A day that will live in infamy

Today marks the 66th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, memorably described by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a "day that shall live in infamy."
When I was teaching at Diamond Middle School, I brought in Pearl Harbor survivor Dick Ferguson of Carthage to speak to my classes, and he held them spellbound with his tales of that day.
Unfortunately, the spell was broken during the question-and-answer session that followed when one of the top students in the class raised her hand and said, "This is so interesting, Mr. Ferguson. Who won that war?"
To compound the problem, a young man seated across the aisle from her added, "Yeah, I want to know that, too."
My only defense is that I was teaching creative writing in that class, and not history.
When I talked to Dick afterward, he shrugged off my attempt at an apology and said, "Don't worry, I get that everywhere I go."
Today's Springfield News-Leader features an interview with Dick Ferguson:

Sixty-six years later, question linger about the invasion.

"There were a lot of mess-ups. We never could figure out why (the Japanese) didn't hit that tank farm near the harbor... all that fuel," he said.

There also are lingering questions about who was responsible for the obviously unprepared state around the harbor, Ferguson recalled.

And after 66 years, Ferguson said he also wonders about the servicemen who did not return from the war and is haunted by one question: Why he lived while others in his outfit were killed or wounded.