Memorial Day 2025

The colombarium at the National
Cemetery of the Pacific, Punchbowl crater.

My father and his five brothers who wore the uniform during World War II are no longer with us, but I think of them often. Their stories are over, but they are not finished, in that what we consider is important about them has changed over time.

At 21 I had just moved to Palo Alto, while at that age Dad was about to complete his tour of duty in Yokohama. At 22 I was married, while Dad had yet to meet the woman to whom he would be married for 67 years. We can spend several pages more on comparing life milestones, but one thing Dad and his brothers will always--but I will never--have is their military service.

Paying respects to my uncles at Punchbowl

From 2011: Lately I've been thinking more about the generation that fought and won World War II. Today's problems are daunting, but they are nothing compared to what they faced--economic catastrophe and the destruction of nations. They secured the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity, in the words of the Constitution, and so shall we, if we remember our forefathers' example.

Memorial Day, 2024

Dad, near Tokyo in 1945

On this Memorial Day my thoughts turn to my father and his five brothers who wore the uniform during and after World War II.

They were raised in a dirt-poor household of nine children in early 20th-century Honolulu and were expected to help out with family finances after high school. World War II disrupted everyone's plans, but they all answered the call--some were drafted and others enlisted--but it was inconceivable that they wouldn't.

After the war, two went on to college, and all of them led "normal" lives--raising families, buying a house, and retiring in modest comfort.

They all live in my memory, and my appreciation for them has grown mightily over the years.

May you, dear reader, only have good memories today.

Memorial Day, 2022

This month marks the 107th anniversary of the widely known poem, In Flanders Fields. It was composed one year after World War I ("the Great War") began. I first heard it 58 years ago when an upperclassman quoted the opening stanza from memory.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

By 1964 the 20th century was already the bloodiest in history; the Korean War stalemate, the American buildup in Vietnam, and the threat of mutually assured destruction promised a dystopian future--if we had one at all--of continuous war and police states. All Quiet on the Western Front portrayed the recent past, and 1984 and Brave New World the future.

It is with wonder and gratitude that we are still around to reflect on the sadness and beauty of Flanders Fields.

Flanders Fields (U of Texas NROTC photo)

Memorial Day, 2021

Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, CA

We are still partially confined to quarters, and last year's Memorial Day post, lightly edited, is still relevant:

Today I thought about my Dad, who passed away in June, 2019. He was the last of seven boys, six of whom served during World War II.

I thought of Harry Truman, who made the now-controversial decision to drop the bomb. After 3½ years of all-out war, I can see why he wanted to end it.

Look at us, we can barely tolerate 14 months of being confined to our air-conditioned Internet-enabled homes.

I probably wouldn't be here if it weren't for the bomb. Dad was training in Texas in the spring of 1945 and would have been part of an invasion of the Japanese homeland that would have cost the lives of up to a million U.S. soldiers and many more Japanese.

"I was terrified at what might happen and damned relieved when the invasion became unnecessary. I accept the military estimates that at least 1 million lives were saved, and mine could have been one of them."
----James Michener

Today we remember and give thanks for the lives of Dad, his brothers, Harry S. Truman, and all who wore the uniform to give their descendants blessings that many of them could not have imagined.

Memorial Day, 2020

Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, CA

Today I thought about my Dad, who passed away in June. He was the last of seven boys, six of whom served during World War II.

I thought of Harry Truman, who made the now-controversial decision to drop the bomb. After 3½ years of all-out war, I can see why he wanted to end it.

Look at us, we can barely tolerate two months of being confined to our air-conditioned Internet-enabled homes.

I probably wouldn't be here if it weren't for the bomb. Dad was training in Texas in the spring of 1945 and would have been part of an invasion of the Japanese homeland that would have cost the lives of up to a million U.S. soldiers and many more Japanese.

"I was terrified at what might happen and damned relieved when the invasion became unnecessary. I accept the military estimates that at least 1 million lives were saved, and mine could have been one of them."
----James Michener

Today we remember and give thanks for the lives of Dad, his brothers, Harry S. Truman, and all who wore the uniform to give their descendants blessings that many of them could not have imagined.

