Remembering Pearl Harbor...

Reaganite Republican ^ | December 07, 2010 | Reaganite Republican

[Reaganite Republican]

December 7th, 1941: a dark day that indeed lives in infamy

The December 7 1941 Japanese air and naval raid on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was one of the great defining moments in history.

A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion. America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant.

Eighteen months earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had transferred the United States Fleet to Pearl Harbor as a presumed deterrent to Japanese agression. But the Japanese military, deeply engaged in the seemingly endless war it had started against China in mid-1937, badly needed oil and other raw materials. Commercial access to these was gradually curtailed as the conquests continued. 

In July 1941 the Western powers effectively halted trade with Japan. From then on, as the desperate Japanese schemed to seize the oil and mineral-rich East Indies and Southeast Asia, a Pacific war was virtually inevitable. 

By late November 1941, with peace negotiations clearly approaching an end, informed U.S. officials (and they were well-informed, they believed, through an ability to read Japan's diplomatic codes) fully expected a Japanese attack into the Indies, Malaya and probably the Philippines. Completely unanticipated was the prospect that Japan would attack east, as well.

The U.S. Fleet's Pearl Harbor base was reachable by an aircraft carrier force, and the Japanese Navy secretly sent one across the Pacific with greater aerial striking power than had ever been seen on the World's oceans. 

Its planes hit just before 8AM on December 7 1941. Within a short time five of eight battleships at Pearl Harbor were sunk or sinking, with the rest damaged. Several other ships and most Hawaii-based combat planes were also knocked out and over 2400 Americans were dead. 

Soon after, Japanese planes eliminated much of the American air force in the Philippines, and a Japanese Army was ashore in Malaya. These great Japanese successes, achieved without prior diplomatic formalities, shocked and enraged the previously divided American people into a level of purposeful unity hardly seen before or since. 

For the next five months, until the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May, Japan's far-reaching offensives proceeded untroubled by fruitful opposition. American and Allied morale suffered accordingly. Under normal political circumstances, an accomodation might have been considered...

But the memory of the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor fueled a determination to fight on. Once the Battle of Midway in early June 1942 had eliminated much of Japan's striking power, that same memory stoked a relentless war to reverse her conquests and remove her, and her German and Italian allies, as future threats to World peace... 

More at ►US Naval History and Heritage Command

[Islander7]

We will never forget!

[calex59]

Yeah, and most likely that frickin’ communist in the WH, FDR, knew about the attack and let it happen so he could bring the US into the war. My opinion and I will stick to it.

[BigCinBigD]

“The planes swarmed in, and the rising sun
Glowed fiercely on the evil done
To men whose blood runs through our veins,
Men who died, and whose remains
Life forever locked in waters deep.
Now, is it right that they should sleep
While the warm sea laps at a twisted hull
And see the torch of liberty grow dull?”

Rest in peace Uncle Dub.

[jamaksin]

"To the Memory of the Gallant Men here entombed and their Shipmates, who gave their lives in action on December 7, 1941 on the USS ARIZONA"

Taken from the USS ARIZONA Memorial at Pearl Harbor

[momtothree]

My early teen son met a Pearl Harbor survivor when he was six and they had a very lengthy, interesting conversation. On this day each year, he wears a small, black arm band to school. There are no announcements of this day as historical; however, many kids ask him what is up with the arm band and he educates them. Prayers for all WWII survivors (and those who didn’t and paid the ultimate price for our freedom).

[LetMarch]

On that date, December 7, 1941, I was 7 years old. We did not have TV, nor even a radio, nor did we even have a newspaper delivered back then.

Even as children we were aware something big was going on. Then we saw our fathers, uncles and cousins leaving. Our Principle, and some teachers, and our mail man left for the war, most all were volunteers!

We learned more, much later at school, then we had prayers, and scripture reading by a teacher. We sang patriotic songs for most of the next 4 four years.

Thank our God, you know, like “One Nation Under God,” that we were truly a “United States of America.”

[momtothree]

I have always wondered if Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were similar in that you remember the date and what had occurred in your family on that day? (or during that week) Obviously, you remember so much about your school events and how your family was handling everything.

[Broker]

They knew because my father-in-law-Max (US State Dept.) told them. A Peruvian attache in Kyoto pulled Max into a bar in early 1941 about intelligence of Japan’s plan to attack Pearl. He drafted the advisory sent to DC under Ambassador Grew’s signature. Documented fact. They knew.