles when he talks about the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He remembers the priest giving his battery last rites in case they died. He remembers cutting his leg as he dived for cover. And he remembers having to drive over the bodies of dozens of dead soldiers who had lined up for morning drill in an open field just as the Japanese swooped in. He doesn't know whether he blames President Franklin D. Roosevelt or the base's commanders, but Kursch - a new recruit at the time of the attack - firmly believes someone thought those at Pearl Harbor were expendable and failed to pass on advance warning of the assault 59 years ago today.

When you think of films about Pearl Harbor, the movie version of James Jones' novel "From Here to Eternity" may not come immediately to mind. After all, the Japanese surprise attack takes place only near the end of the film. And "From Here to Eternity" is better known as a serious slice of American life: an unblinking look at the pre-war U.S. Army. Moreover, though it was a huge hit and Academy Award-winner, it dates from 1953, when blockbusters could be adult movies. This weekend's new entry, "Pearl Harbor," is instead the unholy progeny of "Saving Private Ryan" and "Titanic."

It went yesterday as it always does. A wreath dropped into the harbor to memorialize Pearl Harbor's fallen floats away. A color guard's reverential strut. The haunting notes of taps. And the reading, name by name, as a bell tolls, of Maryland servicemen who survived the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, but failed to make it through this past year. Each year, fewer survivors attend the Baltimore ceremony aboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Taney, as the bell gets more and more use. Yesterday, only five white-haired survivors attended, not counting the Taney itself, which is the only combat ship stationed in Hawaii when Japan attacked that is still afloat.

As the 50-year anniversary of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor draws near, Japanese-Americans and Japanese nationals worry that the commemoration has begun to unleash a backlash against Asian Americans in the United States.The anniversary approaches against a backdrop of U.S. self-consciousness about its diminishing stature as an economic power and the perception by some Americans that "Japan is buying what it didn't bomb.""Yes, the event should be memorialized," said Naomi Hirahara, editor of Rafu Shimpo in Los Angeles, the nation's largest-circulation Japanese-American daily newspaper.

WASHINGTON -- Rejecting the pleas of families and supporters, the Pentagon yesterday refused to clear the names and restore the ranks of the two senior U.S. military commanders at Pearl Harbor during the 1941 Japanese raid.A Pentagon report said Rear Adm. Husband E. Kimmel and Maj. Gen. Walter C. Short were not solely to blame for the disaster, which cost 2,403 American lives, and had "suffered greatly.""They lost men for whom they were responsible," the report said. "They felt too much of the blame was placed on them.