This date has forever lived in infamy (12/7/1941)

wnd.com ^ | 12/7/2018 | Bill Federer

[rktman]

On Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked. Three hundred fifty Japanese aircraft sank five American battleships and three destroyers. Four hundred U.S. aircraft were destroyed. Over 4,000 were killed or wounded.

Subsequent investigations revealed warnings may have been disregarded, such as Four-Star Admiral H.E. Kimmel’s statement in a 1958 radio interview hosted by Notre Dame Law School Dean Clarence Manion: “General Short and I were not given the information available in Washington and were not informed of the impending attack because it was feared that action in Hawaii might deter the Japanese from making the attack. Our president had repeatedly assured the American people that the United States would not enter the war unless we were attacked. The Japanese attack on the fleet would put the United States in the war with the full support of the American public.”

Similar accusations are made, and also denied, of the Nov. 14, 1940, attack in England, where, supposedly, Winston Churchill did not warn the city of Coventry of an impending air raid as by doing so would have tipped off the Nazis that their top-secret messages encrypted by the Enigma cipher machine could be decoded by British Ultra

[Freedumb]

Related to this is something I have never seen an adequate explanation for. Clearly there is controversy over whether Kimmel and Short were negligent in their preparations before the attack. But what about McArthur in the Philippines? He clearly knew Pearl had been attacked but did not implement the battle plans that were in place for such an event such as launching an attack on Formosa and instead allowed the Far East Air Force to be destroyed on the ground despite warnings.

Yet after he was run out of the Philippines he was treated like a hero. Why was he not held responsible like Kimmel and Short, who had no such warning or knowledge of the incoming attack?

[libertylover]

I’ve read “The Winds of War” and I agree it’s a good book. I think I still have it and I’ll try to find it. There’s also “War and Remembrance” but I think “Winds” is a better book.

[rktman]

Orange man bad.

[dfwgator]

Japs were really busy that day.

They also attacked The Philippines, Malaya, Hong Kong, Wake, Guam and Midway.

[gaijin]

Another weird thing I learned only last year:

Very much of overseas Japanese intel collection during WW2 was secretly run out of the overseas Embassies of *SPAIN*.

Some historians state that bad actors working on behalf of the US framed up the Spanish for a ship explosion, then used that as pretext for the Spanish-American War, 40 years prior, leading to the loss by Spain of numerous overseas territories.

So Spain sorta “got us back”.

[VietVet876]

And we nuked them less than four years later killing loads more of them than they killed of ours at Pearl and causing them to surrender. If Truman were president on September 11, 2001, I wonder how long it would have been before we nuked a few areas in the Mid East.

[rktman]

“Uh isn’t that like 20 days before we open presents?”

[sima_yi]

It was evident that an attack by the Japanese was coming, but no one knew when or where. Whereas the Japanese diplomatic code "Purple" was being read by the Americans, often even before the Japanese recipients, the Naval Code JN-25B was not broken until a month after Pearl Harbor.

Also, the story of Churchill not warning Coventry is false. The attack by the Luftwaffe was expected, but the target had been identified as London.

Battle of Wits, Stephen Budiansky

[gaijin]

I greedily relished Yamamoto’s “We have awakened a sleeping giant” statement:

Alas, though he was a huge critic of Japan’s war drums and had studied at Harvard, he never actualy said those words.

People love that quote and it’s false. People aren’t going to want to hear that.

Yamamoto did, though, make numerous other statements warning of the possible or even likely course of the war on America.

[Flaming Conservative]

If Truman were President, we probably wouldn’t have had the cozy relationship with the Saudis, allowing their crackpots over here to learn how to fly, etc., and then gone to war with a country which had nothing to do with 9/11. We were completely duped by W, into that mess. Gee, I wonder who duped HIM? Because he wasn’t smart enough to have planned that we end up where we have, because of it.

[gaijin]

Another tidbit I learned just last year:

The Japanese Fleet went totally undetected during their approach to Hawaii, right?

