70 Years After Pearl Harbor Day
You may have noticed the American flag at half-staff today.
It’s to mark the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Upper Michigan military members were in the middle of the action when the United States of America was attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.
They were from Iron Mountain — they were from Bessmer — they were from Hancock and Dollar Bay — they were from Ontonagon — they were from small towns all over the U.P., caught up in a very big day.
Local writer Larry Chabot, author of “The U.P. Goes to War”, says twelve U.P. residents were killed at Pearl Harbor.
What’s now known as Pearl Harbor Day ended up changing the world.
not just for the military members in the line of fire that day.
The Japanese bombing of the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii pulled America into World War II after President Franklin Roosevelt had earlier declared that the U.S. military would not get involved.
Chabot says in all, 1,486 people from the Upper Peninsula were killed in the war, and until researching on the subject, he had no idea the figure was that large.