Lest we Forget... December 7, 1941

Action America ^ | 12/7/02 | John Gaver

[Action-America]

Lest we Forget...
December 7, 1941
A day that will live in infamy...

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USS West Virginia in fire in Pearl Harbor

Shortly before 8 AM on December 7, 1941, the Japanese Navy, employing the largest naval attack force ever assembled, launched an unprovoked, sneak attack on the US Pacific Fleet, that lay at rest at Pearl Harbor and on surrounding military bases.  Within short order, 5 of the 8 battleships docked on "Battleship Row" were either sunk or sinking and the rest were severely damaged.  Several other smaller ships and most of Hawaii's combat aircraft were damaged or destroyed, as well.  By the time it was over, 2,403 Americans had been killed in that cowardly attack and another 1,178 wounded.

Every year at this time, Action America takes this opportunity to honor those brave American service men and women and the civilians who died or were wounded at Pearl Harbor.  But this year, their sacrifice is particularly poignant, since we are living in a time that is not all that different from late 1941.  It should be clear that the best thing that we can do to honor the heroes of Pearl Harbor, is to insure that our government never allows such a sneak attack to be perpetrated on us or our military again.  Make no mistake, it was not a failure of the military that led to the attack on Pearl Harbor.  It was the pride of our own leaders and we just may be heading in the same direction today.

USS Arizona Magazine Explodes

Even though the Japanese used such cowardly methods, there was no excuse for our government to have allowed our military to have been so blind-sided.  First, the Japanese aggression was clearly visible in the war that they had been waging in Indochina since 1937.  We know that the government was concerned about this, since Roosevelt moved the US Pacific Fleet to Pearl Harbor 18 months prior to the attack, specifically as a warning to the Japanese.  Furthermore, the Western powers had halted all trade with Japan five months prior to the attack, which starved the Japanese of the oil and minerals that they needed to continue their war in China.  From then on, as the desperate Japanese schemed to seize the oil and mineral-rich East Indies and Southeast Asia, it became more and more obvious that a Pacific war was virtually inevitable.

For months, prior to the attack, the Japanese had been playing a diplomatic cat and mouse delay game, while they prepared for war, much as we see Iraq doing today.  They knew and we knew that they could not possibly win, just as Araq does today.  And on top of all that, our government was aware that historically, Japan could not be trusted, since modern Japan had never preceded an act of war with any type of formal declaration of war or other diplomatic formalities.  We knew that their leaders were unscrupulous and the people fanatically religious, just as we know that the Iraqi leadership is unscrupulous and the people are fanatically religious.  We knew that they would attack sooner or later, just as we know that either directly or indirectly, through terrorists, Sadam will attack the US and US interests around the world.  It was a given, then, just as it is today.

But then, as now, our leaders were too concerned with politics and looking good, to take the preemptive action necessary to protect us and our military forces.  Roosevelt didn't want to be seen as starting the war with Japan, even though he knew that it could not be avoided.  He wanted the Japanese to strike first.

They did.

2403 Americans died so Roosevelt could look good.

Pearl Harbor Casualties

	Dead	Wounded
Navy	2008	710
Marine	109	69
Army	218	364
Civilian	68	35
Total	2,043	1,178

Note:  Although some sites would enumerate at this point, the casualties sustained by the Japanese, in the attack on Pearl Harbor, we at Action America believe that to enumerate the casualties of such cowards on the same page where we pay homage to our heroes, would be to dishonor the memory of those heroes and victims, who died so needlessly.  Like the attacks on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon, the raid on Pearl Harbor was an act of cowardice, and those responsible do not deserve to be remembered or even counted.

Let us hope that we do not have to face a similar death toll, so Dubya can look good.  He doesn't need the blessing of the UN or any individual nations.  Iraq is a threat to us and if left to their own devices, will eventually attack us, either directly or indirectly, through terrorist surrogates.  We not only have the right, but the duty to defend ourselves.  Sure, like Japan, in 1941, they wouldn't stand a chance.  But, like Japan, they could cause us severe harm for a short time.

Today, as we honor those heroes who died at Pearl Harbor, we need to consider that the greatest dishonor to their memory, would be to know that an enemy was poised to attack us and let it happen again.  We know that Sadam has the weapons and is willing to use them.  Even as the weapons inspectors are playing their little games in one part of Iraq, he may well be moving weapons of mass destruction into the hands of terrorists in another part of the country.  In fact, he would be much more likely to want to give a large portion of those weapons to terrorists than risk them being discovered and destroyed by the inspectors, so the inspections are likely to speed up that process.

It's time for Bush to forget about "looking good" or worrying about what the United Nations will think and take the preemptive steps necessary to protect the United States from an attack that will most certainly come, should we wait too long, as we did in 1941.  We don't need any outside approval, especially from the the debating society that the UN has now become.

Let us honor those heroes who died at Pearl Harbor.  It's time to protect ourselves.

