Memorial
Author: Bill Roberts
Maybe, after all, this is the perfect tribute
to the sudden death storm that happened here:
the shrill sound of children laughing,
though it seems out of place.
I am moved to cover my eyes,
suppress tears, reach for my wife’s hand,
finally seek out the laughing faces.
There may be a hundred,
enjoying this perfect morning,
the sun having risen quickly
over this solemn place and now blessing
youthful visitors to a shrine
of man’s hatred for fellow man.
The children’s laughter and innocent play
on the barge ride over to the sunken warship
make me reflect: we’ve come
such a long way since I learned the words
to “Remember Pearl Harbor,”
the very same site being invaded this day by gleeful
boys and girls waving miniature rising-sun flags.
(Published online in the March 2001 issue of Little Brown Poetry)
Note: No doubt my most frequently published poem, a reminiscence of our first visit to Hawaii in 1983 and that fateful barge ride over to see the sunken warship, the U.S.S. Arizona. This is exactly what happened that day. More important, it was the beginning of releasing my long-held hatred – prejudice! – of the Japanese. We were taught in public schools in Washington, D.C. during the war years of WWII to despise the vicious, sneaky Japanese who desecrated our naval base at Pearly Harbor on that day that lives in infamy, December 7, 1941. We grew victory gardens at school, sang songs like “Remember Pearl Harbor,” were taught not to trust yellow skin. How foolish, how crazy – sort of reminds me of our more recent reactions in Afghanistan and Iraq. But war against the Japanese and Germans certainly was necessary. And it did turn out well, with victory, though prejudices took a long time afterward to conquer.
