Posted on 12/08/2009 3:59:54 AM PST by marktwain
Sixty-eight years ago today, Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941 – a date that will live in infamy – the United States was attacked by the Japanese Imperial Navy at Pearl Harbor, at the cost of more than 2,000 lives. My father, who never talked about the war because he was in it, did tell me this once: When he heard about Pearl Harbor “I couldn’t get my hands on a gun fast enough.” It was a different time then in America. It was not unusual to find a Model 94 Winchester or even a bolt-action 1903 Springfield in the average household, especially across the West. There is no polite or diplomatic way to say this: What happened that morning so many decades ago grabbed “the greatest generation” of America by the jugular and really pissed them off. Here was a generation of Americans who had endured the Great Depression as children and still understood that uniquely American “Code of the West.” This was a generation grown up on the imaginary exploits of William S. Hart, Tim McCoy, a new kid named John Wayne, and even the likes of film gangsters George Raft, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart, all of whom reminded us visually that when someone hits you with a fist, you hit him back with a chair just as hard as you can. There has been considerable debate as to why the
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And then there is the unverifiable story that certain Japanese military leaders wanted no truck with a mainland invasion because – and this has been attributed to different people including Admiral Yamamoto – they knew, or at least feared, that there would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Invading Hawaii was impossible because of the supply line. There were still 3 carriers out there not to mention the Atlantic USN fleet. They had to take Midway on order to clear the lanes for Hawaii
Don’t forget however, that the “Greatest” generation largely gave us the “Baby Boomer” generation.
You know, the spoiled brats in charge?
The main reason that there was never an invasion was because as is said in the article. The Japanese were never interested in conquering America for many reasons. It is curious why they never attempted an invasion of Hawaii. It would not have been very difficult but most likely they never expected the level of success they achieved. In actuality, because the carriers were out to sea, they did not achieve as great a victory as it seems to be at first.
Pearl Harbor was the final nail in the coffin of the age of the battleship and we quickly moved into the age of the Aircraft carrier as the dominant naval ship. Where the Japanese hit next shows what they were interested in. To cripple the American fleet so that they could invade Malasia, Phillipines, Thailand et al without reprisal from us. The Japanese’s goal was to control all of Southeast Asia. To colonize them so these countries could feed the Japanese empire their goods (oil, rubber, etc...)
Yes, and the generation XYZ’ers in the 18-30 year olds that put them in charge! Obama’s biggest non racial demographic.
I’m one of them (Gen X).
Actually, the largest (non-racial) demographic was the Jewish Vote who went for Obama 72% (heard on Michael Medved radio show yesterday).
18-30 year olds were only 64% for Obama.
I agree with you. In the case of invading Hawaii I don’t think citizen arms figured much in Japanese calculations. They would have been way over-exposed and over-extended so far from their East Asia center.
I don’t think the Japanese ever had any goal other than knocking out the USN in the Pacific and thus (in their fractured thinking) keeping us out of the war.
The Pearl Harbor attack was a very stupid move on their part and I think I remember reading (I’m no student of the era, just a casual reader) that Hitler tried to dissuade them from it. Do you know if that’s true?
My son has his great-grandfather's. Works fine.
HITH does that work as an excuse?
I don’t care if I’m 104 years old. The concept, in my opinion, is to pile them up outside your house like cordwood. Lat the vultures do the rest.
It’s not an excuse. It’s a correction.
Actually (to correct myself, according to a Google Search) the Jewish vote was 77-78% (depending on who you ask) for Obama.
There is no excuse for voting for socialism, unless that’s what you want.
Hitler desperately needed Japan in the war to divert forces in the Soviet Union. Japan needed to hit the US before we got the manufacturing base converted to war. That was already beginning in 1941 because of Lend-Lease.
The real scandal happened in the Philippines where the Japanese were able to wipe out our air assets because they were sitting on the ground, hours after Pearl Harbor happened.
Now a question for you.....
How did the “greatest” generation instill their values in their “baby boomer” children, and we get socialism?
If we had lost the battles at Midway and the Coral Sea they might of eventually taken Hawaii and of been able to contemplate the invasion of the United States. I am looking forward to reading the more knowledgeable posters comments about that. The nightmarish logistics of invading the American mainland would be impossible without a secure supply line. They did demonstrate their willingness to seize US territory in the Philippines if the opportunity presented itself. I am not sure if they would of wanted to overextend themselves with a invasion of the entire mainland. My father was in the Navy and fought the Japanese but felt that the Japanese were fighting a desperate defensive battle after 1942.
Half of them got it, half didn’t. Reagan was elected by somebody. Zer0 by others.
Because the march to socialism started before the boomer generation. Read some history.
Japan needed to hit the US before we got the manufacturing base converted to war.Sorry, AppyPappy, I'm not following you on that one.
How does destroying a fleet of Naval vessels in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, shut down or inhibit our manufacturing base in Pittsburg, Detroit, Cleveland, Trenton, Groton, or Richmond (just to name a few)?
The attack had two goals, as I understand it. One was to so cripple our Navy in the Pacific as to basically erase our military presence in the area.
The other was to so intimidate the American people that we would never think of entering the war against Japan.
As it turned out, Japanese thinking was utterly confused on both points.
And I think I remember reading that Hitler had some advance knowledge of the strike and argued against it, because he didn't want the isolationist/interventionist impasse in the US congress to be broken in favor of interventionism.
Yes Hitler wanted Japan to start fighting Russians. But he didn't want the USA to start fighting ANYBODY.
At least that's the way I understand it.
My father was in the Navy and fought the Japanese but felt that the Japanese were fighting a desperate defensive battle after 1942.I believe your father was right. I believe that Pearl Harbor was the biggest blunder in the history of warfare.
Yikes 72%.... wonder what it is now>?
I just wish that many today had the same sense of independence and self-reliance that their (grand-)parents had.
My Grandmother lived through the Depression, and would have much to say about how things have turned wrong.
We have no (collective) sense of history, and don’t heed the lessons. “Fight the Establishment” has now become the Establishment.
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