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Asked at Dillons, 3000 W. 6th St. on December 5, 2011

“I don’t remember much from school, but I learned about it from my grandfather, who was stationed there after it happened. He wanted us to see it and took about 30 in my family. It meant a lot to him.”

— Jamie Jones, tele-supervisor, Lawrence

“Yes. Dec. 7, 1941 — it was a surprise attack; Congress declared war by the end of the day. And then the U.S. was in World War II.”

— Bo Stephenson, chef, Teller’s, Lawrence

“I don’t remember talking about it in school until college, and then it was people talking about controversy — comparing to administrations and warnings of potential terror attacks. ”

— Nikola Reinfelds, supervisor, Allen Press, Lawrence

“I don’t remember learning it at school. I think I learned more from movies, but that may be because I’m just more of a visual learner.”

— Jennifer Lunt, student, Lawrence

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RoeDapple 1 year, 5 months ago

I started grade school in 1954. Over the years I have had teachers who served in WW2, My dad and uncle served also, several employers and co-workers who served. One employer was a POW in the Philippines. A co-worker had one thumb and one finger on his left hand, one thumb and two fingers on his right, the rest chopped off while being tortured in a prison camp. Their stories would give me nightmares. I can't even imagine what their dreams would be. So yes, I've heard the stories of Pearl Harbor. Among many other stories.

jackpot 1 year, 5 months ago

Yes and had a best friend's Dad and Mom married Dec.6,1941 at Pearl Harbor. I heard many stories from him and my Dad's in Europe in WWII.

hitme 1 year, 5 months ago

President Roosevelt was in the front of our second grade class when the second wave attacked. He went to the media room, made a speech, then flew to Barksdale base in Louisiana, Offutt base in Nebraska, and then back to Washington.

bad_dog 1 year, 5 months ago

Pres. Roosevelt was speaking to a second grade class on a Sunday afternoon?

That seems a bit odd-perhaps you have the wrong date? At any rate, the official appointment book archived at the FDR library indicates Roosevelt was at the White House the entire day. He had just finished a meeting with the Chinese ambassador and sat down to lunch when news of the attack reached him. There is no indication of a meeting with or speaking to second graders at any time that day.

http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/daybyday/daylog/december-7th-1941/

http://online.wsj.com/article/APd22a1fd1856e48739e1bea8250f37f3b.html

billbodiggens 1 year, 5 months ago

did you get this mixed up with Bush and the Trade Center. that seems to have been his route back home.

bad_dog 1 year, 5 months ago

That seems plausible; both Presidents during a time of war-easily enough confused ;-)

Say, that reminds me. Did I ever tell you about the time Babe Ruth visited me in the hospital and promised to hit a home run? He did it, then ran the bases backwards while reading a signed first edition of "My Pet Goat". After the press conference he hopped a train to Comiskey Field in Chicago ran the bases there and "high-fived" Al Capone at home plate.

rockchalker52 1 year, 5 months ago

Learned about Pearl Harbor around age 3 or 4 because the day before is my sister's birthday. Happy Birthday, Sis! Didn't realize the significance for a few years, just knew that the day after sis' big day is Pearl Harbor Day.

RETICENT_IRREVERENT 1 year, 5 months ago

U.S. history does not end in 1877.

CWGOKU 1 year, 5 months ago

I learned about it from watching television, like everything else I learned. TV makes you smart

JayCat_67 1 year, 5 months ago

"Germans?" "Forget it. He's rolling."

classclown 1 year, 5 months ago

Hey Bo. The U.S. didn't declare war on Japan until the next day, Dec 8th.

Somebody not learn you right at school?

RETICENT_IRREVERENT 1 year, 5 months ago

Also Bo, it wasn't a sneak attack.

Roosevelt provoked the attack, knew about it in advance and covered up his failure to warn the Hawaiian commanders. MacArthur was Roosevelt's pawn, keeping his air force grounded in the Philippines so it could be destroyed. Roosevelt desperately needed the Japanese to attack to get Hitler to declare war with the U.S. since the public and Congress were against entering the war in Europe. Because of the Tripartite Pact, Germany and Italy declared war with the U.S. on Dec 11th. Roosevelt then pursued the doctrine of Europe first, pushing most of the resources towards the war in Europe.

It was Roosevelt's backdoor to war.

faceit 1 year, 5 months ago

Roosevelt didn't "provoke" the attack. If anyone provoked anything, it was Japan invading China. The fact that we cut off trade was not done without prior diplomatic attempts to get Japan out of other countries and from threatening both our interests and Britain's. We'd both been patient with Japan for a decade. Roosevelt was clueless where the Japanese fleet was. The conspiracy websites you're cutting & pasting from are simply wrong. I post this because some people might not understand your attempt at humor and might actually believe the BS. ,,,and then some other people might see you as just a ding dong.

RoeDapple 1 year, 5 months ago

nice avatar . . .

billbodiggens 1 year, 5 months ago

Cue the “Twilight Zone” theme music. . .

RoeDapple 1 year, 5 months ago

Roosevelt was a backdoor man?

misterlee 1 year, 5 months ago

I learned about it in school and from my parents. My dad was in the army at the time, and my mother joned the navy soon after Pearl Harbor was attacked. Dad served in North Africa and India during WWII. Mom built bombers in California.

Growing up as an army brat, I met some survivors, and PH was a natural topic in my history classes. It should still be taught. Too many people know too little history. It has a lot to teach us.

Starlight 1 year, 5 months ago

Dad's living quarters were where the Hilton parking lot is now. They had to take a small gauge train to a point where a boat took them across part of the harbor, crisscrossing through the Navy ships trying to exit the harbor, to a truck which then took them up the hill to their gun. Then Dad had to read the manual, while being strafed, to get directions to change the gun cam from firing shrapnel rounds to firing the high explosive loads the soldiers were hauling to the guns(200# boxes).

Talk about a front row seat. Really messed with his island tropic, marry a Dutch/Polynesian island girl, life on the beach.

Starlight 1 year, 5 months ago

If this odius comment is directed at mine it is disgustingly disrespectful on this day of Remembrance of the 2,390 lost that day and all the survivors who went on to win World War II..

The account of that day of infamy is by the commander of Battery F-97, released with no objection to publication on grounds of military security on April 19, 1957 by the Office of Security Review(OASD L&PA) Department of Defense.

streamfortyseven 1 year, 5 months ago

A friend of mine's grandfather was there and saw the whole thing from his office window. If you saw "Tora, Tora, Tora", he was the naval officer who said "This is no drill, this is no drill", and he wrote a paper in March 1941 which predicted the attack and was ignored. He was a pretty hard core guy.

Grammaton 1 year, 5 months ago

Ms. Reinfelds is misquoted (I was with her when answering the question). What she said she remembered (this isn't verbatim) was talk about the controversy of whether the administration had foreknowledge of the attack, and comparing that to whether the administration had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attack.