Honor guards salute after laying a wreath at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Hawaii, Dec. 7, 2025, as part of ceremony commemorating the 84th anniversary of Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. (Wyatt Olson/Stars and Stripes)
PEARL HARBOR NATIONAL MEMORIAL, Hawaii — For the first time in 84 years, no survivors of Japan’s surprise attack on Oahu were present at the annual remembrance ceremony Sunday, marking a poignant shift for the living memory of Dec. 7, 1941.
In past decades, scores of veterans who endured the deadliest assault on American soil gathered each year to honor the fallen. But the few who remain are now more than 100 years old and no longer able to travel.
Only two — Ken Stevens and Ira Schab — attended last year’s ceremony. Schab, 105, had planned to attend this year, but health problems forced him to cancel the trip late last week. Stevens died in March at age 102.
A half-dozen World War II veterans were seated in the ceremony’s front row.
Only 12 veterans of the attack are known to be living, according to Kathleen Farley, the California chapter president of Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, who has maintained a tally of survivors for years.
The count is not exhaustive because it is based on veterans identified over time by members of the organization.
Roughly 87,000 active-duty service members were stationed on Oahu on the day of the attack, which killed 2,403 Americans, sunk or damaged 19 ships and ravaged more than 300 aircraft.
From four carriers, the Japanese navy had launched a 353-aircraft strike force that decimated the Pacific Fleet’s Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor and crippled aircraft fleets at Army and Marine Corps installations on the island.
This year’s ceremony carried the theme Building Pathways to Peace, and speakers focused on generational continuity even as they praised the men and women who waged World War II and have almost all passed away.
“The first stones of that pathway were laid by the veterans, whose stories we carry with us,” Tom Leatherman, superintendent of the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, told the audience.
Milton Ripple, 100, who served aboard the supply ship USS Pollux during World War II, returns to his seat after saluting a pass-in-review by a Navy destroyer during a ceremony at Pearl Harbor National Memorial, Hawaii, Dec. 7, 2025. (Wyatt Olson/Stars and Stripes)
With the USS Arizona Memorial in the background, Suzanne Puanani Vares-Lum, director of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, speaks Dec. 7, 2025, during a ceremony at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial commemorating the 84th anniversary of Japan's surprise attack on Oahu. (Wyatt Olson/Stars and Stripes)
A National Park Service ranger rings a bell salvaged from the USS Arizona during a Dec. 7, 2025, ceremony at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial commemorating the 84th anniversary of Japan's surprise attack on Oahu. (Wyatt Olson/Stars and Stripes)
“Yet today, we mark a deeply emotional milestone,” he said. “For the first time in the history of this ceremony, no Pearl Harbor survivors were able to join us in person. Their absence is felt profoundly.”
“You have carried the torch for so long, and now it is up to us, not only to receive it, but to ensure that its light never fades,” Leatherman said. “We must redouble our efforts to make certain the story of Pearl Harbor is not lost to time.”
The commander of Navy Region Hawaii, Rear Adm. Brad Collins, told the gathering that America’s armed forces must return to the lessons of the surprise attack.
“Today, as we remember the attack on Pearl Harbor 84 years ago, we have learned that the pathway to peace must lie in being prepared to defend all that we value,” he said.
Suzanne Puanani Vares-Lum, a retired Army major general who now directs the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, aimed her remarks at young people seated in the audience or watching the livestreamed ceremony.
“It is now your turn, young people, to build bridges of understanding, to choose peace over division, to carry forward the spirit of aloha into a new century, because the story of Pearl Harbor is not finished,” she said. “It continues with each and every one of you.”
