[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]



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Part VII





The President





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Proclamation 7058--National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, 1997
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  Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 236 / Tuesday, December 9, 1997 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

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                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