Today is the "date which shall live in infamy." Or, at least that's what Franklin Roosevelt said about December 7. But I'm willing to guess a substantial minority of young people might guess that "Pearl Harbor" is a movie starring Ben Affleck rather than the location where the Japanese conducted their sneak attack against the United States Navy in 1941. Even when I was a kid, to "Pearl Harbor" someone meant to sucker them or attack them from behind. Today, it's not likely to carry those connotations for young people because not too many kids know what December 7, 1941 means.

Michelle Malkin has a wonderful remembrance of December 7, 1941, discussing why the date has lost its cultural significance. My question to the readers is: even with the stunning video reminders, is it not likely that sixty years from now the date September 11 will fail to resonate amongst a sizable minority of young people?

Are you kidding? In our instant, flickering image society dominated by people with attention spans that last all of five minutes, 9/11 is already ancient history not only to young people but the population in general.

Seems the only people who remember are the ones directly touched by it.

Sorry for being cynical, but this is the truth.

The website for the USS Arizona Preservation Project 2004 has a lot of great stuff, including a fascinating Quicktime video tour of the ship underwater.

http://www.pastfoundation.org/Arizona/Video.htm

History is fragile -- both its artifacts and its memory.

Of course it will. Since when has history not been forgotten by all but a dedicated few? For instance, no one seems to remember that the evil dictator Saddam Hussein was once our ally under Reagan. Times change. Perhaps it is better to forget, least we grow a conscience and put out our own eyes.

I agree, history is fragile, especially it's memory...

They shall not grow old,
as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them,
nor the years condem.
At the going down of the sun
and in the morning
We will remember them.

"From the Fallen"
By L. Binyon, 1914

Guido

Charles: indeed, nor do most people remember that the much more evil Stalin was our ally during WWII.

Oh wait, they do.

It's just that liberals don't have a problem with FDR's alliance with Stalin, only with Reagan's alliance with the second-rate Stalin-impersonator Saddam.

Whatever.

The fact that WWII ended some sixty years ago has reduced it to mere history. By comparison, few alive today are moved by the memory of Gettysburg; it is too far in the past.

Were we still at war with the Axis, I think the memory and significance of Pearl Harbor would have endured. And that, in my opinion, is the difference between today and September 11th. Our current enemy, to which the hijackers belonged, is more intractable than the Japanese or Germans. And because the war against Islamic terrorism will be with us for years to come, I expect the memory of 9/11 will last as well.

Dan, it might happen, but I really hope it doesn't. In some ways, I wish September 11 WOULD lose some resonance with me. Every time I see the images or video, or think about it (much less remembering the look on my coworker's face as he pulled up our office shades to reveal the smoke from the Pentagon), it feels like it was yesterday.

I don't understand how any anyone, even in this age of the "Ever-Flashing Image", can be unaffected watching ordinary people, just goin' to work, being cremated.