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U.S. NEWS Thursday 8 december 2022
Hawaii remembrance draws handful of Pearl Harbor survivors

By AUDREY McAVOY ange-red after an aerial
Associated Press bomb hit it.
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) “Within a few seconds,
— A handful of centenarian that explosion then came
survivors of the attack on out with huge tongues of
Pearl Harbor gathered at flame right straight up over
the scene of the Japanese the ship itself but hundreds
bombing on Wednesday to of feet up,” Lee said in an
commemorate those who interview Monday after a
perished 81 years ago. boat tour of the harbor.
That’s fewer than in recent He still remembers the hiss-
years, when a dozen or ing sound of the fire.
more traveled to Hawaii Sailors jumped into the wa-
from across the country to ter to escape their burning
pay their respects at the ships and swam to the land-
annual remembrance cer- ing near Lee’s house. Many
emony. were covered in the thick,
Part of the decline reflects heavy oil that coated the
the dwindling number of harbor. Lee and his moth-
survivors as they age. The er used Fels-Naptha soap
youngest active-duty mili- to help wash them. Sailors
tary personnel on Dec. 7, who were able to boarded
1941, would have been Pearl Harbor survivors and other military veterans observe a ceremony on Wednesday, Dec. 7, small boats that shuttled
about 17, making them 98 2022, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in remembrance of those killed in the 1941 attack. them back to their vessels.
today. Many of those still Associated Press “Very heroic, I thought,”
alive are at least 100. “I wouldn’t miss it because here for. Remember and ing station. The home was Lee said of them.
Ira Schab, 102, was on I got an awful lot of friends honor those that are left. just about 1 mile (1.6 kilo- Lee joined the Hawaii Ter-
the USS Dobbin as a tuba that are still here that are They did a hell of a job. meters) across the harbor ritorial Guard the next day,
player in the ship’s band. buried here. I come back Those who are still here, from where the USS Arizona and later the U.S. Navy.
He recalls seeing Japanese out of respect for them,” dead or alive,” he said. was moored on battleship He worked for Pan Ameri-
planes flying overhead and he said. About 2,400 servicemen row. can World Airways for 30
wondering what to do. Schab stayed in the Navy were killed in the bombing, The first explosions before 8 years after the war.
“We had no place to go during the war. After the which launched the U.S. a.m. woke him up, making The U.S. Department of Vet-
and hoped they’d miss us,” war, he studied aerospace into World War II. The USS him think a door was slam- erans Affairs doesn’t have
he said before the ceremo- engineering and worked Arizona alone lost 1,177 sail- ming in the wind. He got up statistics for how many
ny began. on the Apollo program. To- ors and Marines, nearly half to yell for someone to shut Pearl Harbor survivors are
He fed ammunition to ma- day he lives in Portland, Or- the death toll. the door only to look out still living. But department
chine gunners on the ves- egon. Robert John Lee recalls be- the window at Japanese data show that of the 16
sel, which wasn’t hit. He wants people to re- ing a 20-year-old civilian liv- planes dropping torpedo million who served in World
He’s now attended the member those who served ing at his parent’s home on bombs from the sky. War II, only about 240,000
remembrance ceremony that day. the naval base where his He saw the hull of the USS were alive as of August and
four times. “Remember what they’re father ran the water pump- Arizona turn a deep or- some 230 die each day.q

Emhoff: ‘Epidemic of hate’ exists in U.S., mustn’t become norm

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE ple are no longer saying them.” be accepted. The roundtable, at which
Associated Press the quiet parts out loud. He said such attitudes are “We cannot normalize various White House and
WASHINGTON (AP) — Doug They are literally screaming dangerous and must not this. We all have an obli- other officials also partici-
Emhoff, the husband of gation to condemn these pated, follows a surge in
Vice President Kamala Har- vile acts,” Emhoff said. “We anti-Jewish vitriol spread by
ris, said Wednesday that a must all, all of us, not stay public figures, including a
rise in antisemitism in the silent.” famous rapper and other
United States shows that an The second gentleman, prominent people.
“epidemic of hate” exists in as Emhoff is known, said Former President Donald
the country and must not there is no either-or or both Trump recently hosted Nick
become normal. sides on the issue. He is the Fuentes, a Holocaust-deny-
Emhoff, who is Jewish, led first Jewish spouse of a U.S. ing white supremacist, at
a White House discussion president or vice president, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home
on the issue with Jewish and has become increas- in Florida. The rapper Ye —
leaders representing the ingly outspoken about formerly known as Kanye
Reform, Conservative and growing bias toward ad- West — expressed love for
Orthodox denominations. herents of the Jewish faith, Adolf Hitler in an interview.
They also were discussing and hate at large, in the Basketball star Kyrie Irving
ways to combat hate. United States. He said what appeared to promote an
“There is an epidemic of Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, is happening is “painful” to antisemitic film on social
speaks during a roundtable discussion with Jewish leaders about
hate facing our country. the rise in antisemitism and efforts to fight hate in the United him. media. Neo-Nazi trolls are
We’re seeing a rapid rise States in the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive “Everyone, all of us must clamoring to return to Twit-
in antisemitic rhetoric and Office Building on the White House Campus in Washington, be against this, must be ter as new CEO Elon Musk
acts,” he said. “Let me be Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022. against antisemitism,” he grants “amnesty” to sus-
clear: Words matter. Peo- Associated Press said. pended accounts.q