    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [September 2, 1995]
    [Pages 1280-1283]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu
    September 2, 1995

        Thank you very much, General Wilson, for your outstanding remarks,
    and even more for your service to our country. Reverend Perkins, Rabbi
    Goldfarb, Reverend Fujitani, Secretary Brown, General Shalikashvili,
    Secretary Perry, Members of Congress, Governor, Mayor, representatives
    of the Allied Nations who are here, and most of all, to the honored
    veterans of World War II: Today we commemorate this day 50 years ago,
    when the most destructive conflict in all human history came to an end.
    On this island, where America's peace was first shattered and then
    restored, we commemorate the triumph of freedom over tyranny. We
    remember the extraordinary sacrifice that victory required. We honor the
    extraordinary generation of Americans who came together to meet the
    challenge of war and then, as General Wilson has said, worked together
    to seize the promise of peace.
        World War II lasted 2,194 days. It stretched from Pearl Harbor to
    St. Petersburg, from the beaches of Normandy to the shores of Iwo Jima.
    It destroyed whole cities. It ravaged countrysides. It cost in total the
    lives of 55 million people: soldiers killed in battle, civilians and
    prisoners felled by disease and starvation, chil-

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    dren buried in the rubble of bombed buildings, millions wiped out in the
    gas chambers. It cost the lives of all kinds of people.
        And victory was won by the courage and character of citizen
    soldiers, citizens we remember for their bravery from Britain to Russia,
    from all the islands in the Pacific, island by island, and the battles
    that were won.
        We remember all these Medal of Honor winners who are here among us
    today and humbly express to them our profound gratitude. We know that
    the heroism of millions of other men and women in uniform was never
    adequately recognized. We know that things happened here in the Pacific
    which bred a certain spirit and character and determination which
    infused the lives of those who served us when they came back home.
        The war in the Pacific enjoyed the service, among others, of five
    men who became President of the United States, from the extraordinary
    heroism of President Kennedy and the legendary PT-109 to President Bush
    who was shot down and rescued over the Pacific 51 years ago this very
    day.
        We must never forget both the tragedy and the triumph of that time
    because it holds lessons for all time. We learned in World War II the
    forces of darkness give no quarter; they must be confronted and
    defeated. We learned that the blessings of freedom are never easy or
    free, they must always be defended.
        We learned, too, something remarkable about America. This century,
    marked by so much progress and too much bloodshed, witnessed humanity's
    capacity for the best and the worst in life, is now known as the
    American Century.
        For America, World War II was the pivot point of that century, the
    moment when we understood more than at any other time the core of the
    American spirit, the ties that bind us together, and the duty we owe to
    one another. Americans found in World War II unity in a shared mission,
    strength in a common purpose. More than ever, in World War II, our
    United States were truly united.
        On December 7, 1941, James Daniels, the young Navy pilot born and
    raised on a farm in Missouri, was stationed aboard the U.S.S.
    Enterprise. As the ship steamed back toward Pearl Harbor, a general
    alarm sounded. He ran to his plane. He took to the skies to fly what
    would be the very first American combat mission of the war, because of
    what had happened at Pearl Harbor. On that first mission, he searched in
    vain for the enemy fleet. He said, ``I had no briefing, no map. I didn't
    know what the heck was going on.'' At nightfall, all he saw were the
    remains of our sinking fleet.
        At that time, things looked pretty bleak for the United States, and
    a lot of people doubted that our democracy was up to the job. We had a
    standing Army of less than 200,000 men. Seventeen countries had larger
    armies than the United States on December 7, 1941. Our soldiers, believe
    it or not, trained with wooden rifles.
        But our enemies sold short the strength and will of the American
    people, the grocery clerks and farmers, the students and salesmen, the
    short-order cooks and the factory workers, the whites, the blacks, the
    Hispanics, the Asian-Americans who served, including Japanese-Americans,
    the Native Americans, including the famous Navajo code-talkers. Most of
    them didn't know a lot about each other and even less of the world
    beyond our borders. But they had a core of shared traits bred in the
    American bone, determination, optimism, an unshakable dedication to
    freedom, and a faith that right would prevail. They merged their
    disparate voices into a harmonious chorus of defiance. President
    Roosevelt called them the incalculable force of American democracy, a
    free people united by a common purpose.
        At home, they built democracy's arsenal, hundreds of thousands of
    planes, ships, tanks, and trucks. They planted the victory gardens. They
    collected scrap metal. They bought the war bonds. They rationed the gas.
    They learned to do with less in every part of their lives so those in
    uniform could conduct the war. And abroad, in the rain-drenched jungles
    and on rocky ridges, under the seas, over the waves, in the clouds,
    Americans fought on the frontlines of fear.
        We know, and others have said today, that tens of thousands lost
    their lives, leaving their loved ones with only memories: parents who
    would never again see the pride of their lives, wives who would never
    again embrace their husbands, children whose fathers would never again
    take them swimming or see them graduate or know the adults they would
    become.
        Here, in the peace of these sacred grounds where thousands of these
    brave Americans lie at rest, let us now join briefly in a moment

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    of silence for those who gave their dreams for our freedom.

    [At this point, a moment of silence was observed.]

