Remembrance of the "Day that shall live in Infamy"

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Jun 11, 2002
Messages
3,351
Location
Clarksville, Tennessee
Please take a moment for all those who lived and died through this day of H-eLL.

The 7 December 1941 Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was one of the great defining moments in history. A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion. America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant.

Eighteen months earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had transferred the United States Fleet to Pearl Harbor as a presumed deterrent to Japanese agression. The Japanese military, deeply engaged in the seemingly endless war it had started against China in mid-1937, badly needed oil and other raw materials. Commercial access to these was gradually curtailed as the conquests continued. In July 1941 the Western powers effectively halted trade with Japan. From then on, as the desperate Japanese schemed to seize the oil and mineral-rich East Indies and Southeast Asia, a Pacific war was virtually inevitable.

By late November 1941, with peace negotiations clearly approaching an end, informed U.S. officials (and they were well-informed, they believed, through an ability to read Japan's diplomatic codes) fully expected a Japanese attack into the Indies, Malaya and probably the Philippines. Completely unanticipated was the prospect that Japan would attack east, as well.

The U.S. Fleet's Pearl Harbor base was reachable by an aircraft carrier force, and the Japanese Navy secretly sent one across the Pacific with greater aerial striking power than had ever been seen on the World's oceans. Its planes hit just before 8AM on 7 December. Within a short time five of eight battleships at Pearl Harbor were sunk or sinking, with the rest damaged. Several other ships and most Hawaii-based combat planes were also knocked out and over 2400 Americans were dead. Soon after, Japanese planes eliminated much of the American air force in the Philippines, and a Japanese Army was ashore in Malaya.

These great Japanese successes, achieved without prior diplomatic formalities, shocked and enraged the previously divided American people into a level of purposeful unity hardly seen before or since. For the next five months, until the Battle of the Coral Sea in early May, Japan's far-reaching offensives proceeded untroubled by fruitful opposition. American and Allied morale suffered accordingly. Under normal political circumstances, an accomodation might have been considered.

However, the memory of the "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor fueled a determination to fight on. Once the Battle of Midway in early June 1942 had eliminated much of Japan's striking power, that same memory stoked a relentless war to reverse her conquests and remove her, and her German and Italian allies, as future threats to World peace.
 
Yes a sad day indeed. The priest in the country church where I grew up was at Pearl Harbor on that Sunday morning. He was saying mass at the time the attack started. He would never let anyone forget what happened that day. He organized a Veterans day memorial/Pearl Harbor survivor reunion at this church, which included a flyover reenactment by Japanese "kates" and "zeros" of the bombing. It was always very moving to see veterans in their fifties and sixties cry and cringe, and see the "terror" in their eyes, even with the reenactment. Let us not forget.
 
The day a sleeping Giant arose.
patriot.gif
 
I had 4 great uncles who fought as front line combatants in World War II. It is because of them and many men like them that I'am able to be free in the greatest country on earth. My hat is off to you brave souls. Thank you for a job well done!
 
Great post. What what a document!

I watched a cool Disc. Channel show on Pearl Harbor....with the timing of the events and stuff. Yes we were surprised....but we could have been a little bit prepared. Unfortunately Sept 11 comes to mind.
 
Something just came to mind - can you imagine the difference in public and military morale if the Japanese had declared war say a few hours or a day before attacking? I believe the raid would have worked just the same but the effect would have been devastating to our confidence in being able to defeat Japan. Instead the "sneak attack" fired up the nation. I do remember the mix up with the "ultimatum" that was to be given to the US, but as things turned out it appears a blatant declaration of war would have changed little of the war preparations. I am not aware if the fleet had orders to sail in case of an actual declaration of war.

I do have some 1941 LIFE magazines describing the preparations for possible invasion in Singapore and they describe the RAF fighters (Brewster Buffaloes - dumpy, slow, garbage) as being able to take on anything the Japanese had! They soon found out otherwise.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top