It isn’t hard to imagine how our parents and grandparents felt when they received news of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor 63 years ago. It has been only three years since terrorists flew jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Rather than wait for skimpy details from radio broadcasts and the following day’s newspapers, however, we watched in shock as the second plane hit the second tower, as trapped people leaped to their deaths, as the twin towers collapsed, killing thousands of others.

The children of the Depression weren’t as sophisticated or connected as we are in the 21st century.

Yet, we can learn from them before we assign their special “date that will live in infamy” to ancient history.

When their country was struck, they struck back harder at the perpetrators. When their America was knocked to its knees on Dec. 7, they responded with fury and ingenuity, enabling the United States to rebuild and to rearm the military services and to fight major wars on two fronts. Because they sacrificed their blood, time and youth, Europe is free today. Humbled Japan is our friend. The United States remains a beacon of freedom.

As today’s young men and women face their own “ism” – terrorism – they’re confronted with the big shoes that Tom Brokaw’s “Greatest Generation” is leaving behind in growing numbers. Estimates of the daily death total of the World War II generation run from 1,500 to 1,800. At that rate, they’ll all be gone in 20 to 25 years. By then, the world will know how the current American generation did in its war on terror.

Unlike the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the shadowy enemy that struck us on Sept. 11 knows no country allegiance. He kills indiscriminately to hold people captive to terror. He can’t be defeated in a decisive battle because he’s prone to melting away into the mountains of Afghanistan or the slums or Sadr City to fight another day. As a result, we face a long, hard slog toward victory that can be demoralizing to Baby Boomers and their offspring, who are accustomed to instant food, credit and sitcom story lines that resolve themselves in 30 minutes.

Like America post-12-7, this country was galvanized in the aftermath of 9-11. Today, however, it is divided about the war effort that ensued. Disgusting scenes of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib have pushed collapsing skyscrapers further into our memories. World War II had infinitely more gore, suffering and civilian casualties than this war will ever have. But this one is being brought to us in living color, in actual time, with a loyal opposition asking tough questions about the preparation for it, the necessity of it, and whether it’s being fought against the right enemy.

In two hours at Pearl Harbor, beginning at 7:53 a.m. on this day in 1941, Japanese war planes damaged or destroyed eight battleships, crippling our Pacific Fleet, destroyed 188 planes and killed 2,403 service personnel. The next day, President Franklin Roosevelt signed a declaration of war. Across the Atlantic Ocean, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote: “To have the United States at our side was to me the greatest joy. Now at this very moment I knew the United States was in the war, up to the neck and in to the death. So we had won after all! … Hitler’s fate was sealed. Mussolini’s fate was sealed. As for the Japanese, they would be ground to powder.”

Churchill was right about the American generation who refused to forget its infamous date.

Different challenges face the nation today and they call for different responses. But the resolve that Americans showed in 1941 will never go out of style.