Remarks at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Sept 11, 1995

September 2, 1995

Thank you very much, General Wilson, for your outstanding remarks, and even more for your service to our country. Reverend Perkins, Rabbi Goldfarb, Reverend Fujitani, Secretary Brown, General Shalikashvili, Secretary Perry, Members of Congress, Governor, Mayor, representatives of the Allied Nations who are here, and most of all, to the honored veterans of World War II: Today we commemorate this day 50 years ago, when the most destructive conflict in all human history came to an end. On this island, where America's peace was first shattered and then restored, we commemorate the triumph of freedom over tyranny. We remember the extraordinary sacrifice that victory required. We honor the extraordinary generation of Americans who came together to meet the challenge of war and then, as General Wilson has said, worked together to seize the promise of peace.

World War II lasted 2,194 days. It stretched from Pearl Harbor to St. Petersburg, from the beaches of Normandy to the shores of Iwo Jima. It destroyed whole cities. It ravaged countrysides. It cost in total the lives of 55 million people: Soldiers killed in battle, civilians and prisoners felled by disease and starvation, children buried in the rubble of bombed buildings, millions wiped out in the gas chambers. It cost the lives of all kinds of people.

And victory was won by the courage and character of citizen soldiers, citizens we remember for their bravery from Britain to Russia, from all the islands in the Pacific, island by island, and the battles that were won.

We remember all these Medal of Honor winners who are here among us today and humbly express to them our profound gratitude. We know that the heroism of millions of other men and women in uniform was never adequately recognized. We know that things happened here in the Pacific which bred a certain spirit and character and determination which infused the lives of those who served us when they came back home.

The war in the Pacific enjoyed the service, among others, of five men who became President of the United States, from the extraordinary heroism of President Kennedy and the legendary PT-109 to President Bush who was shot down and rescued over the Pacific 51 years ago this very day.

We must never forget both the tragedy and the triumph of that time because it holds lessons for all time. We learned in World War II the forces of darkness give no quarter; they must be confronted and defeated. We learned that the blessings of freedom are never easy or free, they must always be de fended.

We learned, too, something remarkable about America. This century, marked by so much progress and too much bloodshed, witnessed humanity's capacity for the best and the worst in life, is now known as the American Century.

For America, World War II was the pivot point of that century, the moment when we understood more than at any other time the core of the American spirit, the ties that bind us together, and the duty we owe to one an other. Americans found in World War II unity in a shared mission, strength in a common purpose. More than ever, in World War II, our United States were truly united.

On December 7, 1941, James Daniels, the young Navy pilot born and raised on a farm in Missouri, was stationed aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise. As the ship steamed back toward Pearl Harbor, a general alarm sounded. He ran to his plane. He took to the skies to fly what would be the very first American com bat mission of the war, because of what had happened at Pearl Harbor. On that first mission, he searched in vain for the enemy fleet. He said, "I had no briefing, no map. I didn't know what the heck was going on." At night fall, all he saw were the remains of our sink ing fleet.

At that fume, things looked pretty bleak for the United States and a lot of people doubted that our democracy was up to the job. We had a standing Army of less than 200,000 men. Seventeen countries had larger armies than the United States on December 7, 1941. Our soldiers, believe it or not, trained with wooden rifles.

But our enemies sold short the strength and will of the American people, the grocery clerks and farmers, the students and salesmen, the short-order cooks and the factory workers, the whites, the blacks, the Hispanics, the Asian-Americans who served, including Japanese-Americans, the Native Americans, including the famous Navajo code-talkers. Most of them didn't know a lot about each other and even less of the world beyond our borders. But they had a core of shared traits bred in the American bone, determination, optimism, an unshakable dedication to freedom, and a faith that right would prevail. They merged their disparate voices into a harmonious chorus of defiance. President Roosevelt called them the incalculable force of American democracy, a free people united by a common purpose.

At home, they built democracy's arsenal, hundreds of thousands of planes, ships, tanks, and trucks. They planted the victory gardens. They collected scrap metal. They bought the war bonds. They rationed the gas. They learned to do with less in every part of their lives so those in uniform could conduct the war. And abroad, in the rain-drenched jungles and on rocky ridges, under the seas, over the waves, in the clouds, Americans fought on the frontlines of fear.