I REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR

PEARL HARBOR: I REMEMBER THAT DAY

“History is the sum total of things that could have been avoided.” (Konrad Adenauer)

December 7th ring a bell for anyone? It should, even if you’re less than 67. Sixty seven years ago today, America suffered the worst attack in its history until that dubious distinction was supplanted by the devastation of September 11th, 2001.

I was still in my mother’s womb on December 7th, 1941, yet I remember it well.

I remember that day because of the immense damage caused to our Pacific Fleet by a long-planned and well-executed sneak attack by the Japanese navy, executed coincidentally as Japanese representatives were gathered in Washington for peace talks, executed by a huge, undetected Japanese task force including six aircraft carriers.

I remember that day because of the immensity of the operation, five midget submarines and some 360 planes which began hitting Pearl just before 8 a m on a quiet Sunday morning, an assault in three waves that continued for two hours, resulting in 2,403 Navy, Army, and Marine, and civilian KIAs, wounding an additional 1282 personnel, and damaging or destroying eight battleships, three cruisers, three destroyers, a minelayer, almost 200 aircraft and numerous ground facilities.

I remember that day because of FDR’s speech before Congress asking for a declaration of war when he called December 7th, 1941, “the day that shall live in infamy” in our nation’s history, his speech serving to mobilize and motivate Americans to come together to defeat the Axis powers, which we succeeded in doing within less than four years.

I remember that day because of the controversy which still lingers: What did FDR know and when did he know it? Had he ordered the Pacific Fleet to gather at Pearl Harbor in a defensive maneuver or was that order intended to provide an inviting target for the Japanese, begging an attack to spark outrage in the citizenry and easing our entry into the Second World War?

I remember that day on the 7th of every December as well as on the 11th of every September when other sneak attacks effected an even greater loss of life and wrought far more damage not in a faraway place but on the mainland in New York City, Washington, D.C., and in a field in Pennsylvania.

I remember that day because it should always be remembered, as the events of 9/11/2001 should always be remembered. When we forget such momentous and terrible events or when we simply do not want to recall them, we expose ourselves and our nation to repeated attacks.

“Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum,” (If you want peace, prepare for war), wrote Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus some sixteen hundred years ago and they are still words to live by in 2008. We were not prepared in 1941 and we were not prepared in 2001 and the results were catastrophic.

The more relevant questions are whether we are prepared in 2008 and have we learned anything from history.

(http://genelalor.com/)