[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 236 (Tuesday, December 9, 1997)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 65003-65004]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-32428]
[[Page 65001]]
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Part VII
The President
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Proclamation 7058--National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, 1997
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 236 / Tuesday, December 9, 1997 /
Presidential Documents
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Title 3--
The President
[[Page 65003]]
Proclamation 7058 of December 5, 1997
National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, 1997
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
December 7, 1941, marked a turning point in the history
of our Nation, a defining moment that would alter the
lives of millions of Americans and change forever
America's destiny. On that quiet Sunday morning, the
forces of Imperial Japan attacked the U.S. naval base
at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing or injuring more
than 3,000 Americans, crippling our Pacific Fleet, and
critically damaging our airpower. In that moment of
supreme crisis, the essential greatness at the core of
the American spirit was revealed. Our response was not
despair, but determination. Inspired by the leadership
of President Franklin Roosevelt and buoyed by his faith
that we ultimately would prevail, America went to war.
Looking back across the years, we rightly are still
awed by what the American people accomplished during
World War II. United in spirit and purpose after the
attack on Pearl Harbor, millions of men and women
joined the Armed Forces; by war's end, some 15 million
had served. They fought fiercely and with uncommon
courage in battlefields across the globe. In the
Pacific, step by bloody and painstaking step, they took
back the islands captured by Imperial Japanese forces
in the days after Pearl Harbor. The names of those
battles still resonate through the years: Coral Sea,
Midway, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima. On the western front,
facing the daunting power of the Nazi war machine,
Americans and our Allies struggled and died to liberate
Europe, fighting in the stormy North Atlantic, in the
searing heat of North Africa, and in the flak-filled
skies over France and Germany.
Americans on the home front responded with equal
gallantry and strength. Stepping forward to close the
gap left by departing servicemen, the very young, the
elderly, minority workers, and women filled America's
factories and shipyards. Working around the clock, they
built the ships, planes, tanks, and guns that armed the
forces of freedom and made our Nation the ``Arsenal of
Democracy.'' In fields, on farms, and in neighborhood
Victory Gardens, they produced the food to sustain our
Nation, our troops, and our Allies. Millions left their
homes to do their part, and few American families were
untouched by the hardships and sacrifices demanded by
this unprecedented effort.
While more than half a century separates us from the
attack on Pearl Harbor, we still can learn much from
the example, achievements, and heroic deeds of those
Americans who preserved the flame of liberty and passed
it around the world. They taught us that America is the
world's best hope for freedom and democracy and that we
must never shrink from the responsibilities of that
leadership. They taught us the need for constant
vigilance, a powerful military, and strength of
character. They showed us that, when Americans are
united in heart and mind, there is nothing we cannot
accomplish together.
As we remember Pearl Harbor, let us also remember and
give thanks for that great and gallant leader, Franklin
D. Roosevelt, whose memorial we dedicated earlier this
year in our Nation's Capital. In December of 1941, in
one of our Nation's darkest hours, he proclaimed his
faith in the ultimate victory of freedom over tyranny
that, sadly, he did not live to see:
[[Page 65004]]
With confidence in our armed forces, with the
unbounding determination of our people, we will gain
the inevitable triumph. So help us God.
The Congress, by Public Law 103-308, has designated
December 7, 1997, as ``National Pearl Harbor
Remembrance Day.''
NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of
the United States of America, do hereby proclaim
December 7, 1997, as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance
Day. I urge all Americans to observe this day with
appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities in
honor of the Americans who served at Pearl Harbor. I
also ask all Federal departments and agencies,
organizations, and individuals to fly the flag of the
United States at half-staff on this day in honor of
those Americans who died as a result of the attack on
Pearl Harbor.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
fifth day of December, in the year of our Lord nineteen
hundred and ninety-seven, and of the Independence of
the United States of America the two hundred and
twenty-second.
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 97-32428
Filed 12-8-97; 12:10 pm]
Billing code 3195-01-P