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Former Pearl Harbor Enemies Meet

POSTED: 2:24 pm HST December 5, 2006
UPDATED: 2:44 pm HST December 5, 2006

When they last encountered each other 65 years ago, one was standing on the USS West Virginia, and the other was dropping the torpedoes that helped sink it.

That was Dec. 7, 1941, in Pearl Harbor. This week, the American sailor and the Japanese Imperial Navy flier met for the first time.

Each is now 85 years old, but they still remember what President Franklin Roosevelt called a "date which will live in infamy." At a symposium on the anniversary of the attack, the men shook hands, with the old Japanese aviator telling his one-time target, "I'm sorry."

More than 100 men died on the USS West Virginia. And while many old adversaries are willing to put the past behind, not all feel that way.

One sailor who was burned on the USS Arizona, which lost 1,100 men, said he will not do it out of respect to those who perished.

TheHawaiiChannel.com will have livestreaming video coverage of the Pearl Harbor ceremony on Dec. 7 from 7:40 until 9:30 a.m.
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