        Amen.
        Fifty years ago today, on the deck of the aircraft carrier Missouri
    in Tokyo Bay, freedom finally prevailed. On this anniversary of V-J Day,
    we celebrate the end of the war but also the beginning of a new American
    era of peace and progress. At the end of the war, there were 12 million
    Americans in uniform, and 7 million were still overseas. We brought them
    home where they applied the lessons learned in war to the promise of
    peace. In peace, as in war, they understood that developing and uniting
    the energy and genius of every American is the best way to fulfill our
    country's potential.
        Before the war, in the darkness of the Great Depression, millions of
    you veterans who are here today and your family members could only have
    dreamed of going on to college, could only have dreamed of building a
    better life than your parents had and of passing an even better one on
    to your children. But after the war, you seized the opportunities a
    grateful nation offered. You took advantage of the GI bill of rights.
    You became graduates. You bought your first home. And we know by the
    lives you've lived and the hopes you've passed on you took
    responsibility to make real your American dreams.
        From Pearl Harbor to V-J Day, 16 million American women worked
    assembly lines; 300,000 more wore uniforms, drove trucks in combat
    zones, trained troops, nursed them back to health. After the war,
    America would begin to integrate this extraordinary force into the
    economy and into our Nation's military and change the face of America
    forever.
        From Pearl Harbor to V-J Day, thousands of African-Americans
    distinguished themselves in military service, as Tuskegee Airmen and
    Triple Nickel paratroopers, Sherman tank drivers, and Navy Seabees. And
    slowly, after the war, America would begin to act on a truth so long
    denied, that if people of different races could serve as brothers abroad
    in uniform, they could surely live as neighbors at home.
        In peace, the World War II generation gave America the security, the
    prosperity, and the progress the rest of us have known and cherished for
    half a century. You understood that you could together make the world a
    better place and that you could not permit America again to withdraw
    from the world, from former enemies and allies who were in ruins, from
    the looming threat of the cold war.
        You gave us the Marshall plan. You chose reconciliation over revenge
    and helped to turn former enemies into close allies today. When the
    terrible new tyranny of communism arose, you held it in check until the
    power of democracy, the failure of repression, and the heroic
    determination of people to be free won the cold war. The seeds of
    democracy you planted and nurtured flower today in every corner of the
    globe.
        From the cliffs of Normandy to the beautiful waters of Hawaii, we
    have celebrated over the last year and a half the extraordinary
    achievements of the generation that brought us victory in World War II.
    It is only fitting that here, in the middle of the ocean whose name
    means peace, the place where World War II began and ended for America,
    that we mark the war's end and honor the men and women who saved our
    world.
        We owe it to the World War II generation to remember, but we owe
    them more. For just as freedom has its price, it also has its purpose,
    to enable all people to live up to their God-given potential and to
    continue the march of human progress. We, who are the heirs of their
    legacy, must always be the guardian of their dreams.
        It falls now to us to stand against those who sow the seeds of war
    and to stand with those who take the risks of peace; to create a new
    prosperity for ourselves and for others; to help our people to prepare
    for the challenges of a new century; to strengthen our families, our
    faith, our communities; to give all Americans the opportunity to make
    the most of their lives.
        In order to succeed, we must remain true to the spirit of that
    brilliant time. A time when our people cared for each other and
    sacrificed for others, when our Nation stood united in purpose and
    mighty in spirit as never before, a time when Americans forged the
    strength of their diversity into a community for victory and progress.
        I told you earlier about Jim Daniels, who flew that first flight
    after Pearl Harbor. After Pearl Harbor, Jim took command of a 37-plane
    squadron. He logged 55 combat missions in the Pacific. The pilots under
    his wing came from

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    as many different backgrounds as there are States in the Union, country
    boys who'd never seen a paved road, city dwellers who couldn't swim,
    well-to-do's and ne'er-do-well's. The only thing they had in common was
    that when they started flight school, they all didn't know how to fly.
    Jim Daniels remembers that, and I quote, ``It didn't matter. We had a
    job to do, and we had to do it together.''
        On August 15th, 1945, the very last day of World War II, Jim Daniels
    was in the air again. It was a picture-perfect South Pacific morning.
    Then the word crackled over the radio: The enemy had surrendered; come
    on down. And so Jim Daniels, the American who flew on the first day and
    on the last day of our Nation's war, turned toward home. Today, Jim
    Daniels and his wife of 55 years, Helen, are here with us today. I'd
    like to ask them to stand. Mr. and Mrs. Daniels. [Applause] Bless you.
        And I would like to ask all the veterans of World War II who are
    here today to stand and be recognized or to wave and be recognized.
    Please stand up. [Applause]
        On August 15th, 1945, when Jim Daniels brought his plane down he
    descended through the clouds, along with all the other Americans in
    uniform, not toward a dark night of uncertainty but toward a bright
    future of hope, blessed by peace, graced by prosperity, a future in
    which more Americans than ever before would have the opportunity to live
    the lives God meant for them to have. It was a future won by a
    remarkable generation who found unity in war and built us a half century
    of progress in peace.
        Now, my fellow Americans, we stand at the dawn of a new century, and
    their challenge has become ours. Their spirit must be ours as well. We
    pledge to carry on their work. And we vow to remember Jim Daniels'
    words, ``We have a job to do, and we have to do it together.'' For us,
    as for them, the future depends upon it.
        May God bless the Americans who brought us to this day, and may God
    bless America. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:21 a.m. In his remarks, he referred to
    Gen. Lewis H. Wilson, USMC (Ret.), former Commandant of the U.S. Marine
    Corps; and Rev. Kenneth D. Perkins, Rabbi Morris Goldfarb, and Rev.
    Yoshiaki Fujitani, who gave the invocations.