\n But today only 12 are still alive \u2014 all centenarians \u2014 and this year none is able to make the pilgrimage to Hawaii to mark the event, scheduled for Sunday.\n <\/p>\n
\n That means no one attending will have firsthand memories of serving during the attack, which killed more than 2,300 troops and catapulted the US into World War 2. The development is not a surprise and is an evolution of an ongoing trend. As survivors fade, their descendants and the public are increasingly turning to other ways of learning about the bombing.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe idea of not having a survivor there for the first time \u2014 I just, I don\u2019t know \u2014 it hurt my heart in a way I can\u2019t describe,\u201d said Kimberlee Heinrichs, whose 105-year-old father Ira \u201cIke\u201d Schab had to cancel plans to fly in from Oregon after falling ill.\n <\/p>\n
\n Survivors have been present every year in recent memory except for 2020, when the Navy and the National Park Service closed the observance to the general public because of coronavirus pandemic health risks.\n <\/p>\n
\n The ceremony begins with a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m., the same time the attack began on December 7, 1941. Solemn rituals follow.\n <\/p>\n
\n Fighter jets fly overhead in \u201cmissing man formation,\u201d in which one jet peels off to symbolize those lost. Survivors present wreaths to honor the dead, though active duty troops have assumed this job in recent years. Survivors rise to salute active duty sailors who themselves salute as their ship passes the USS Arizona Memorial, which sits above submerged hull of the battleship sunk in the attack.\n <\/p>\n
\n About 2,000 survivors attended the 50th anniversary event in 1991. A few dozen have showed in recent decades. Last year, only two made it. That is out of an estimated 87,000 troops stationed on Oahu that day.\n <\/p>\n
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\n Many survivors were jovial despite the occasion, happy to catch up with old friends and pose for photographs. Even so, harrowing recollections were seldom far from their minds.\n <\/p>\n
\n In 2023, Harry Chandler gazed across the water while telling an Associated Press reporter how he was raising the flag at a mobile hospital in the hills above the base when he saw Japanese planes fly in and drop bombs. Chandler and his fellow Navy hospital corpsmen jumped in trucks to help the injured.\n <\/p>\n
\n He spoke of seeing the Arizona explode, and of hearing sailors trapped on the capsized USS Oklahoma desperately tapping on their ship\u2019s hull to summon rescue. He helped care for Oklahoma sailors after crews cut holes in the battleship.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI can still see what was happening,\u201d Chandler said. He died the next year at a senior living center in Tequesta, Florida.\n <\/p>\n
\n The bombing has long held different meanings for different people, the historian Emily S. Rosenberg wrote in her book \u201cA Date Which Will Live: Pearl Harbor in American Memory.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Some say it highlights the need for a well-prepared military and a vigilant foreign policy. To some it evokes then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt administration\u2019s \u201cineptitude or deceit\u201d and the unfair scapegoating of the military. Others focus on the \u201ctreachery\u201d of Japan or the heroic acts of individual troops, she wrote.\n <\/p>\n
\n Asked what he wanted Americans to know about Pearl Harbor, Chandler said: \u201cBe prepared.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe should have known that was going to happen. The intelligence has to be better,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Lou Conter, who was the Arizona\u2019s last living survivor when he died last year at 102, told the AP in 2019 he liked to attend to remember those who lost their lives.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s always good to come back and pay respect to them and give them the top honors that they deserve,\u201d Conter said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Heinrichs\u2019 father has been six times since 2016. The former tuba player on the USS Dobbin likes to go not only to remember those killed but also in place of his late band mates; his three brothers who fought in World War II; and the now-deceased Pearl Harbor survivors he has met.\n <\/p>\n
\n Retired National Park Service Pearl Harbor historian Daniel Martinez said the circumstances resemble the early 20th century when Civil War veterans were dying in increasing numbers. Awareness grew that soon they wouldn\u2019t be able to share their stories of Gettysburg and other battles, he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Martinez knew something similar could happen with Pearl Harbor survivors and recorded their oral histories. During a 1998 convention, he conducted interviews 12 hours a day for three days. The Park Service today has nearly 800 interviews, most on video.\n <\/p>\n
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\n \u201cThey remain as a part of the national memory of a day that changed America and changed the world,\u201d Martinez said.\n <\/p>\n
\n The Park Service shows some in its Pearl Harbor museum and aims to include more after renovations, said David Kilton, the agency\u2019s Pearl Harbor interpretation, education and visitor services lead.\n <\/p>\n