[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 49 (Monday, December 8, 1997)]
[Pages 1988-1989]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7058--National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, 1997

December 5, 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

[[Page 1989]]

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:

      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.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 12:10 p.m., December 8, 
1997]

Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on 
December 9.