A familiar feeling of disbelief

June Casagrande

NEWPORT-MESA -- Sept. 11 has been dubbed the Pearl Harbor of this

generation. But for a dwindling number of Americans, Pearl Harbor and its

lessons are not the stuff of history books. The date Dec. 7, 1941, seared

permanently in older Americans’ memories, has remained real and, until

Sept. 11, unrivaled.

Now those who have lived to witness the only two large-scale attacks

against Americans on their own soil can speak from experience when they

say that the pain, the horror, the shock are no different.

“On both occasions, if there’s one word to describe it, that word is

‘disbelief,”’ said George Grupe III, a World War II veteran and

historian.

Like others, the Newport Beach resident who flew for the Army Air

Corps said that having lived through the first unbelievable event hasn’t

made Sept. 11 any easier to grasp or to live with.

For Harry Bremner, a World War II pilot who remembers fighting in

India and China, watching the Sept. 11 events unfold was especially

painful. Bremner’s daughter is a flight attendant for American Airlines,

which had Bremner near panic in the early hours of Sept. 11 until he

learned she was safe. Then, he said, his fear gave way and he found in

its place a thirst for justice.

“I really wanted to do something, but at 83 there’s not much I could

do,” he said. “It’s frustrating.”

An important parallel between the two homeland attacks, both men

agreed, is that they elicited a necessary and just military response.

“I oppose war, I opposed Vietnam, but I think our response is

absolutely right on the money,” Bremner said.

Grupe agreed: “When you consider that more than twice as many people

were killed on Sept. 11 than were killed in Pearl Harbor, absolutely it’s

a just response.”

But there’s a difference between the two conflicts that, in some ways,

makes the East Coast terrorist attacks even more frightening and horrible

than the war that changed the world.

“You knew who you were fighting then -- there was an enemy,” said

Martha Spring, who enlisted in the Navy’s officer training program after

D-day convinced her she needed to do her part for the war effort. “The

enemy now -- you don’t know who they are, they don’t have a face or a

land. That makes it even scarier.”

And, in this new war with new rules, these unseen enemies are even

murkier in their motivations.

“Pearl Harbor was an attack against all of us and by a nation,”

Bremner said. “Sept. 11 we were attacked by religious fanatics. They

believe their god is different than what we believe our god is. But

Protestant, Catholic, whatever, a god that loves us wouldn’t have us kill

innocent people. That’s why that tragedy was different from Pearl

Harbor.”