Remembrance ceremony in Hawaii to draw handful of Pearl Harbor survivors

A handful of centenarian survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor are expected to gather at the scene of the Japanese bombing on Wednesday to commemorate those who perished 81 years ago.

That's fewer than in recent years, when a dozen or more travelled to Hawaii from across the country to pay their respects at the annual remembrance ceremony.

Part of the decline reflects the dwindling number of survivors as they age. The youngest active-duty military personnel on December 7, 1941, would have been about 17, making them 98 today. Many of those still alive are at least 100.

About 2,400 servicemen were killed in the bombing, which launched the US into World War II. The USS Arizona alone lost 1,177 sailors and Marines, nearly half the death toll.

Robert John Lee recalls being a 20-year-old civilian living at his parent's home on the naval base where his father ran the water pumping station. The home was just about 1 mile (1.6 kilometres) across the harbor from where the USS Arizona was .