"Those who do not learn from history, are doomed to repeat it..." is what she and my father would always say. Early on in my childhood I learned a lot about World War II and the impact it had upon the people of the islands and the world. More so especially the impact upon Americans and Asian-Americans alike. I read Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's "Farewell to Manzanar", and started to connect the dots with what my father and his siblings (who were just young children during the war) had gone through. Well nothing as severe as Manzanar, but something along those lines. It wasn't until I got older that I began to understand the toll war would take upon a country, its soliders, their families and communities. The first Iraq War raged on while I was in kindergarten. I vaguely remember trying yellow ribbons onto the fence at my elementary school, somehow 'supporting our troops.' Questions started to pop into my head. What was it like for the veterans of the current war. being fought in Iraq. Scenes of the bombing of Baghdad flashed through my mind's eye. If this is what was happening during the Gulf War, what must've those sailors and soliders have gone through during the bombing of Pearl Harbor?? I mean, It was, after all, a surprise attack by the Japanese. In my younger day's I read a lot. I read about the attack on pearl harbor, and i would scour old newsmagazines and history books looking at photographs of war in the pacific theater. For as long as I could remember, I wanted to visit the USS Arizona Memorial and the Bowfin museum. In the Spring of 1996 I would get my first chance to visit the National Monument. Much to my dismay however there was a massive oil spill in the Waiau Stream and into Pearl Harbor, making it impossible for my class to get out to the memorial. It wasn't for a long time, that I would be able to make it out to the memorial... Fast forward to almost fifteen years to December of last year, where I photographed the the 69th Anniversary the Attack on Pearl Harbor for Getty Images. It gave me an opportunity to not only just revisit part of my youth but in some ways for me to come to an understanding with everything I had learned and everything I knew at that point in time. For me, having been born to Generation Y, and not having living remotely close to the time of the Great Depression and World War II, outside of photographs and old movie clips I had no idea what it was like that fateful December morning. Seeing the grizzly veterans, now past their prime, clad in colorful aloha shirts it seemed almost surreal being able to observe them, and be able to interact with them. The things some of them must have been through, the places they had been, and the events that unfolded in front of their very eyes...their individual stories floating around in the ethereal consciousness of their collective memories, waiting...waiting to be told. Many quite moments were to be found in at the memorial itself last year, especially in the shrine room. This year, however, was a little different. Sadly, the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association is disbanding at the end of the 2011 calendar year. With the numbers of survivors dwindling it was the logical choice for the association to make. Check out some selects from this years December 7 ceremony below. Tim Greene (L) shares a laugh with Pearl Harbor Survivor Delton Walling (C) and Joan Bohl (R) before a memorial service for the 70th anniversary of the attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu on December 7, 2011 in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Pearl Harbor Survivors Association Vice President Mal Middlesworth salutes during a memorial service for the 70th anniversary of the attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu on December 7, 2011 in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. A marine firing detail stand at attention with the Arizona Memorial in background. U.S.S. Arizona Survivor Lou Conter and daughter Louann Daley exit the Arizona Memorial. **All Images ©2011 Honolulu, HI Based Photojournalist Kent Nishimura and Getty Images**