The official entry of the United States to World War II was on December 8th, 1941, when Congress declared on Japan (Germany and Italy would declare on the U.S. on December 11th, and the U.S. reciprocated the same day*).

For all practical purposes, the U.S. entered the Pacific War sixty-six years ago today, when Japanese warplanes bombed the Pacific U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor. Those who died there, those who are still entombed today, don’t care that it was a Day of Infamy: the dead are beyond such concerns.

As those who survived age (brilliant headline in the Sun today: “Never so few veterans as now to remember Pearl Harbor day“, because there could possibly be MORE than in previous years?) let us remember those whose lives were cut so brutally short, not only at Pearl Harbor, but also all across the world in the Second World War.

*Hungary and Bulgaria declared war on the U.S. two days later, but we didn’t get around to declaring war on them until June of the following year.