CFS2
It is a day for respectful rememberance.
My cousin Franklin Van Valkenberg woke that morning on his ship, and went to early chow and then to the flag raising as was his usual routine on such mornings, some were ashore on leave and it was a clear sunny day in Pearl. He then went to the bridge and was there when strange air craft were sighted and he sounded an early alarm and call for All Hands to man battle stations, he was one of the first to so command his crew to prepare.
He loved his command and it was the pinnacle of a long dedicated naval career and he had encouraged his son also to enter the service. Both were dedicated naval men and loved the service and the sea.
The events of the next few minutes I am sure seemed like hours and yet were over very fast. All efforts to fight the ship and to get underway to move into the main channel were to no avail for powder had been stored in the forward magazine for the signal gun that was un secured and it was detonated by a large bomb that fell almost exactly in the right/wrong place and the magazine detonated and took with it the ship. The ship was the BB 39, and she remains largely in location and he remains at his post tho divers did recover his sword for the family which we still have from his day cabin not too far from the bridge.
His son served aboard the DD named for his father, and served a long career. We always remember him on this day, and the others who so served and many who remain at their posts or in the memorial graveyards there and in the US.
http://gonebutnotforgotten.homestead...lkenburgh.html
The Japanese had goals and aims for their destiny as did any nation and I have come to respect and admire their culture and in fact work a lot with people form Japan in some of my current work and have the highest regard for them as a nation, one of the finest and most civilized modern cultures. that war was unfortunate and a clash in both economic terms as well as military, and the events of that early stage of the war were unfortunate. In my research and life of study of naval history and matters, I have learned that the Japanese did indeed intend to have a surprise but not a undeclared one. The official declaration of war was supposed to be delivered in advance of the actual attack, but the two highest ranking officials in the Japanese embassy in Washington DC were career men and insisted on doing the decoding of the message and the typing of the Declaration themselves and refused the help of the trained staff and delayed the delivery of the Declaration by quite a bit of time. It was an unfortunate event and had serious and grave results. It caused a lot of hate and rancor that was a sad aspect of that war. War is never a kind thing or an easy one and the last resort for civilized nations.
Both sides served with honour for that one, and much effort was given and much loss incurred. For now, all these years later, we can and should honour the memory of those who served and who gave their lives at the outset of that four years of trial and tragedy.
Happily all these years later, Japan is a much transformed nation and a good and strong ally of the US and we of them. Our nation is also transformed and not all to the better but regardless of that, I am proud to have these memories and to see others remember all these years later.
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