Yes! A day that will live in infamy!
There are still a few.
Just watched Tora Tora Tora a documentary on Pearl Harbor.
Remarkable.
American’s don’t even remember 9/11, and most of them were alive for that!
Yes! A day that will live in infamy!
I was a little worried that the local Pearl Harbor survivor wasn’t on the front page of the paper today, as per usual. But I looked it up and he was in the paper 2 days ago, 94 years old.
White House then, “cowardly and maliciously attacked...a day that will live in infamy”.
If it were today, “too soon to speculate on the nature of the attack, ...we need to come to an understanding of the long history of our nation’s actions that provoked a peaceful Japan into this action...we need sensible gun laws to prevent future events...entering a treaty that lets Japan keep the Philippines and the other territories they have seized isn’t a surrender to fascism; what would you want instead, a long war with lots of causalities just to engage in ethnocentrism and force our parochial ideas of freedom on half the world?”
Many do. I am one of them. But if the corrupt and politically correct education system is not recharged to start teaching the true and real story of America it will soon become just another 3rd world nation.
“Fox & Friends” had on Pearl Harbor survivor Alex Horanzy, 93, this morning. He was selected for an award by Dickies. He was one of five brothers who served (he and two others in the Army, two in the Navy). One of his brothers was killed in Okinawa. Sharp as a tack. Showed a Japanese flag which he retrieved from a plane that was shot down during the attack.
A majority of Americans have forgotten 9/11
December 7th will be forgotten as Boomers drop dead.
I weep for America.
September 11, 2001 was a repeat event. The U.S. response was quite different.
I was ten years old at the time. I do vividly remember the news coming over the radio about the attack. It made a big impression on me at the time. Until then, the war had been in Europe. The paper were full of news about Britain and Germany. The only American involvement had been the loss of the destroyer Reuben James, on convoy patrol in the Atlantic, and even that was played down. I barely noticed President Roosevelt's speech about it.
Pearl Harbor meant we were "in it now." The draft. Ration coupons for meat, gasoline, sugar, and other things. Shortages of things like tires. Speed limits to conserve gasoline. We raised rabbits to supplement our meat rations. As the oldest child, it fell to me to butcher them.
Dad was drafted into the Navy in 1944. In August of 1945 he was at the amphibious base at San Diego. He would have been part of a landing craft crew for the invasion of Japan. The atomic bomb saved my Dad's life.
Oh, yes, I remember Pearl Harbor.
My family doctor was on duty at Pearl when the attack came. I never new that unail he was gone. He must have had some horrific memories.
I grew up around and noticed incredible men like those at Pearl Harbor, because my dad began taking me golfing with him when I was 12 years old, and therefore I actually related as well to my dad’s generation as to my own. The first man that I ever saw riding a golf cart did so because his health was permanently destroyed while serving as a brigade commander of the 41th infantry division in New Guinea. My Economics professor in college served in the first Navy UDT team operation. I would meet at the golf course one of the Flying Tigers. I often ended up as a dishwasher at the country club. When I noticed the chef always limped as he moved around the kitchen he saw my puzzled look and he told me he got the limp from a wound received when he was with the Rangers at Pointe De Hoc. There are more stories I could related and many more I have forgotten.
I have nearly completed and annual file of letters and Op-Ed’s dealing monthly with a prominent battle of WW II. A few get published in papers. I can usually count on Lars Larson to at least mention the battle I highlight for a month. Here is the one I did this year for Pearl Harbor.
The Tragedy of Pearl Harbor
For Pearl Harbor the Japanese forged a strategic weapon of six heavy carriers for a coordinated attack by 360 planes on Sunday December 7. Never before had any country executed and/or planned a raid by more than two carriers on any naval or land target. No inkling existed within any allied operational or intelligence community of a capability beyond the 21 torpedo bombers a British carrier used to attack the Italian Navy at Taranto.
On Christmas Day 1941 Admiral Chester Nimitz arrived to take command. When he arrived he saw a sunken battle fleet and was assailed by a poisonous atmosphere from black oil, charred wood, burned paint, and rotting flesh. However, he found the public’s perception was wrong. The carriers, their escorts, and the submarines stood ready to take the offensive.
The unexpected tragedy of Pearl Harbor for Japan required them to contend with the U.S. Navy from their forward base in Hawaii rather than forcing their enemy to begin operations from the West coast. The dry-dock, repair shops, and tank farm were intact. Nimitz immediately sent submarines into Japanese waters, and conducted carrier operations thwarting Japanese initiatives. Admiral Raymond Spruance said of Nimitz, “The one big thing about him was that he was always ready to fight….And he wanted officers who would push the fight to the Japaneseâ€.