Memorial Day, 2019

The Star Advertiser reports on the 21st-century Navy:

(Lockheed Martin rendering via the Star Advertiser)

The Pearl Harbor-based USS Preble will be the first destroyer to be equipped with a high-energy laser to counter surface craft and unmanned aerial systems. [snip]

The Congressional Research Service said in a May report that the Navy is developing three new ship-based weapons: solid-state lasers, an electromagnetic railgun and a gun-launched guided projectile that “could substantially improve” the ability of Navy surface ships to defend against surface craft, unmanned aerial vehicles and, eventually, anti-ship cruise missiles.

The HELIOS (High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler With Surveillance) System has been developed to counter the threat from drones.

The Modern War Institute at West Point wrote in late 2018 that drone swarm technology is a growing threat. The report said China is interested in swarm technology as a method of attacking aircraft carriers.

Iran’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, announced in March that it had conducted an exercise in the Persian Gulf involving 50 combat drones.

Swarms of small attackers, laser defenses, and no time to think---it sounds like an arcade videogame from the 1970's.


Your humble blogger could last over an hour on a single quarter. Born 50 years too soon, I coulda been a defendah.

Happy Memorial Day!

A Day for Respect

We pass by the Golden Gate National Cemetery frequently but have never visited. Today, Memorial Day, it was time to rectify that omission.

The San Bruno cemetery is the resting place for over 130,000 veterans and family members. At 161 acres its scale must be seen to be appreciated--rows upon rows of markers, each with a flag.

To my knowledge our family doesn't have anyone here---not like Punchbowl, where over a dozen relatives are interred.

The traffic leaving the morning ceremony was intense, with long lines of cars waiting to exit on the single-lane road.

No one honked. Today was a day to show respect--both to the honored dead and the living.

Memorial Day, 2017

The colombarium at Punchbowl National Cemetery.

With the benefit of hindsight, a sadly wishful sentence from four years ago:

On this Memorial Day, 2013, two of the longest-running wars in U.S history are winding down.

Very different philosophies and strategies by different Administrations have yielded the same bleak result.

In a wide-ranging essay, Victor Davis Hanson reflects on the cross-currents of Memorial Day's themes and emotions. Excerpts:

As today’s disputes over the legacy of the Civil War and the Confederacy suggest, it has never been enough just to lament the sacrifice and carnage of our wars, whether successful or failed. We feel the need to honor the war dead but also to make distinctions among them, elevating those who served noble causes while passing judgment on their foes.

The Western tradition of commemoration also includes a unique idea of individual moral exemption. As first articulated by Pericles, we overlook any defects of character of the war dead, attributing to one brief moment of ultimate sacrifice the power to wash away all prior moral faults.

A noble death serves, in the words of Pericles, as “a cloak to cover a man’s other imperfections; since the good action has blotted out the bad, and his merit as a citizen more than outweighed his demerits as an individual.”

It was once universally believed that to die for a noble cause redeemed one's entire life. On this Memorial Day in 2017 I suspect that belief is still commonly, though quietly, held by most fellow Americans.

A Few Moments of Reflection and Service

Yesterday 60 people showed up for lunch at the community center. We had baked enough chicken for a hundred, and St. Pius had made a like number of brown-bag lunches for people to take when they departed Sandwiches on Sunday. There were no leftovers; diners came back for seconds and thirds and took the remainder home.

As is our custom, we introduced ourselves before lunch and recited a short blessing:

O Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us together on this beautiful day. And we thank you for the men and women of our armed forces, most especially for those who sacrificed life and limb for our nation. Help us to bring comfort to their families and honor their memory through service of our own. Bless this food to our use and us to your service, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Several attendees said that they appreciated the profession of faith, and one lady asked our minister to pray with her after lunch was over.

Memorial Day weekend is filled with fun, food, family, and friends, but a few moments of reflection and service are good, too.

It's Pretty to Look at, Though

Despite health warnings Cowell Beach will probably be crowded
on Memorial Day weekend (Coastal Home and Garden image)

In contrast with Hawaii's best beach in America (see yesterday's post), nearby Cowell Beach is one of the worst:

Even wading in ankle-deep is frowned upon. That’s because, for the third straight year, Cowell has been crowned the worst beach in California for water quality, due in large part to animal excrement.

