NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The National WWII Museum is inviting the public to share a day filled with observations and an exhibition opening on Wednesday, December 7, the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

"Pearl Harbor forever changed America," said Dr. Gordon H. "Nick" Mueller, president and chief executive officer of The National WWII Museum. "It is appropriate and important that we observe this anniversary at the national Museum devoted to telling the story of our country's role in the Second World War. It is doubly so as this may be the last significant anniversary of the attack when we will have eyewitnesses to that event still with us."

Witnesses to the assault on Pearl Harbor will be on hand for the observations and for the opening of the Museum's newest exhibition, Infamy: December 1941, which recounts the strike in Hawaii as well as the lesser-known but nearly simultaneous attacks on American territories in the Pacific, including Wake Island, Guam and the Philippines. The exhibition is free with Museum admission, open seven days a week from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. and will remain on display through February 19, 2012.

Other special events include a public tour of the D-Days in the Pacific exhibit, from 10:15 – 11 a.m. A special Pearl Harbor Commemoration Ceremony will follow the tour from 11 a.m. – noon and will include a navy band performance, remarks by Museum and community leaders and a ringing of the Normandy Liberty Bell at 11:55 a.m. to observe the local time of the first wave of the attack. Immediately following the Commemoration Ceremony, the Museum will host a Lunchbox Lecture, "The Raid on Pearl Harbor," presented by Captain Rick Jacobs. Both the Commemoration and the Lunchbox Lecture are free and open to the public.

Rounding out the day's events will be a special Meet the Curator session with Museum curators for a behind-the-scenes look at the Infamy exhibition from 2 – 3 p.m., followed by a Meet the Veteran/Meet the Author event and book signing with Col. Glenn D. Frazier, World War II veteran and author of Hell's Guest. The Meet the Curator event is free with museum admission, while Col. Frazier's presentation is free and open to the public.

For more information visit www.nationalww2museum.org.

SOURCE The National WWII Museum