Remembrance ceremonies for the attack on Pearl Harbor are going ahead this year without the attendance of any eyewitnesses — the only time this has happened outside the pandemic year of 2020.

Only 12 centenarians who lived through the surprise attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy on Dec 7,1941, are still alive, and none were healthy enough to make the journey to Hawaii this year.

"The idea of not having a survivor there for the first time — I just, I don't know — it hurt my heart in a way I can't describe," said Kimberlee Heinrichs, whose 105-year-old father, Ira "Ike" Schab, had to cancel his trip after falling ill.

In proclaiming this year's day of remembrance, US President Donald Trump said it "must be held in the highest esteem and reverence as we honor the Americans who laid down their lives to defend our homeland on the island of Oahu and in the battles of World War II".

More than 2,400 people were killed and nearly 1,200 injured as Japanese torpedo planes and dive bombers swooped in on the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, sinking four battleships, damaging more than a dozen other vessels, and destroying or crippling about 350 aircraft.

The next day, president Franklin D. Roosevelt called Dec 7 "a date which will live in infamy" as he declared war on Japan, bringing the US into World War II.

The anniversary holds particular significance this year as many countries across Asia — especially China — grow increasingly wary of the rise of Japanese militarism and worry that the postwar order is coming under threat.

Last month, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi raised an outcry after suggesting that a "survival-threatening situation" could justify Japanese military intervention in the Taiwan Strait.

Senior Colonel Jiang Bin, spokesman for China's Defense Ministry, said the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese people and has nothing to do with Japan.

"Instead of repenting its war crimes of invading and colonizing Taiwan, Japan is taking an extremely wrong approach by suggesting military intervention in a so-called Taiwan contingency," he said.

Wartime bonds

Pearl Harbor and its aftermath also bring to mind the bonds forged between China and the US in their fight against Imperial Japan.

By the time of the attack, the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) had already raged for more than a decade, and the US soon responded in force. In April 1942, it launched the Doolittle Raid — the first US bombing of the Japanese mainland. Because the aircraft carrier USS Hornet was too far offshore for the 16 bombers to return, many crew members crash-landed in China, where they were rescued and eventually helped back to the US.

US fighter pilots known as the Flying Tigers also flew missions in China under the command of general Claire Lee Chennault, attacking Japanese aircraft and protecting Chinese supply lines.

Last week, descendants of Flying Tigers veterans and community leaders gathered at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and celebrate key milestones in China-US relations, recalling the shared wartime history that continues to inspire peace today.

shiguang@chinadailyusa.com