Pearl Harbor w pamięci Amerykanów o drugiej wojnie światowej

From the very onset, the attack against Pearl Harbor was accompanied by a sui generis contradiction in creating knowledge and memory. It denoted a tragic day for the United States, which due to the “treacherous” Japanese attack suffered great losses but, at the same time, it was remembered and commemorated as a day of the heroic stand of the American soldiers. The sacrifice made by the defenders of Pearl Harbor was venerated, mainly due to the efforts made by the veterans and their families, in the form of the USS Arizona Memorial (Pearl Harbor, 1962), which from the very beginning became a special site for successive generations of Americans paying their respect to their fallen countrymen.

p. 109-124

Summary in English.

Streszcz. ang.

The Japanese strike against the naval base at Pearl Harbor (7 December 1941) exerted an enormous impact on shaping the image of this tragic event and cultivating its memory, and more broadly — on subsequent wartime operations in the Pacific. The famous address delivered by the President to the nation about the treachery and deception of the attack, broadcast on the radio and widely proclaimed in the media, put millions of Americans in a state of readiness, while the call: “Remember Pearl Harbor!” became part of wartime patriotic circulation.

s. 109-124

From the 1990s, i.e. half a century later, Pearl Harbor became for the next generations an important and visible cultural icon, restored in its full glory by historians, journalists, and the media (films, TV programs, the Internet, etc.). In time, all memories associated with the attack became a valuable material culture artefact imparted to museums and exhibitions, and in this way rendering durable the image and memory of the event and American participation in World War II.