Posted on 12/06/2004 4:39:56 AM PST by bd476
| A popular poster designed by Allen Sandburg in 1942 to commemorate the attack on Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. Tuesday will be the 63rd anniversary of the Japanese attack that killed approximately 2,400 Americans and led the United States into World War II. |
"Some world-shaking events stay forever in your mind. You can remember what you were doing when you first heard the news — like 9/11, for example, or the day Kennedy was shot. Or the circumstances in your life when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941, known forever as “a date which will live in infamy.”
That morning Japanese planes appeared without warning over the U.S. Naval and air installations at Pearl Harbor and other points in the Hawaiian Islands and within the space of two hours delivered an aerial bombardment that literally crippled our Pacific fleet.
The United States had annexed the islands in 1898, and in 1911 completed the improvement of Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu for a Naval base, dredging a wide channel from the sea across the sand bar and coral reef at the mouth of the inlet and constructing piers and other installations to make the facility available to the largest Naval vessels of the time.
In the fall of 1941 war was raging in Europe while peace in the Pacific was tenuous as the Japanese military continued a war with China that had dragged on since 1937. Japan badly needed oil and other raw materials and was scheming to continue its southward expansion to seize these necessities. Some 18 months earlier this threat of Japanese aggression had caused Franklin D. Roosevelt to transfer the United States fleet to Pearl Harbor, while negotiations between diplomats of the two nations continued for months.
The United States made a series of proposals to stabilize the situation, but in late November Japan signed a five-year extension of a pact with Germany and Italy. Meanwhile reports of heavy Japanese troop concentration in Indochina led President Roosevelt to ask the Japanese government for the reasons for those troop movements. But all negotiations were fruitless. Early on Sunday morning, Dec. 7, as Japanese diplomats waited to exchange polite talk with Secretary of Sate Cordell Hull in Washington, D.C., bombs were already falling on Pearl Harbor.
Much of the U.S. Pacific fleet was at anchor or in dry dock at Pearl Harbor. Officials believed that an attack would come in the Indies and the Philippines, but never anticipated trouble in Hawaii. But the Japanese sneak attack on this out-of-the way spot was led by carrier-based airplanes and by submarines. Nearby military and Naval airfields were also attacked. Eight American battleships and ten other Naval vessels were sunk or badly damaged. Almost 200 American aircraft were destroyed with approximately 2,400 Americans killed. The attack marked Japan's entrance into the war on the side of Germany and Italy.
On that long ago December Sunday my husband and I were living in an apartment on Godfrey Street in Mystic. Sunday afternoons for us were sacred to great music, the broadcast of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra from Carnegie Hall. This was well before the days of television — this was a radio broadcast. A large cabinet radio with an impressive speaker stood in one corner of our living room and every week we listened to the program, with the dulcet tones of the announcer explaining the selections, followed by the mellow sound of the orchestra. Until that day it was a serene and peaceful scene.
But on Dec. 7, 1941 the strains of music were interrupted with the announcement that the Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor and in that instant our lives changed forever. The planes hit just before 8 a.m., Hawaiian time, part of the greatest aerial striking force ever seen in the Pacific. As reports of the damage trickled in, we were stunned and angry. War seemed imminent, and we wondered what the future would bring. Whenever I think of Pearl Harbor, I think of the interrupted concert and the end of an era.
The next day President Roosevelt appeared before Congress and in a memorable address called for a declaration of war against Japan. Always a wizard with words, he referred to the “unprovoked and dastardly attack” and also coined the “date of infamy” phrase. On Dec. 11 congress formally declared war against Germany and Italy and the country was embarked on war against the Axis powers. Almost immediately the blackouts began along the coast and my husband became an Air Raid Warden. The long years of World War II and rationing were at hand. Philharmonic concerts were forgotten as we listened to the dismaying news of Japanese conquest in the Pacific. For a time morale was low as the unprepared nation swung into wartime mode. It was only later that we learned that William Seely, a Groton lad, was one of the casualties of the day. And only recently I found out that my friend Charlie Rippel was involved in the action at Pearl.
But the memory of our losses at Pearl Harbor and the indignation and horror of that day bolstered America's determination to fight on. We sang the popular song “Remember Pearl Harbor” and displayed posters of a tattered flag shining above the ruins. Eventually, after long dark years of worry, the indomitable spirit of America prevailed and the Axis powers were defeated..."
