National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day: History, importance, and significance in the US

Seventy-nine years later, the coronavirus pandemic is preventing Ganitch and other survivors from attending an annual ceremony remembering those killed in the attack that launched the United States into World War II. The 101-year-old has attended most years since the mid-2000s but will have to observe the moment from California this year because of the health risks.

Nearly eight decades ago, Ganitch's USS Pennsylvania football team was scheduled to face off against the USS Arizona team. The pigskin showdown never happened. The aerial assault began at 7:55 a.m. Ganitch's job was to serve as a lookout and report “anything that was suspicious.” He saw a plane coming over the top of a nearby building. Sailors trained the ship's guns on the aircraft and shot it down.

The Pennsylvania was in dry dock at the time, which protected it from the torpedoes that pummeled so many other vessels that day. It was one of the first to return fire on the attacking planes. Even so, the Pennsylvania lost 31 men. The USS Arizona suffered a much worse fate, losing 1,177 Marines and sailors. More than 900 men remain entombed on the ship that rests on the seafloor in the harbor. Altogether, more than 2,300 U.S. troops died in the attack.

Ganitch served the remainder of the war on the Pennsylvania, helping in the U.S. recapture of the Alaskan islands of Attu and Kiska. The battleship also bombarded Japanese positions to help with the amphibious assaults of Pacific islands like Kwajalein, Saipan and Guam.

The health risks to the ageing survivors of the attack and other World War II veterans mean none of them will gather at Pearl Harbor this year for the annual remembrance ceremony on Dec. 7. The National Park Service and Navy, which jointly host the event, also have closed the ceremony to the public to limit its size. The gathering, featuring a moment of silence, a flyover in missing man formation and a speech by the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, will be livestreamed instead.