It's time for a first strike.

 

[Action-America]

That about says it all.

(Note: This article has been up on Action America all day. I'm sorry that it took me so long to post it here.)

[Nitro]

USS Arizona!!

[TPartyType]

bump and a ping for harpo!

[gorio]

Lest we forget World War II and our Japanese adversaries!






Gorio

[petuniasevan]

Although some sites would enumerate at this point, the casualties sustained by the Japanese, in the attack on Pearl Harbor

Why do any sites bother? Just confuses the Japanese, who are taught a COMPLETELY whitewashed version of their role in WWII.

Believe it or not, most of them believe that they went to war because the Allies were blockading their access to oil just to be mean. NO mention is made of their planned Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere or their occupation, rape, and pillage of Manchuria (China) or Korea.

[Action-America]

Dec. 7th Heads Up!

[SAMWolf]

Bump

[Jen]

Great thread. Thanks for the ping.

[MistyCA]

Thanks for the ping.

[Spyder]

My husband and some other active duty folk from our church went down and presented a wreath at the ceremony this morning. It's hard to describe how moving it is, particularly when one of the other friends who was along was 7 or 8 and living very near Pearl when the attack hit. He's Japanese, Buddhist - says their family was told by the Buddhist priest not to come to temple on the 7th. He saw the planes fly overhead, thought at first it was an exercise.

Here's a photo of the group and their wreath. The guy in the center is the minister, not a veteran.

[Action-America]

Just confuses the Japanese, who are taught a COMPLETELY whitewashed version of their role in WWII.

So very true.  A business acquaintance of mine is married to a Japanese woman and she once told me that she was shocked and at first, did not believe what she learned when she first moved to the US in the late 50's.  She said that she only began to accept the truth about WWII, nearly five years later, after she did a lot of her own research, including reading at least 10 history books from various sources, including Europe and Australia (she initially thought that US history books were the ones that were biased).  The last time that I saw her, several years ago, she told me that her younger brother, who still lives in Japan, thinks that she has been brainwashed by the Americans and still believes the Japanese cleansed version.

Indeed, from what I can tell, most Japanese are still taught today, that they entered WWII because Americans were blockading them for no reason.

Note:  I don't want anyone to think that I have no respect for the Japanese military men who prosecuted the rest of the war.  Some of them exhibited extreme bravery.  I just have no respect for the type of cowards who perpetrated the attack on Pearl Harbor.

 

[Action-America]

There is one point that was not made in the above post, that I find very interesting.

In just barely under six months after Pearl Harbor, the US Navy trounced the Japanese Navy at Midway, in what was the turning point in the whole Pacific war.  There was still a lot of battles to be fought, but from that point on, the Japanese were, for all intents and purposes, on the defense.

Think about it...

From Pearl Harbor to turn around in ONLY 6 MONTHS.

 

[Democratshavenobrains]

We truly were a multicultural nation. People of all races, creeds, and colors could decapitate Japs lol.

[MistyCA]

So true! Thanks for that observation!

[johnny7]

... the US Navy trounced the Japanese Navy at Midway,

We were lucky kid... the Jap navy kicked our ass most of the time.

One flight commander, McCluskey, found 3 carriers and pay-dirt off Midway.

Think about this... we lost 2000 on Tarawa, 5000 on Iwo and 10,000 on Okinawa.

You have a comic book view of history.

[Action-America]

Think about this... we lost 2000 on Tarawa, 5000 on Iwo and 10,000 on Okinawa. You have a comic book view of history.

My point was that, although there were many battles yet to be fought after Midway, from that point on the Japanese were essentially fighting to either hold on to what they had or retreating.  The reason that we lost so many men in ground battles was that the average Japanese (citizen and soldier) had been tought that we would torture them, if they were captured.  The Japanese soldiers did not see surrender as an option.  In Okinawa, thousands of women jumped off of the cliffs with their children, for fear of being captured alive.

We lost a lot of men to acts of desperation, on the part of the Japanese, both on the battle field and on the seas.  After all, it wasn't the towel heads who invented the idea of flying a plane into a stationary structure on a suicide mission.

When an enemy is losing and doesn't see surrender as an option, the desperation that follows can usually cause a lot of damage and death on both sides.  But, unless the other side makes a big mistake, those acts of desperation generally leave the enemy in even worse shape.  Even so, they can still cause a lot of damage in those acts of desperation.

Documents from that time show that many in the Japanese government and military we not entirely convinced, going into the war, that they could win.   But, they did believe that they could put up a good fight.

There is a big difference between winning and putting up a good fight.  After Midway, the Japaneese put up a good fight, but they were not winning.

 

[radu]

Thanx for the ping! Excellent thread.

As much as I hate it, I'm honestly afraid it's going to take another large attack on this country before anything really happens. I hope not but that's how things are looking. All the pussy-footing around is driving me up the walls.