Recalling Pearl Harbor: Never forget Dec. 8

The Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo

Dec. 8, a day heavy with the weight of history, has come around again.

On this day 63 years ago, Imperial Japanese Navy warplanes attacked the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, ushering in the Pacific War. Less than four years later, Japan found itself a defeated and utterly devastated nation. Its post-war reconstruction eventually led to the economic prosperity that the country enjoys today.

These events are mentioned in history textbooks used by Japanese students, but the number of Japanese who can recall what happened on Dec. 8 is rapidly declining.

A survey by Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) four years ago found that only 22 percent of respondents who were 16 or younger at the 30th anniversary of the end of World War II knew the exact date of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, while 54 percent of those who were seven or older when the war ended could identify the date. The ranks of Japanese who have no idea of the significance of this date probably have grown further since then.

Perhaps, a considerable number of young people today don't even know that their grandfathers and great-grandfathers fought the disastrous war with the Americans, much less the fact that Japan headed into hostilities in a desperate attempt to extricate itself from the quagmire it had created by invading China.

The passage of time naturally causes memories to fade. But some memories must not be forgotten.

Director Steven Spielberg once said he made Schindler's List, the Oscar-winning film in 1993, because the births of his children had reminded him that he was a Jew. He was apparently driven by the feeling that he must do something to pass on the Jewish people's collective memories about the Nazi Holocaust.

The construction in recent years of many Holocaust museums and monuments in various places, including Washington and Berlin, reflects a determination to keep history alive.

Memories about history differ greatly from nation to nation. While Japanese are increasingly oblivious of Dec. 8, the Americans never forget Dec. 7, "the day of infamy" when their homeland was attacked by a foreign country. The Sept. 11 terror attacks served to reinforce memories of Pearl Harbor that are carved deep into the collective consciousness of Americans, including young people.

For South Koreans, March 1 commemorates the nation's struggle to gain independence under Japan's colonial rule, which lasted until the end of World War II. In China, everybody remembers their nation's war against Japan on Sept. 18, the day of the so- called Manchurian Incident in 1931, when Japanese military officers blew up part of a railway in Manchuria as a prelude to invasion. Few Japanese, however, understand the significance of these dates.

On the other hand, fewer Americans than Japanese can instantly recall the dates in 1945 of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki-Aug. 6 and 9.

Now Japan has a strong security alliance with the United States, and its relations with South Korea have strengthened considerably over the years. Meanwhile, China continues its relentless march toward superpower status.

In order to keep enjoying peace and wealth, Japan must have relations based on solid mutual trust with these countries. Such trust cannot grow deeper without shared awareness and understanding among these countries of the different memories they have of history. Here lies the importance of learning history.

Learning history helps us understand our current position. Dec. 8 was preceded by a series of events leading to the rise of the military and its control on the Japanese people. Masahiro Shinoda, a Japanese director who depicted the Japan before and during the war in his film about Richard Sorge, a German in Japan who was suspected to be a spy for the Soviet Union and executed in 1944, said the message of his movie was that at least the freedom of speech, expression and association should be guaranteed.

For some time now, critics have been warning about the fact that modern history receives little consideration in history classes at Japanese junior and senior high schools. Dec. 8 should be the day when history is discussed in classrooms across the nation.