Poignant memorial for victims of Pearl Harbor

The tumultuous world events of the past three months lent extra poignancy to 60th anniversary commemoration of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, when US leaders reflected on the sacrifices of an earlier era as well as the challenges of the present "war on terrorism".

The tumultuous world events of the past three months lent extra poignancy to 60th anniversary commemoration of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, when US leaders reflected on the sacrifices of an earlier era as well as the challenges of the present "war on terrorism".

"The tragedy of 7 December 1941 remains seared upon our collective national memory,'' President George Bush said. "Now, another date will for ever stand alongside 7 December – 11 September 2001. On that day, our people and our way of life again were brutally and suddenly attacked.''

Across the country, from Pearl Harbor itself to military bases involved in the war in Afghanistan, veterans and politicians gathered to remember the events of 60 years ago, the day that President Franklin Roosevelt declared would "live in infamy".

The link to the present has been made explicitly at the USS Arizona Memorial museum, where hundreds of New York police officers, firefighters and rescue workers who rushed to the World Trade Center on 11 September have been invited over the past week.

Yesterday, there was a prayer service and a 21-gun salute at the memorial, as well as a ceremony at the nearby National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, where many of the dead of 1941 are buried. The Hawaii Air National Guard flew F-15 jets over the area in the "missing man" formation.