[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
[September 1, 1995]
[Pages 1276-1278]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Joint Service Review at Wheeler Army Airfield in Honolulu
September 1, 1995

    Thank you, General Weyand, for your wonderful remarks and, even more 
importantly, for your lifetime of service to the United States.
    Governor Cayetano; Secretary Perry; Admiral Macke; Secretary Brown; 
General Shalikashvili; distinguished guests, especially our friends and 
as good a friends the veterans of the United States have ever had, Bob 
and Dolores Hope; the honored veterans of World War II; your families, 
your friends; ladies and gentlemen: As we gather to celebrate the end of 
a war that engulfed the world, I ask your leave to say a few words about 
recent developments in the prospects for peace in troubled Bosnia. Just 
a couple of hours ago, we were able to announce that the Foreign 
Ministers of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia have agreed to meet late next 
week in Geneva to try to reach agreement on the basic principles of a 
settlement for peace.
    This is a positive step forward, but much remains to be done. Our 
own negotiating team will continue its work to bring the parties 
together. And as I said yesterday, no one should doubt NATO's resolve to 
prevent the further slaughter of innocent civilians in Sarajevo and the 
other safe areas in Bosnia.
    I know that every American shares my pride in the skill and 
professionalism, the bravery, and the success of our pilots and crews 
and their NATO colleagues in the last few days. They

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are a shining example of the point that General Weyand just made.
    Ladies and gentlemen, in this remarkable place, so much like 
Paradise, we recall when war made the idyllic Pacific hell on Earth. And 
we celebrate the generation of Americans who won that war and ensured 
the triumph of freedom over tyranny. Never before had the fight for 
freedom stretched across such a vast expanse of land and sea. And never 
before had the energies of the American people been so fully required or 
so fully joined.
    At war, our people found a sense of mission in the world and shared 
purpose at home that became the bedrock for half a century of peace and 
prosperity. The World War II generation truly saved the world. Our 
security, our prosperity, our standing among other nations, all these 
are the legacy of the men and women, the heroes before us who we honor 
today.
    Of course, today we can hardly imagine history taking a different 
turn. But when the Japanese Zeroes rounded those mountains and cut to 
pieces hundreds of aircraft here at Hickam and Kaneohe, when they then 
devastated the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, there was nothing 
inevitable about America's victory. As Asia fell to tyranny and fascism 
held sway from the Russian heartland all the way to the English Channel, 
free people everywhere must have stood in some doubt.
    In the Philippines, our forces fought valiantly, making their final 
stand in Bataan and Corregidor. To this very day you can feel the memory 
of courage that hangs over the rock of Corregidor, as I had the 
privilege of doing last November when we commemorated the Pacific war in 
the Philippines. But the brave Filipino and American defenders could not 
hold out. After determined resistance, months of sickness and hunger, a 
massive artillery bombardment turned the sky to lead, and freedom's 
foothold there was lost.
    President Roosevelt likened that time to the winter at Valley Forge, 
when our troops ran on courage and determination. Then, the enemy 
believed Americans would not sacrifice and fight on remote islands they 
had never heard of. But they were wrong.
    Enlistment offices were flooded by American volunteers from our 
greatest cities and our smallest towns. Industry turned to military 
production. American consumption turned to rationing. And Americans 
turned to one another and found unity in the fight for freedom. Everyone 
pitched in, and together all across the country and all across the 
world, Americans got the job done.
    Here in the Pacific, the long journey back to freedom began aboard 
the aircraft carrier Hornet. Four months after Pearl Harbor, an 
overloaded bomber lumbered down its flight deck. The crew wondered then 
if it would fall into the sea. But slowly, it took flight. Fifteen other 
airplanes followed on a daring one-way trip to Tokyo and on to China. 
Colonel Jimmy Doolittle's famous bombing raid sent a clear message: 
America had not given up, and America was on the offensive.
    Two months later, our combat pilots and code-breakers, including 
Japanese-American intelligence officers, labored valiantly but in 
silence throughout the entire war. These people came together at a place 
called Midway. There, in 5 minutes of furious air attack, a single 
bomber squadron rallied the enemy fleet and changed the course of the 
war.
    But still, soldiers, sailors, aviators, and Marines confronted 
terrors they had never imagined: in the disease-ridden swamps of 
Guadalcanal; in the water that ran red with the blood of Marines coming 
ashore at Tarawa; in the frozen wastelands of Kiska and Attu; in the 
planes flying the treacherous route over the Hump; in submarines rocked 
by depth charges. But always they pushed forward: into the skies over 
the Marianas, with barely enough fuel or daylight to fulfill the 
mission; in the seas off Leyte in the greatest naval battle of all time; 
from beachhead to beachhead on Guam, Saipan, and Tinian; and through the 
gunfire on Mount Suribachi, where the flag raising over Iwo Jima gave 
America its most stirring symbol of our common purpose and impending 
victory.
    From beginning to end, the Americans who fought the Pacific war 
bestowed a glory upon our Nation with acts of heroism that will never be 
surpassed. On the very first day of the war, during the attack on 
Kaneohe Naval Base 40 miles from here, Lieutenant John Finn manned a 
machine gun out in the open. Constant bombing and strafing left him 
badly wounded. He went for first aid only when he was ordered to do so. 
And then, though he could hardly move, he helped to rearm returning 
American planes.
    Three and a half years later on Okinawa, the last and bloodiest 
battle, an 18-year-old Navy

