My first reaction upon seeing the flag at half mast in Milwaukee’s Red Arrow Park this morning was: “Oh no! What happened?”

Then about two seconds later I remembered. Today is December 7th.

The clip below of the USS Arizona exploding and sinking is from a 1942 Castle Films “News Parade” feature. Horrifying yet compelling, the footage is hard to turn away from, with billowing smoke that’s a spectacle worthy of a Hollywood film. But this is no movie, and watching it I can’t stop thinking of all the people whose deaths it represents.

It’s good to remember Pearl Harbor today . . . even though it would be nicer to forget. Here is Pathé newsreel footage of President Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy” speech vowing that we never would.