President Bush Proposes Designating Pearl Harbor National Monument
Why this wasn’t done years ago I’ll never know.
WASHINGTON, May 29 - (Kyodo)—President George W. Bush proposed Thursday designating Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the site of Japan’s surprise attack that ushered in the Pacific part of World War II, a U.S. national monument.
He put forward the proposal in a memorandum to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne asking for their input.
“Pearl Harbor is well known as the site of Imperial Japan’s attack on Dec. 7, 1941,” Bush said in the memorandum. “Its historical significance, however, both preceded the Japanese attack and spanned World War II.”
“There are objects of historic and scientific interest at Pearl Harbor…These objects of historical and scientific interest may tell the broader story of the war,” he said.
Unlike a national park, a national monument can be officially designated by the president under the Antiquities Act without congressional approval. Among the current national monuments is the Statue of Liberty in New York.
(AP)
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