No Pearl Harbor Veterans–All More than 100 Years Old–Able to Attend 2025 Remembrance Ceremony

Not one of the living U.S. military members who survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was able to attend Sunday’s remembrance ceremony in Hawaii.

The twelve surviving American heroes are each over 100 years old, but the New York Post noted that last year two of them did make it to the ceremony.

One survivor, 105-year-old Ira “Ike” Schab, was forced to cancel his plans to attend this year due to an illness. His daughter, Kimberlee Heinrichs, was saddened by the fact none of the survivors were able to make the trip.

“The idea of not having a survivor there for the first time — I just, I don’t know — it hurt my heart in a way I can’t describe,” she said.

Sunday was the 84th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, per Hawaii News Now. The outlet said the theme of this year’s remembrance was “Building Pathways to Peace.”

There have been survivors at the ceremony every year except for 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, the Associated Press (AP) reported. That year the observance was not open to the public.

The outlet noted that in 1991 approximately 2,000 survivors attended the 50th anniversary.

“Retired National Park Service Pearl Harbor historian Daniel Martinez said the circumstances resemble the early 20th century when Civil War veterans were dying in increasing numbers,” the article reads. “Awareness grew that soon they wouldn’t be able to share their stories of Gettysburg and other battles, he said.” AP added that Martinez took it upon himself to record Pearl Harbor survivors’ oral histories and now the Park Service has hundreds of interviews, with most of them on video.

When Japanese forces attacked the U.S. naval base on that day in 1941, enemy fighter planes destroyed or damaged approximately 20 American naval vessels and 300 planes, per History.com.

Over 2,400 Americans were killed and 1,000 wounded during the attack, the site reads. “The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan.”

Video footage shows the devastation left behind:

During the ceremony on Sunday, Tom Leatherman, Superintendent of the Pearl Harbor Memorial, told attendees, “We must redouble our efforts to make certain the story of Pearl Harbor is not lost to time.”