Wrong:

The whole fleet was seen by Soviet warships, which did radio their discovery of the fleet in an unusual location back to Stalin.

The Soviets FOR SOME REASON didn’t warn the US —no one knows why.

This is a very little reported bit of history.

[fredhead]

Kimmel (and Short) didn’t know it was coming, and were blamed for not being properly prepared for the attack.

MacArthur, however, knew for at least 12 hours that the Japanese had attacked us, and his air force was STILL destroyed on the ground.

And he became a hero.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

For everybody in the San Francisco Bay Area, December 7 is the one day each year that the beacon on Mount Diablo is lit in commemoration of the December 7, 1941 attack on the U.S. Yes, even in the Bay Area we have true patriots! The story of the beacon is interesting... http://www.savemountdiablo.org/activities/beacon-lighting-pearl-harbor-day/>

"Mount Diablo’s beacon is lit at sunset and shines all night on this single evening each year."

The Beacon was originally lit by Charles Lindbergh in 1928 to assist in the early days of commercial aviation. The Beacon shined from the summit of Mount Diablo each night until December 8, 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

It was not relit until December 7, 1964, when Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander in Chief of Pacific Forces during World War II, attended a ceremony on Mount Diablo’s summit in commemoration of the survivors of Pearl Harbor. He suggested that the beacon be lit every December 7th to honor those who served and sacrificed.

Since that day in 1964, the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and now the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors with co-sponsor Save Mount Diablo have memorialized Pearl Harbor Day by turning on the summit Beacon atop Mount Diablo. The Beacon now shines on that single night each year.

The “Eye” is one of the last remaining working beacons from the original transcontinental string of guides.

The 2018 Pearl Harbor Day Beacon Lighting Ceremony will be held today at 3:45 PM in the Oak Room (with extra seating in the Redwood Room) at the California State East Bay Concord Campus, 4700 Ygnacio Valley Road, Concord, CA 94521

[Huskrrrr]

“Their attack was absolutely a great success but in fact it could have been TWICE as bad, very easily.”

Huge supplies of gasoline were not bombed. It would have taken months, perhaps a year to replace.

[GreyFriar]

MacArthur’s Air Force was “caught on the ground” after having been sent aloft that morning to either ‘avoid being caught on the ground’ or for local reconnaissance. The B-17 force had been on alert and was preparing for orders for a bombing mission against Formosa and awaiting weather information about that island. Both groups of planes had landed and were refueling and the crews eating lunch. I believe there was only two radars on Luzon and they were on the northern and northwestern coasts of the island. I recommend this book which delves into the morning of Dec 8, 1941 in the Philippines (remember that the PI was a day ahead of Hawaii): December 8, 1941; MacArthur’s Pearl Harbor.

https://smile.amazon.com/December-1941-MacArthurs-Williams-Ford-University-ebook/dp/B00E4LEI4K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1544205095&sr=8-1&keywords=december+8+1941

and also this website: https://www.pacificwar.org.au/Philippines/Japanattacks.html

[SamAdams76]

On the day after GHWB's funeral, I am reminded of a speech he gave in which he misidentified September 7 as Pearl Harbor Day.

I remember that gaffe very well. This was in the midst of the 1988 general election against Mike Dukakis. When I heard it repeated on the news that night, I thought he might have blown the whole campaign and that we would get stuck with Mike Dukakis. However it blew over pretty quickly, mostly in part due to the fact that Bush actually served in that war so people couldn't criticize him all that much.

Now if Dan Quayle had said it...it would still be a running gag today.

[rktman]

Interesting. I can’t see it over the Sierras though. LOL!

[Bull Snipe]

Nor were the repair facilities and dry dock at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

LOL...guess you just need to find a taller peak to climb today! Get the snowshoes on and head outside. ;>)

[vigilence]

It would make sense to not warn us from their perspective. They were dealing with a German invasion, Operation Barbarosa, and were urging a second front in western Europe fo take pressure off of them.