“A Date Which Will Live in Infamy” — December 7, 1941
On this day 78 years ago….
Today, 78 years later, it remains important to remember what took place at Pearl Harbor, and to honor those soldiers, sailors, marines (and civilians) who lost their lives in the surprise attack. The tragic memory of Pearl Harbor reminds us that our nation should never be lulled into complacency. The world remains a dangerous place. The nation must remain alert to all dangers, and be prepared to respond to all threats, both known and unknown. As Wendell Phillips said famously: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”
Thoughts on Pearl Harbor, by Dennis Santiago
When I think of December 7th, I remember it is the day my elders began the most difficult four years of their lives. I have seen in their eyes the fear, anger and resolve that come from experiencing what it was like to survive in territory occupied by the Empire of the Rising Sun. My mother had never heard of Pearl Harbor. For her, World War II began on the same day seeing the Japanese bomb a U.S. naval installation called Cubi Point, at the entrance to Manila Bay in the Philippine Islands.My maternal grandfather never spoke of what horrors he had seen on the Bataan Death March or his years in the prison camps. When I look at my father, I think of my other grandfather’s memories of his son — my father — hanging off the side of a Japanese patrol boat in Subic Bay with an Arisaka pointed at him, forced to give up the catch needed to feed his family….
Time has passed but the poignancy has not faded. Each December 7th, I’m thankful my elders survived because I would not be here to muse about it, had they not. The echoes of their ordeal drive me deeply to make sure that such a thing will never happen again. Whether called the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere or some other name made up by the contemporaries of my day, the evil that lurks underneath those who believe their ideas justify the horrors they impose must always be confronted and defeated.
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Tags: Date Infamy, December 7th, Pearl Harbor, Pearl Harbor Attack, WWII
Even if the Japanese hade sunk everything at Pearl Harbour including the aircraft carriers, we now know they could never have made enough ships to win the war and their fate was sealed – eventually.
Nobody knew that at the time of course and it was a desperate fight for the next 18 months in the Pacific.
The British handed over the “Oslo Papers” to the US the day after Pearl Harbour. They consisted of virtually all the secret weapons the Nazis were working on at the time, including the advanced radar the British had developed at the time.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but the allies did not realise at the time how good a position they actually were in at the time. The Germans and the Japanese were grossly overconfidant and it cost them dearly.