The attack on Pearl Harbor came on a quiet Sunday morning, Dec. 7, 1941. By the time the last bomb fell, the last torpedo exploded and the last bullet was fired — a mere hour and 15 minutes — the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific fleet was broken and bloody.

Four battleships and a retired battleship — each almost three football fields long — were sunk. Four more were damaged. A retired battleship used for target and training sank, along with a tug, three cruisers and three destroyers. There were 191 aircraft destroyed, including three civilian planes, and another 159 damaged.

A total of 2,403 U.S. service members and civilians were killed and 1,178 were wounded. The youngest was a 3-month-old girl.

It was a horrifying burst of death and violence that is most noted for pushing the nation into World War II.

It should be remembered for something else. What it really pushed Americans to embrace was action.

Yes, war was part of that action. American men enlisted in the military, motivated by the shock and rage of the attack. About 350,000 women volunteered for military service, flying planes and prompting the creation of the Women’s Army Corps and Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.

But there may be no other time in history that Americans were so motivated to sacrifice for their country.

They cut back on food. Women went to work in factories. People scrimped to buy war bonds. For every man carrying a gun, there were nine people at home making ships and planes and flak jackets and otherwise supporting the war effort.

And today, the survivors of that war — at home or abroad — are the most at risk from the coronavirus pandemic.

We had more time to prepare for covid-19 than Pearl Harbor residents did. The disease was tracked for weeks before the first case was reported in Pennsylvania. We have been told what we could do to mitigate the risk. And yet too often, there is debate about whether the simple requests are worthwhile and even the disgusting suggestion that the elderly would be happy to sacrifice.

They already did. Now it is the responsibility of their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

We owe a debt to the people who were lost in Hawaii on that Sunday morning and the people who made great and small sacrifices in the four years that followed.

— Tribune News Service