Tablet Magazine

As my plane approached Honolulu, the pilot got on the intercom to point out different landmarks to the passengers. Although scattered vacationers glanced briefly out of their windows at a dreamy coastline that sandwiched kaleidoscopic green mountains between crystalline waters and brilliant blue skies, the obvious priority for most was consolidating belongings and stowing their electronics in preparation for landing. When the pilot said, “Pearl Harbor,” however, the reaction was different. Heads turned in unison, necks craned, strangers leaned over arm rests. Nearly a century on from the events that launched America into WWII, Pearl Harbor clearly retains the power to fascinate Americans. In historical terms, this is pretty impressive. A military-aged young person today is as temporally distant from Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, as an American sailor stationed in Honolulu on that day was from the Bleeding Kansas skirmishes that presaged the Civil War. The throngs of visitors I saw when I visited the Pearl Harbor National Memorial on a busy July day are doubtless partly attributable to Honolulu’s own status as a tourist mecca....

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