Today marks the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The attack, which brought American into World Ward II, forever changed the lives of many families in Warren County and the rest of the U.S. Many young men went to war and never returned; many came back scarred mentally and physically. And the nation as a whole became a major player on the world stage.

Throughout the years, newspaper articles and television documentaries have looked at what happened at Pearl Harbor and the men who survived it. Like many people who remember the attack, those remaining Pearl Harbor veterans still remember to this day where they were when the Japanese attacked. They also remember the pain and suffering, the heroic efforts of their shipmates and comrades who braved the bombs and dove into the oily flaming water to rescue others, and many come away with a strange guilt that they survived while a buddy next to them didn’t.

And those veterans keep getting fewer as the years go by.

For many of us, Pearl Harbor is something that happened before we were born and our knowledge about the attack is limited to what we read in our history books at school growing up.

But the events of Dec. 7, 1941, are more than just a place in history. As a result of that attack, the United States grew to become a world military and economic power. The men and women who survived the attack and the war became the business people, engineers, architects and military commanders responsible for this nation’s growth both during and after the war.

Almost as month ago, we observed Veterans Day and honored those who died in all our wars.

It seems fitting on this day that we should again remember those men still alive who survived Pearl Harbor as well as those who died in the attack, and all the other men who fought and died for our right to remember Pearl Harbor, to be able to read about it and make sure America is never caught unprepared again.

In a recent documentary, a Pearl Harbor veteran said he wanted to continue telling the story of men who died in the attack. He shouldn’t be alone. We need to keep it alive.