At Cowell, excrement largely from seagulls and sea lions, coupled with relatively calm waters, may be giving the beach its place at the top of the list, experts say. Since 2010, it has occupied the No. 1 or 2 ranking for worst in the state,

Cowell Beach is a few steps from the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and is pretty to look at. However, its beauty should be appreciated at a distance.

Memorial Day, 2014

In two months we will mark the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I, aka the "Great War," aka the "War to End All Wars." (The latter description is now used ironically, because the casualties and destruction of the Second World War dwarfed that of the First.) To be sure, World War I introduced its own horrors, with machine guns, trench warfare, and chemical weapons forever dispelling any romantic notions of armed conflict between nations.

This month also marks the 99th anniversary of the widely known poem, In Flanders Fields. I first heard it 50 years ago when an upperclassman quoted the opening stanza from memory.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

By 1964 the 20th century was already the bloodiest in history; the Korean War stalemate, the American buildup in Vietnam, and the threat of mutually assured destruction promised a dystopian future--if we had one at all--of continuous war and police states. All Quiet on the Western Front portrayed the recent past, and 1984 and Brave New World the future.

It is with wonder and gratitude that we are still around to reflect on the sadness and beauty of Flanders Fields.

Flanders Fields (U of Texas NROTC photo)

Memorial Day, 2013

The colombarium at the National Cemetery of the Pacific, Punchbowl crater.

On this Memorial Day, 2013, two of the longest-running wars in U.S history are winding down. In our circle of acquaintances we know only a few who have served in Afghanistan or Iraq and "only" one who has been killed.

In our fathers' time, enlistment in the armed forces was ubiquitous and expected. For baby boomers, military service was less common and usually the luck of the draw. And, for the current generation, service is rarer still.

Regardless of the reason they donned the uniform, the men and women whom we recognize today are lauded for their sacrifice. We the living may disagree over policy, but there are no disagreements about honoring their memory. In that sense we've all grown up a little over the past 40 years. © 2013 Stephen Yuen

Memorial Day, 2012

On Memorial Day we went shopping, watched a baseball game, quaffed beer, and stuffed ourselves with grilled kebabs.

We paused to remember those who fought for our freedom. The men I knew would have taken pleasure in their descendants' participation in these seemingly frivolous activities. Don't dwell on us, they would have said, your enjoyments are thanks enough.

Too bad, we will always remember.

Memorial Day, 2011

The colombarium at the National Cemetery of the Pacific, Punchbowl crater.

Memorial Day, 2011, is especially poignant because this year marks the tenth anniversary of the Afghan war, the longest (under some definitions) in U.S. history. The immense expenditure of resources and, more importantly, American lives seem never-ending. Was it all worth it to finally kill the mastermind behind the September 11th attacks? Did the war help prevent other terrorist attacks from happening?

Paying respects to Uncle Jack and
his three brothers at Punchbowl

Reasonable people will differ because there is no way of knowing what the alternative history would have been. History is not a computer simulation that we can restart to see the effect of different decisions. All we can do in our own lives, like the brave soldiers who gave their all, is to try to act with principle and wisdom while the shadows dance mockingly on the cave wall.

Lately I've been thinking more about the generation that fought and won World War II. Today's problems are daunting, but they are nothing compared to what they faced--economic catastrophe and the destruction of nations. They secured the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity, in the words of the Constitution, and so shall we, if we remember our forefathers' example.

Memorial Day, 2010

On Memorial Day it's appropriate that we honor the forgotten:

We do not need to glorify war to give thanks for their sacrifice. Young men do not make wars, and no one needs remind them of the ghastliness or grisliness of war. Our obligation is to look at Arlington Cemetery (or any military cemetery, or at a local law enforcement cemetery of policemen who died to keep us safe) and respect what these men have given us. Most of the fallen are now forgotten. Their memory, their shortened lives, their mangled bodies laid into some distant grave -- these plain and awful data of history -- cannot hold the attention of a world in which only the last day's news cycle is real.

All those who serve in the armed forces make personal sacrifices that we office jockeys can barely imagine. Compared to their problems, ours don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, as Rick said to Ilsa. So let's take a moment today to remember them with gratitude, and by doing so put our own lives in perspective.

Today is also a good day to give thanks to those who returned from battle with lasting wounds.

Memorial Day, 2007

For God, for Country, and for Mickey D's

To the men and women of our armed forces, and especially those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, thank you.

Memorial Day, 2006