Students see differences in two attacks

Deirdre Newman

NEWPORT BEACH -- Both were horrifying. Both traumatic.

But beyond initial emotions, the attack on Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11

terrorist assault on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon strike most

Newport Harbor High School students as dissimilar.

“I think it was more tragic to lose some important buildings in our

society,” freshman Grant Casserly said. “We lost a lot of important men

and women. It was a bigger loss than Pearl Harbor.”

Peter Isais considers the terrorist attacks more severe because

innocent civilians died.

“This wasn’t soldiers -- they were just people working,” Isais said.

Still, the surprise of both attacks are obviously alike and caused

similar shocks in their aftermaths, other students said.

“I feel it was pretty much the same,” junior Mike Scott said. “It was

horrific, for sure: the same hardships and the same trauma.”

Senior Theresa Pham charged that the reaction of shock to the

terrorist attacks was a repeat of “American arrogance.”

“Before Pearl Harbor, we were taking away Japan’s oil resources,” Pham

said. “Wouldn’t it be obvious to attack while the U.S. was unprepared?”

Still one student, while acknowledging the sadness of both occasions,

said the two attacks defy comparison.

“I really wouldn’t compare them,” sophomore Joel Ramirez said.