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CNN Live At Daybreak

WWII Veterans Remember Attack on Pearl Harbor

Aired December 07, 2001 - 05:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: It is a day that still lives in infamy. And, no, we're not talking about September 11. Of course we're talking about December 7, 1941. That's the day that Japanese warplanes carried out a surprise attack on U.S. Naval ships that were anchored at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

And on this 60th anniversary, CNN' Bruce Morton brings us memories of the big global fight that happened long before the current war on terrorism.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The old men, old warriors came to remember, to explain sometimes to the young people with them what it was like to joke about then and now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I tell you, you're lucky you can still get into uniform.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All that fits me is a hat.

MORTON: The D-Day Museum here is opening a Pacific Wing. Exhibits of that war, gift shop items that now include geisha dolls and corncob pipes like the ones General Douglas MacArthur used to smoke.

The vets talk about their war. One of the most famous, General Paul Tibbets who flew the Enola Gay, the plane which dropped the first ever atom bomb on Hiroshima and effectively ended the war, he sees himself as a peacemaker.

GENERAL PAUL TIBBETS (RET.), PILOT, ENOLA GAY: If we are successful, we will convince the Japanese of the futility of continuing to fight. That was my whole purpose of being out there, not to kill people, I wanted to get the damn killing stopped.

MORTON: But along with that war, they talk about this one, the war on terror.

ELWIN CAVIN, WWII VETERAN: I'm with those who believe that those people at Valley Forge was the greatest one. It gave us our freedom from England. But at any rate, I have a lot of faith in what's going -- I see so many fine things in the young people.

MORTON: Robert Stanley and Tim Phillips were on the USS Loose (ph) sunk by kamikaze planes. In the water, they were attacked by sharks then machine-gunned by the Japanese.

ROBERT STANLEY, WWII VETERAN: I didn't say anything to my family about what we actually went through oh until maybe 1950 some -- 1956, and this was 1945 when this happened.

MORTON: They have and had then firm views on how to deal with tough foes like today's terrorists.

TIM PHILLIPS, WWII VETERAN: When a suicide man comes at you, you've got two options, you can either kill him or he's going to kill you. You don't have no alternative. So we basically -- that's what we're up against. Until these people realize that that's what we're going to have to do -- and you can't just kill the guy coming at you, you've got to kill his mama and his papa and his baby. You've got to kill them all.

MORTON: The vets won their war, and they mostly think the young folks are winning this one too.

Bruce Morton, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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