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About 120 aging survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor were among 5,000 people who marked its 70th anniversary on Wednesday with a quiet, often emotional ceremony in Honolulu.

With a light rain falling, speakers remembered those killed or wounded seven decades ago as well as survivors who fought in World War II following the Japanese air and naval assault on Dec 7, 1941, that brought the United States into the war.

"We gather here today to commemorate the 70th anniversary of one of the most significant events of the 20th century," 88-year-old veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor Mal Middlesworth said in a keynote address.

"We do this best by honoring all who gave their lives on all the military bases on the island of Oahu that Sunday, not just Pearl Harbor," said Middlesworth, who was an 18-year-old Marine serving on the USS San Francisco that morning.

The attack killed nearly 2,400 people, wounded 1,178 others, sank or heavily damaged a dozen US warships and destroyed 323 aircraft, badly crippling the Pacific fleet.

As if to underscore the historical distance, members of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, made up of 2,700 veterans who were within 5 kilometers of Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack, said they would disband due to the age and failing health of its dwindling number of members.

Middlesworth, a past president of the association, said the veterans "wanted young America to understand that freedom isn't free. It never has been and it looks like it's never going to be."

Organizers said the turnout at the ceremony was the largest since 1991, the 50th anniversary of the attack.

Edward Wentzlaff, who was a 24-year-old chief warrant officer on the battleship USS Arizona on the morning of the attack, traveled from Minnesota for the ceremony and recalled the events of 70 years earlier.

Wentzlaff, now 94, said he had been preparing for a church service when he heard a loud boom and saw an aircraft strafe one side of the ship as a torpedo hit the other.

"The smell of burning flesh has a sickening odor that stays with you," he said.

Nearly half of those who perished in the attack on Pearl Harbor were sailors aboard the Arizona, which Japanese torpedo bombers sank early in the attack, sending 1,177 of its 1,400-member crew to their deaths.

The USS Arizona Memorial, built over the remains of the ship, now forms a centerpiece of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument historic site.

（中國日報網英語點津 Rosy 編輯）

About the broadcaster:

Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the US, including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is also fluent in Korean.