Pearl Harbor Survivors Honored at Ceremony on CSUEB's Concord Campus

0108pearl.jpg

Pearl Harbor survivors participate at the Dec. 7 beacon-lighting ceremony on CSUEB's Concord campus.

  • undefined NaN, NaN

For the third straight year, Pearl Harbor survivors gathered at Cal State East Bay’s Concord campus on Pearl Harbor Day to relight Mount Diablo’s Beacon.

"The Beacon lighting is a tribute to those individuals that lost their lives at Pearl Harbor," Earl "Chuck" Kohler, one of the few remaining survivors in Contra Costa County said.

The ceremony also honored survivors of the attack.

“I think hearing their recollections reminds us that history isn't an abstract concept,” said Dr. Robert Phelps, director of California State University, East Bay’s Concord Campus and associate professor of history. “It’s about real people, everyday men and women experiencing and shaping important events.”

The Beacon on Mount Diablo was originally installed and illuminated in 1928 to aid transcontinental aviation. It is one of the four guiding beacons along the West Coast by the Standard Oil Co. of CA and is the only one known to be operational. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the beacon was kept dark as part of a general blackout ordered for West Coast Cities to make it harder for enemy warplanes to find targets.

It stayed dark until Pearl Harbor Day 1964, when Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz relit the Beacon in a commemorative ceremony and suggested it be illuminated every December 7th to honor those who served and sacrificed. Since that day, Pearl Harbor Veterans and their families have gathered every December 7th to see the Beacon light shine once again.  

The Sons & Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, Chapter 5 co-sponsored the Annual National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Ceremony with Save Mount Diablo. Presentations were made by the few remaining local Pearl Harbor survivors, Mount Diablo State Park, David Behring (President of Wheelchair Foundation), as well as Save Mount Diablo.

“Personally, as the son of a World War II veteran, it is comforting that we still remember the personal sacrifices of these young men and women,” Phelps said. “Although they often find it difficult to talk about the horrors they witnessed, I know that the World War Two generation was very proud of their service and I'm certain they appreciate our thoughts.”