Most Americans know of the attack on Pearl Harbor which occurred on December 7th of 1941.
On that day, in a surprise attack, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. Around 2,390 Americans died. This had a huge impact on America during World War II.
At Brunswick High School, one of our staff members, Ms. Lyndsey Peterson, went on a trip to Hawaii with her choir to sing at the National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day of 2024.
Ms. Peterson teaches English and theater. Since high school, Ms. Peterson has been doing choral singing. She is currently in the Choral Arts Society of Frederick.
In this group, she is able to travel often and visit different places. Last year, the choir sang at the festival in Normandy, France.
Most recently, the group had been invited to sing at the festival in Hawaii.
She stayed in Hawaii for five days, and recounts the experience as “the event itself, and the ceremony was very moving, and an overall great experience to have. Once in a lifetime for sure.”
When asked if she has any stories to tell from it, she gave a very moving story:
“At the ceremony kickoff that we performed at, they had a guest speaker who helped to kick off the parade, and his name was Ira Ike Shab. He’s 104 years old.
He’s a World War II vet, he was in the navy, and at Pearl Harbor the day it was attacked.
He gave a little interview and answered questions about what it was like the day of. We actually saw him the next day at the Arizona Memorial to take a tour, see Pearl Harbor, see the sunken ship, and he actually was there to pay respects to his fallen brothers in arms.
104-years-old and he still has vivid memories of the whole event.
He was in the navy, and played in the navy band.
He played the tuba.
He told his account of the morning of, he was getting ready to play the national anthem live across the entire base with all the other navy band members and that’s when the attack happened. There are not many World War II veterans that are still alive now, so the fact he was able to be there and share his story was really cool.”
Ms. Peterson concluded by saying, “Pearl Harbor impacts us all. It was really neat getting to see it, because I had always learned about it in history classes growing up, and knew the events that took place, and how it led us into World War II, but I didn’t realize all of the other little things that played out leading up to it, and even afterwards. It was really interesting to actually learn a bit more about the history of it. It definitely gave me a lot of respect for the military, the Navy and Marines that lost their lives that day. Like I said with the Ike story, there aren’t many World War II veterans left to share these stories and experiences that shaped American history. The rare chances that we get to actually hear about them I think are just super important and meaningful to remembering why we have the freedoms that we have, it’s because of these incredible men and women who served.”