http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/current/politics/stories/vjday.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)
HONOLULU (Reuter) - Elite units of America's armed forces marched in a spit-and-polish tribute to veterans of World War Two in the Pacific Friday and President Clinton saluted the legacy of those who ``bestowed a glory on our nation'' in combat with Japan.
With flags flapping in a light breeze, some 7,000 troops, many in camouflage battle dress, wheeled in formation at historic Wheeler Air Field to kick off the 50th anniversary remembrance of the end of what Clinton called ``the most horrible thing ever done by man.''
``In this remarkable place so much like Paradise, we recall a time when war made the ideallic Pacific hell on earth, and we celebrate the generation of Americans who won that war and insured the triumph of freedom over tyranny,'' Clinton said.
Speaking in sparkling sunshine to a crowd that included thousands of white-haired, wrinkled survivors of the conflict that raged across the world from 1941 to 1945, Clinton recalled acts of courage that characterized U.S. prosecution of the war.
``From beginning to end, the Americans who fought the Pacific war bestowed a glory upon our nation with acts of heroism that will never be surpassed,'' he said.
Clinton, 49, the first U.S. president born after the war, welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama's recent apology for Japan's behavior of a half century ago.
He said the American people ``appreciated'' Murayama's ''powerful words...when he expressed his nation's regret for its past aggression and its gratitude for the hand of reconcilation that this World War Two generation extended 50 years ago.''
Wheeler Field, surrounded by Hawaii's volcanic mountains, was the first base hit when Japanese warplanes attacked the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and plunged the United States into the war.
Thirty-three Americans were killed on the base that day, and 75 more were wounded. More than a thousand others were killed at Pearl Harbor, and many are still entombed on the battleship Arizona, where Clinton was to lay wath Saturday.
Saturday is the actual 50th anniversary of the end of the war.
During his remarks, Clinton quoted from a letter written by a navy radioman to his young son in Abilene, Texas describing the Pacific war as the most horrible thing ever done by man, and borrowed those words.
``Veterans of the Pacific, because you were willing to undergo the most horriblhg eveoneyan,rdom ishorder of the day in most of the world 50 years later,'' the president said.
Sounding a theme he has struck again and again at observances of the defeat of Nazi Germany and Japanese militarists. Clinton told the aging vets: ``Now it is for us to be true to your legacy of courage and devotion, to follow your lead in finding strength in America's diversity, and unity in America's purpose.