Governor Inslee hereby directs that Washington State and United States flags at all state agency facilities be lowered to half-staff on Saturday, December 7, 2024, for National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day was created by Congress in 1994 in honor of those Americans killed or injured as a result of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Governor Inslee has no objection to agencies lowering the flags at the close of business on Friday, December 6, 2024. Flags should remain at half-staff until close of business or sunset on Saturday, December 7, 2024, or first thing Monday morning, December 9th.
Other government entities, citizens and businesses are encouraged to join this recognition.
December 7 changed so many things in the life of Americans with this war. We do not have the same situation here now.
I was lying on the back seat of the car with an earache when my Dad stopped at a red light. The newsboy on the corner was holding up a special paper, calling out that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. Being seven, I did not know where that was. We then moved into rationing; shoes, gas, I think even sugar and other things. We had savings drives, collecting metal items, taking them to central collection places. I don’t know where my Dad got it, but I remember taking a manhole cover to it, pulling it on roller skates.
I remember seeing my first banana after the war, having a banana split. Many moms worked in defense plants. I had not known any working mothers until then. Letters from uncles came on very thin paper, often heavily redacted as each soldier/sailors letters were carefully read before they reached us.
This war changed our lives in so many ways, not sure for the good. It is only a faint memory now, but I have not forgotten what it meant to have the telegraph carrier come to one’s home with that dreaded message.
Do remember those that died.