So much has been said and written about this day. For twenty-years, on 9/11, we hear inspiring stories of sacrifice and courage. I imagine anyone of an age that remembers living through this event, has their own very personal reflections. For my small family, it was an anxious time filled with real uncertainty about the future. The news rotation on TV didn’t help. It was like a horrific train-wreck you couldn’t turn away from. You watched. You were silent and stared at each other. You watched again. Repeat. The following week was filled with a constant cycle of video news clips on the horrors we had already watched in real time, after which then required a parental reassurance that things would be ok. Who the hell knew, but you said it because you had too. Not a good time.

Leading up to yesterday’s 20th anniversary, I dreaded it. Or should I say, dreaded reliving it. I understand the significance of the event and the reasoning behind acknowledging those we lost, but do not see the purpose of personally reliving that day again. It did make me curious though, and wondered how the event it is always compared to, Pearl Harbor, viewed that same milestone.

10th Anniversary*

Ten years after Pearl Harbor, many were focused on communism and Americans were dying in the Korean War. At the cusp of a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union, cities held drills to prepare for atomic attacks in 1951. Just 18 days before the 10th Pearl Harbor anniversary, Emperor Hirohito signed the Japanese peace treaty as well as the U.S.-Japan security pact, which ended the Allied occupation of Japan. Despite these various political distractions, the 10-year Pearl Harbor anniversary involved several ceremonies in Hawaii to remember the lives lost, much like they will for the 75th Pearl Harbor anniversary.

The ceremony held at Pearl Harbor was solely for the Navy, which had set up a small platform and flagpole at the sunken USS Arizona. Other memorials, such as a Catholic mass or a ceremony at a national cemetery located in Honolulu, remembered the Pearl Harbor casualties. On much of the mainland U.S., however, reports told a different story.

One reporter for The Springfield Union in Massachusetts found that three of 23 people interviewed on the city’s main street remembered the significance. Even in Hawaii, some hadn’t a clue. A Honolulu Star-Bulletin reporter found six of 15 people polled on December 7 didn’t know it was the anniversary.

Even then-President Truman didn’t attend any observance ceremonies for Pearl Harbor. He was vacationing in Key West at the time.

20th Anniversary*

Memorial ceremonies on the 20th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks took place on a platform overlooking Battleship Row. The ceremonies started at 7:55 a.m.—the exact time when Japanese attackers had swarmed the Hawaiian skies 20 years earlier. Flowers floated on the water over the USS Arizona and carillon chimes sounded from Ford Island to honor those killed.

In March 1961, nine months before the 20th anniversary of the attacks, something remarkable took place. Elvis Presley held a benefit concert to raise funds for the construction of the USS Arizona Memorial. Staged at Pearl Harbor’s Bloch Arena, his concert collected over $50,000 for the memorial—officially dedicated on May 30, 1962.

Is the difference between the way we celebrate the two events a complicated explanation or simply the fact that we really didn’t need to be reminded about Pearl Harbor? The New York times ran an 9/11 article in the Saturday edition. It interviewed about 20 high-school age kids from around the world and asked them a variety of questions regarding 9/11. One question was, “Is 9/11″ part of your history curriculum?” Other questions were “What impact did it have on your world?” and “What did it teach you about America?” As I read the *responses, I thought fair-questions and reasonable answers. It created a thoughtful dialogue without the video. Thank you. I appreciate times are different, as are the people left behind. I also appreciate our country is different too. But hear me out: I am being told or reminded by the news channels, “Not to Forget” the horror of 9/11. The reason is, I’m told, so future generations will remember what we experienced which I suppose is the reasoning behind the statement. My answer is this—millions, like me and my family, will never forget where they were, who they were with and what they were doing the moment we heard of the attacks. I will never forget any part of that day-ever, and because of that I would rather not have to relive it over, and over and over. I didn’t watch, but I promise, I won’t forget.

• New York Times – available through print or on-line
• Pearl Harbor 10th & 20th anniversary article featured in the Pearl Harbor Warbird Blog