US World War II veteran recalls attack on Pearl Harbor; claims no one doubted victory
The Japanese military's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, became "a day of infamy," yet Americans never doubted victory in war they entered days later
- World News
- 2 min read
The Japanese military's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, became "a day of infamy," yet Americans never doubted victory in the war they entered days later, according to a World War II veteran Frank Cohn, Sputnik reported. The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service launched a surprise military attack on the US naval facility at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Over 2,000 Americans were killed, and another 1,000 were injured. The Japanese were able to damage or completely destroy nearly 20 battleships and over 300 aircraft. The attack, the most catastrophic occurrence on American soil until September 11, 2001, spurred the United States to enter World War II.
Cohn was born into a Jewish family in Germany, but had to flee to the United States in 1938. The 96-year-old remarked that despite the fact that they were startled and had losses in the Pacific as well as in Europe, no one doubted the win. "We were the United States, and we had to prevail!," he claimed. He stated that at the time, citizens were unaware of the extent of the devastation. Americans were perplexed at the moment, as Cohn put it, they only knew they were at war and had been attacked.
He recalled, "It was a Sunday, a lovely, relative warm day and I was outside of my apartment, with a number of boys my age, in the front of the building when someone came running up the street yelling 'The Japs just bombed Pearl Harbor!.' We all looked at each other and asked 'Where is Pearl Harbor?' No one knew. It took a while until somebody came up with the solution that we were talking about Hawaii."
Cohn took part in landmark meeting of American and Soviet troops in 1945
Cohn, now a retired Colonel, enlisted in the US army in 1943 and arrived in France a year later. He took part in the momentous meeting of American and Soviet troops at the Elbe River in April 1945, which was widely regarded as the symbolic peak of both countries' collaboration to fight Nazis and liberate Europe. The veteran expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that today's American youth know little about World War II, and many are unsure who America's allies and enemies were.