LOS ANGELES, Dec 8, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – With speeches and salutes, veterans
and officials on Saturday commemorated the 78th anniversary of the 1941 sneak
attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, which brought a previously reluctant United
States into World War II.
A ceremony honoring survivors attended by US Interior Secretary David
Bernhardt and Washington’s ambassador to South Korea Harry Harris was held
within sight of the sunken USS Arizona, which was bombed in the opening
moments of the attack that killed more than 2,400 Americans.
Later in the day, the remains of Lauren Bruner, who died in September at
age 98 and was among the last sailors rescued from the Arizona after it
exploded into flames, will be interred in the wreckage.
Bruner had expressed in years past his wish to be buried alongside fellow
sailors who died on that fateful day.
“This is the last surviving crewman of the USS Arizona being returned to
his ship and his shipmates,” Pearl Harbor National Memorial spokesman Jay
Blount told AFP.
Bruner will be the 44th USS Arizona survivor interred on the ship. The
remaining three living sailors who survived the attack will be laid to rest
with their families.
One of them, 98-year-old Lou Conter, was set to attend the memorial in
Hawaii alongside some 120 members of Bruner’s family.
National Park Service and military divers will take the urn containing
Bruner’s ashes and lower it to his final resting place in the hull of the
ship’s wreckage, Blount said.
– ‘Glad to see them’ –
Bruner was among six men who had gathered at the back of the doomed
battleship on December 7, 1941 as Japanese warplanes bombed the ship, when a
sailor onboard a nearby vessel threw them a line.
The 21-year-old, who was badly burned and had been shot twice in the leg,
managed to grab the rope that pulled him and his comrades to safety.
At the time, president Franklin D. Roosevelt described the surprise attack
on the US Navy base near Honolulu as “a date which will live in infamy.”
A total of 1,177 sailors and Marines on board the USS Arizona were killed
and more than 900 could not be recovered from the ship, according to the
National Park Service.
Bruner went on to fight after recovering from his injuries, taking part in
battles in the Aleutian Islands and in the South Pacific. He retired from the
Navy in 1947.
He explained his decision to have his remains interred in the sunken ship
during a 2014 news conference.
“Well, I studied it for a long time,” Stars and Stripes quoted him as
saying. “All my family and friends have been buried in various places,
cemeteries.
“But it seems like after a while, nobody pays attention to them anymore
after about five years. I hope that a lot of people will still be coming to
the Arizona. I would be glad to see them.”
Saturday’s ceremony took place three days after a disgruntled sailor at the
Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard shot dead two people before killing himself.
On Friday, another shooter — a Saudi military trainee — opened fire at a
navy base in Florida, killing three people before he was gunned down.
Officials have said security would be beefed up during the ceremony marking
the Pearl Harbor attack anniversary.