Lest you think I forgot, it’s National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.
My family's rapidly deteriorating copy of the front page of the December 7, 1941 Lorain Journal Extra is a symbolic reminder of just how long it's been since the attack on Pearl Harbor – 79 years. You can’t turn a page without it crumbling and leaving tiny pieces on the floor. But we should never forget what happened that day, whether it’s the 79th or 109th anniversary.
As for how the Journal reported it, the war news is pretty much confined to bulletins on the front page outlining our entry into the war, and unconfirmed radio reports of the attack itself. The rest of the paper has no mention of war.
The Japanese attacks were made at 2:20 pm Lorain time, so it was just too soon for the paper to have any photos. The front page of the December 8, 1941 Lorain Journal (which I posted here) didn’t have any actual war photographs either.
It’s strange to read 1941 Associated Press material that merely reports the facts, with no bias (unlike the AP of today, in which almost every article is a signed opinion piece).