Remembering Pearl Harbor

This is the toll from the Japanese attack on the Navy and Army installations at Pearl Harbor 70 years ago Wednesday:

• Killed, 1,998 Navy personnel, 233 Army personnel, 109 Marines and 48 civilians; 
• Wounded, 1,178 military personnel and civilians;
• Lost, the USS Arizona, and 1,177 members of her crew;
• Sunk, beached or damaged, 20 other ships, though most eventually returned to service;
• Aircraft destroyed, 164,
• Aircraft damaged, 159.

This is why we remember.

The numbers are from the archives of the National Park Service's USS Arizona Memorial, near the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center, where a commemoration will take place Wednesday morning.

Navy.mil will provide a live feed of the 9:40 a.m. ceremony. Several web sites offer details of the events around the 70th anniversary, including Pearl Harbor Events.

Want to take a look back?

The Washington Post has compiled a dozen newspaper front pages depicting the attack.

Thanks to Google News, there is a dramatic account offered to the Associated Press by the Navy a year after the air raid and well into the U.S. entry into World War II. 

Navy.mil, in addition to providing the live broadcast of the ceremony, features interviews with survivors and photos before, during after the attack. The site also has chilling memories provided by Gene Dick, a sailor who barely escaped the USS Oklahoma after it was slammed by a torpedo. 

Time, though, makes interviews like Dick's and ceremonies featuring witnesses to what happened at Pearl Harbor more and more valuable. On this 70th anniversary, many are mourning the passing of the era, as the country loses more and more World War II veterans.