Captain Mervyn S. Bennion

Today we went to Pearl Harbor, one of my great-great uncles died at Pearl Harbor on that day. I grew up visiting his grave on Memorial Day every year along with that of my great-grandma and great-great grandparents. It gave the visit to the memorial extra poignancy and really brought home all the personal loss and suffering that must have resulted from the around 3000 casualties that day. I wish I would have looked up the story before I went, but I did not, so I was not able to study some things as close as I would have liked to if I had done my homework before. He was a Captain on the USS West Virginia at posthumously received a Metal of Honor for his actions that day.

It's hard to imagine the horror of that day the unreality of it all and the impact in had in changing history and society in so many ways. In several ways it resembles the emotions experienced in my lifetime on 9/11. However, I do think in many ways due to the historical impact and the technological shifts at the time, I think the attack on Pearl Harbor is unique in many ways. Seeing the footage of December 7, 1941 was incredible. It is amazing that footage exists, but it has a horrible movie-like quality, but the knowledge that this was no CG.

There were many Japanese tourists there and the memorial had pamphlets in Japanese as well as English. The museum was excellent and the video they have you watch before you are shuttled out to the memorial was also very well done. I thought they did a good job of being true to the magnitude of the event but also showing the situation on both sides that lead to the attack. It was very interesting and educational.

In watching the Japanese tourists at Pearl Harbor I alternated between two major thoughts. One, with all the harm that was done during that war and the lives that were lost, it is good to see the evidences of friendship that exist through the dual tourism at that site. Two, I couldn't stop marveling at the bizarre twists and turns of history. Thinking of the countries during and at the end of WWII, the US, Russia, Germany, Japan, France, Italy, and Britain. I wonder if you could travel back in time and tell the people what ended up happening what they would say. Would they be incredulous? Would they laugh?  Would they have suspected such a wild ride? Or would they think that we have gotten off fairly easily since the end of WWII? Also looking at the economies of Germany and Japan I am impressed with the ability with which they've rebuilt. How much of this is culture, how much political circumstance? However, while economies have transformed and moved on, and in many instances politics have moved on as well, the emotional scars still tell. One of my friends studied German in college and has family in Germany. It is fascinating to her her talk about her observations of how the different generations deal with war-guilt emotions and how it has impacted the German culture. I am sure that each nation has it's own emotional story of dealing with the war.

I also spent some time wondering how will we look back on events of today 40-70 years from now. I wonder how the events of 9/11 will be viewed differently when colored with historical perspective.

In the meantime, my heart goes out to all the suffering that occurred during that conflict to individuals on both sides of the divide. And I am very grateful to live in the world that I do with the privileges that I have and I am proud of my ancestors and my country for the courageous lives and actions.

  

Mervyn S. Bennion