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corpsman named Robert Bush was giving plasma to a wounded officer. 
Artillery, machine gun, and mortar fire rained all around him, and he 
stands here today. Under ferocious attack he stood his ground, he 
emptied his pistol and then a carbine to repel the assault. He was 
blinded in one eye, but he continued holding the plasma, and he refused 
treatment for himself until the wounded officer was evacuated.
    For their extraordinary service, John Finn and Robert Bush received 
the Congressional Medal of Honor. Today we recognize them and the other 
Medal of Honor winners who are here with us today. We ask them all to 
stand. [Applause] And now I would like to ask all the veterans of the 
Pacific war to stand and those who cannot stand, to raise their arms and 
be recognized so that we can express our appreciation to each of them. 
Please, gentlemen. [Applause]
    To all of you and to your comrades who are watching at home on 
television and to the families of the more than 50,000 Americans who 
never came home from the Pacific, our Nation is forever grateful. We 
will never forget your fight for our freedom.
    After the war and all you had endured, it was only natural that the 
World War II generation would turn your energies from the frontlines to 
the homefront. But thankfully, you did not turn your back on the world. 
Instead you helped to rebuild the devastated nations of Europe and 
Japan. And because you chose reconciliation over revenge, those who once 
were our enemies now are thriving democracies and strong friends.
    Let me welcome all of those from other nations who have come here. 
And let me say especially how much the American people appreciate the 
recent powerful words of the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr. Murayama, when 
he expressed his nation's regret for its past aggression and its 
gratitude for the hand of reconciliation that this, the World War II 
generation, extended 50 years ago.
    We owe the World War II generation our thanks because they also 
understood our Nation had a special role to play in continuing to 
preserve the peace and extending the reach of freedom. They forged the 
international institutions, the economic institutions, the United 
Nations, and NATO, that brought 50 years of security and prosperity to 
our Nation, to Europe, and to Japan. They kept our Armed Forces strong 
so that tyranny could never again run rampant, and they persevered in 
the cold war until the forces of freedom prevailed yet again.
    Today, we continue to stand watch for freedom and to advance the 
cause of democracy across the Pacific, across the Atlantic, all around 
the globe. To meet that obligation and to preserve our own liberty, we 
must reaffirm our pledge to these fine men and women behind me and their 
counterparts throughout the world who bear today the responsibility that 
World War II's veterans shouldered so magnificently 50 years ago. So I 
say to you, you will always be the best trained, the best equipped, the 
best prepared fighting force in the world.
    You represent the best of our country, our best hope for the future. 
And we know that for you and your children and your grandchildren, we 
must remain the strongest nation on Earth so that we can defeat the 
forces of darkness in our time and in the future, just as the veterans 
here defeated the force of tyranny 50 years ago.
    Fifty years ago today, aboard a ship in Tokyo Bay, a Navy radioman 
penned this letter to his young son in Abilene, Texas. ``When you grow a 
little older,'' he wrote, ``you may think war to be a great adventure. 
Take it from me, it's the most horrible thing ever done by man.''
    Veterans of the Pacific, because you were willing to undergo the 
most horrible thing ever done by man, freedom is the order of the day in 
most of the world 50 years later.
    Now it is for us to be true to your legacy of courage and devotion, 
to follow your lead in finding strength in America's diversity and unity 
in America's purpose. You worked together, and you never gave up. We 
must now preserve the liberty you won for us.
    We say to you from the bottom of our heart, God bless you, and God 
bless America.

Note: The President spoke at 9:30 a.m. at the reviewing stand. In his 
remarks, he referred to Gen. Fred Weyand, USA (Ret.), former Army Chief 
of Staff; and entertainer Bob Hope and his wife, Dolores.