Remembering Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941
66 years to the day, we look back at one of the worst events in the history of this country . Some of us had relatives that were at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, or maybe they called to serve their country immediately after. Today we look back at the “Greatest Genration” and say thank-you:
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.
The United States Of America fought in her darkest hours with a resolve to never give up. She had but one goal, victory, and in the end, she achieved it. The battles fierce, the days unending, but she never gave up.
46 years ago, John Kennedy spoke these words:
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. 4
This much we pledge”and more.
Those words stand the test of time.
Here’s a new report on the “winds execute” message and what the US did and didn’t know.
We honor all those that serve their country!
Michelle has more
NOT the Government, NOT...
December 7, 2008 - 06:19 PM on December 7th, 2008
[...] Remembering Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941 | Right Voices [...]
December 8, 2008 - 05:20 AM on December 8th, 2008
Enough Already!… Isn’t it about time we “moved on?” Sheeeze.. news reported every year about an event that happened 66 years ago? Give us something new to read about and quit regurgitating the Past!
While we are at it… stop the yearly reports on JFK death, Groundhog day, Elvis’ death, Princess Di’s death and the tons of other worthless stories of Past superstitions and deaths.
Time to live in the Present and prepare for the future! And yes, before the Past Living People jump on me. My father served in War, my father in law served in the War and I served in the USMC in VietNam. This is not about who served, was wounded or died… it is about stopping the insanity of constantly living in the past… we can not make progress in this great country by constantly looking backwards. Time to “get a grip on reality” ~ “move on” and to quote from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow…”let the Dead Past bury the Dead”… Give us some articles with substance… not simply regurgitated news from a generation ago happenings!
December 8, 2008 - 09:57 AM on December 8th, 2008
All the aircraft carriers were out to sea at the time and the carriers were the main reason the japanese bombed PEARL HARBOR just how much did FDR know about it in advance?
December 8, 2008 - 11:53 AM on December 8th, 2008
Howard there are many, many other postings on this site. You can’t locate them?
December 8, 2008 - 02:29 PM on December 8th, 2008
Uh… Robert… What does your comment mean?
Howard
Life Member of USA + NRA +USMC = Semper Fi to all Three.
December 8, 2008 - 02:33 PM on December 8th, 2008
Really Howard, you don’t get what Robert is talking about?
I guess you missed the 10+ topics on the first page alone!
December 8, 2008 - 04:34 PM on December 8th, 2008
Ahhh Pam, now I understand his comment. As long as the reporters create articles about current events, it’s okay to still rehash 66 year old news?
Don’t take my opinion so literally… I was not saying that there was “not” other news reported, only that “enough already” with the annual reports of 66 year old news. Time to move on.
Howard
Life Member of USA + NRA +USMC = Semper Fi to all Three.