Boccieri compares Pearl Harbor, 9/11

There are ‘striking similarities’ between Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11.

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

CANFIELD — The current generation needs to do a better job of remembering Dec. 7, 1941, state Sen. John Boccieri said of the day President Franklin D. Roosevelt said would “live in infamy.”

“I pledge to do my best, as an Air Force Reserve officer and member of the Ohio Senate, to make sure we remember,” Boccieri said at a memorial ceremony Friday to mark the 66th anniversary of the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

The ceremony, hosted by AMVETS Post 44, was conducted at the Mahoning County Veterans Memorial Building at the Canfield Fairgrounds.

For some 50 years, AMVETS has used this date to remember all those who have and are serving in the Armed Forces, said John W. Twohig, chairman of the event.

The attack wiped out much of the United States fleet, killed nearly 2,400 Navy, Marine Corps and Army personnel, and wounded hundreds more. The attack also drew the United States into World War II.

The attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii came without a declaration of war by Japan. But, very soon after, several nations declared war on one another, and WWII was on.

The next day, Dec. 8, 1941, Congress declared war on Japan. Four days after Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 11, 1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States, and Congress recognized that a state of war existed with Germany and Italy.

“We can’t forget that group of men and women who stepped up to defend our nation after Pearl Harbor,” said Boccieri, whose father-in-law was wounded and received a Purple Heart in WWII’s Battle of the Bulge.

Boccieri, of New Middletown, D-33rd, believes the current generation stepped up after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington County, Va., near Washington, D.C., the way their forefathers did after Pearl Harbor.

He said that is one of several “striking similarities” between Pearl Harbor and 9/11, that speaks to being an American. The same spirit that was present then is present now, he said.

“I remember when I was put on high alert after 9/11. I was ready to defend my country and its ideals,” Boccieri said. “I think that calling is what our veterans felt after Pearl Harbor.”

Another similarity between Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11, Boccieri said, are that both were surprise attacks.

Also, he said, the Japanese viewed the rest of the world as a threat to their nation, and all of their citizens, men, women and children, were considered soldiers. Today, some in the Muslim world are training men, women and children to strap bombs to their bodies and to blow up themselves and others around them.

“I wonder if the Muslims worry, as did the Japanese leaders after Pearl Harbor, if 9/11 awakened a sleeping giant,” Boccieri said.

“After Sept. 11, we came together and everyone flew the flag. Now, just a few years later, I wonder if we remember Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 attacks.

“I’m calling on my generation to be ready to stand up and defend the idea of freedom and the United States. And, if you find a Pearl Harbor veteran, thank him,” Boccieri said.

alcorn@vindy.com