I believe this headline ranks as the greatest understatement of all time.
The daring, successful attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 came as a surprise to most Americans. We learned how crafty, intelligent and brutal our ememy was to be. We learned later and after the war that 75% of allied prisoners of war held by the Japanese never came home. On the other side of the world, 91% of allied prisoners held by the Germans returned home. The Japanese, like today's Arab, Muslim terrorists took no prisoners, and those they did take, they tortured or killed shortly thereafter.
The 911 attacks were preceded by many attacks on USA interest and citizens. Many were deadly to both American and foreign citizens. We have in these United States millions of American citizens including a major political party (Democrat "traitor" Party) that thinks 911 never occurred. And...a good number reside in the very areas that the 911 attacks happened. The lesson of the Pearl Harbor attack should never be lost. Had Japan invaded the United States, there would have occurred the same mass slaughter and rape that occurrred in China and Korea, etc. Be warned Americans, we are at war. This time we are at a disadvantage, because we are not united as a people or a country. You folks have no idea what is to come if we don't see the world for what it really is!!! The enemy has powerful allies among us right here in the United States of America. Wake up!!!
Agreed, and I think the understatement as used by the author was effective in grabbing the attention of those familiar with American History. Maybe I'm just too cynical, though. :)
complacency is the unlocked gate to terrorism...Pearl Harbor and 9-11 are examples, we will always be attack targets. We are envied and dispised by many people in this world. We must remain vigilant through a strong defense.
Are they talking about the attack or that god-awful movie?
Never speak of it.
From the September 24, 1945 issue of LIFE Magazine, “Pearl Harbor” by John Chamberlain, on page 112, is:
“... In the State Department White Paper the maneuver to get Konoye and Roosevelt together is more or less dismissed as a Japanese trick to gain a breathing spell. If the State Department’s attitude is based on evidence, then Roosevelt and Hull were not necessarily remiss in failing to meet with Konoye. But if we could have used the meeting with Konoye as a springboard to attain our aim in the Orient peacefully, then the “isolationists” charge that Roosevelt “trapped” Japan into provoking us to war is a grim one. For if we could have won peacefully in the Orient, then we might have been able to bring about the collapse of Hitler in Europe without the loss of a single American solider merely by supplying Stalin and Churchill with the tools to finish the job. Whether or not it is honorable to fight with other peoples’ lives is quite another question.
In any case, after the collapse of the Konoye cabinet the issue of war with Japan became one of “when” and “under what conditions.” General Marshall and Admiral Stark, in charge of Army and Navy respectively, wanted to play for time; they told the President that they were not ready with the physical means to back up any ultimatum or quasi-ultimatum to the Japanese. The Pacific fleet had already been unbalanced to provide convoy, patrol and scouting services to the Atlantic, and manufacturing for Lend-Lease purposes had precluded adequate preparations for the defense of the Philippines, Guam, Wake, and Hawaii. In Hawaii there were insufficient antiaircraft, and the Navy at Pearl Harbor lacked the requisite number of long-range reconnaissance bombers to provide a 360-degree watch..."
Further, on page 120, are found the five-point Japanese "offer" of November 20, 1941, and the United States ten-point "ultimatum" of November 27, 1941 (which Grew characterized as "touched the button" which started the war).
I'd be surprised if it didn't show up in Best of the Web's "You don't say" feature.
Actually the Japanese would of had to deal with millions of millita immmeditly rising up.
yes, any invasion force on US would lose heavy casualties...
You are absolutely right. The Japanese forces would have faced stiff resistance for many years because the country was united in total. That is not the case today. The majority of the "traitor" Democrat Party sides with the enemy and would aid and abet them. Of course, in return, the terrorists would immediately, murder all Jews, Women (after raping and abusing them), Gays, Lesbians, Blacks, Christians, etc., with Democrats at the head of the class. Those Jews like Al Franken, Harvey Weinstein, Barbara Streisand, etc. would be beheaded the first day. It always has amazed me as to how these people can support the Democrat "treason" Party whose very policies will get them killed.
Have to factor in the Democrat party compsition.
Leaders
Dependants
Legacy
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