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The battleship 'USS Arizona' remains sunk in Pearl Harbor with its crew onboard. Half of the 2,400 who died at Pearl Harbor, were aboard her when the vessel went down. (Courtesy photo)
To the editor:
The reality of Dec 7, 1941 is 2,403 military men growing up during the depression lost their lives for a salary of $36 bucks a month. For loved ones the memory of their loss deeply hurts on this 80th Anniversary of the Pearl Harbor and the war it triggered. Remembering these realities of that time, one can see how this climate of fear demanded revenge, and the Congress declared war. 
Consider how this emotionalized traumatic sneak attack threatening our homeland seemed only to have tunnel vision, the whole nation was caught up in vengeance, "Remember Pearl Harbor!" Even while ignoring that 120,000 Japanese Americans all of the sudden lost their liberty. Protections the Constitution secures for all Americans in the Bill of Rights were negated as President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, essentially imprisoning 120,000 people of which 2/3 were citizens in internment camps from 1942 to 1945. For an unknown side, a sober evaluation of reactions to this event that sparked fear, go to :
Todays "suspension of civil liberties" has a precedent that was aimed at just the Japanese Americans. Only this time we are at war with not just a bug, but the "ones behind the bug." Other Americans looked the other way while one of the most atrocious violations of civil rights in all our history took place: "in that "emergency" then, "Japanese Americans suddenly became victims, government action above the law took their natural inherent rights that come from God away for 3 years. Executive Order again has been the tool that violates American liberty today. It again has activated a force operating over and above the law in a similar climate of fear as in WWII: the unvaccinated have now become the enemy of the state. Don't look the other way. For who will be next?
- Russell Payne,
Merrimack
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