President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited the World War II memorial in Washington on Tuesday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In a poignant moment, Biden touched and then saluted a wreath at the memorial. It contained a wild sunflower, the state flower of Kansas, in honor of former Senator Bob Dole, a veteran of World War II, who died on Sunday.

The first lady laid a bouquet in honor of her father, Donald Jacobs, who served as a US Navy signalman in the war.

Biden thanked 'Greatest Generation'

A dwindling number of survivors and veterans of the war remain. The oldest surviving US veteran of the Pearl Harbor attack, Ray Chavez, died in 2018 at age 106.

Members of the US Navy, veterans, friends and family stood as the names of those who died were read out, each accompanied by the tolling of a bell. 

In a proclamation last week Biden thanked the "Greatest Generation, who guided our nation through some of our darkest moments and laid the foundations of an international system that has transformed former adversaries into allies.''

Pearl Harbor a turning point in war

The Japanese attack on the naval base in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, left 2,390 US service personal dead. It led to the US entry into World War II both in the Pacific Theater and in Europe, one of the most decisive moments in the war.

US President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously called it "a date which will live in infamy," with the US declaring war on Japan the following day. 

Japan announced its surrender in August 1945, days after the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and several months after Nazi Germany's surrender and an end to the fighting in Europe on May 8 that year. 

lo/msh (AP, Reuters)