Salute to those, living and dead, from Pearl

[ishmael]

Sixtyfive years. My my.

I was born fifteen years hence, yet that moment in history still forms me. Dad wouldn't have been dad without it, and I might well not exist.

In anycase, my thanks to those who were there, and who fought and died there and afterward. Lest we forget.

[geeman]

It should be always be part of our education to make SURE we dont forget.Especially the kids ,especially the kids,,

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

A day that will live in infamy.

We will remember...

[geeman]

I think it was the History channel today I caught a piece of a conversation from a Japanese war vet at Pearl.I think I heard him say that " he didnt know why the USA started the war,"and so on,,,,. Any body else catch that during the day today?

[Paul Pless]

Dad wouldn't have been dad without it

Mine too. In many ways it defined an entire generation of Americans.

[BrianW]

The family and I visited the USS Arizona Memorial a few years back. Quite humbling...

http://www.nps.gov/usar

[paladin]

My dad and an uncle were assigned to one of the army air corp bases as machine gunners....he was released from service in 1943 and stayed to work for Marineship at Sausalito.....I can remember being in the car crossing the Golden Gate bridge and the Oakland bay bridge having to stop and go black out because the japs were shelling the coastline.....and later uncle Carl and Uncle Ed were sent to oregon because the japs were starting forest fires there.

[geeman]

Thats something the public didnt know for years as far as I know Paladin,That the west coast was shelled during the war.Probably didnt want to alarm and scare the country with the truth at the time.Same thing was going on on the east coast too Germans, takin pot shots at land based buildings etc.Especially North Carolina. At least one German sub got up the James River and took pictures of the Navy yard in Norfolk and Newport News shipbuilding In VA.Not to mention the ship sinkings within sight of the beaches ,the public was watching the Germans sink ships frequently.

[ishmael]

Well, since it's drifting.

There was some limited shelling on both coasts. The carnage of the German U boats right off the Atlantic coast at the beginning of the war was different. They hit us hard in the home waters.

The fires Chuck speaks of in the PNW were from a Japanese weapon not heard of much. They put incendiaries in baloons and floated them across the Pacific. It was, as with all the attacks on the mainland US, a rather inconsequential effort, but a few people actually died, and a few fires were started.

As to the causes of the war. We stuck it to an agressive, imperialistic Japan that had been on the Asian mainland for a number of years doing bad things when we cut off their oil. If the attack at Pearl had been pressed and they'd hit the oil tank farms, and especially if they'd caught our aircraft carriers by suprise, it might have turned very differently. Turns out the capital ships hit weren't as important as some believed. As it was, Yamamoto, according to his diaries, knew after Pearl that is was just a matter of time. "We have awakened a sleeping Giant."

The simple weight of our industrial might at that time made it inevitable. The turning at Midway made it shorter than it otherwise would have been, but it was inevitable.

God bless all who were there.

[geeman]

I dont think the Japs were really trying to "win" the war, more like they were trying to wear us down so we'd "sue" for peace.But your Right Jack, we let the thread drift a bit.

[ishmael]

I dont think the Japs were really trying to "win" the war, more like they were trying to wear us down so we'd "sue" for peace.But your Right Jack, we let the thread drift a bit.


I think that's right, from what I've read. There was never any notion of taking and holding US terrritory. They just wanted a free hand in Asia and SE Asia. It did destroy the colonial European empires, for better or worse. All in all, I think if you ask people who lived through the Japanese occupation in those countries they'd vote for the Europeans hands down. The Japanese at that time were arrogant, brutal, ugly.

[Meerkat]

You were born 15 yers hence eh? That would mean you were born 15 years after you were born. What a feat! :D

If you're going to use rediculously affected speechisms, please at least use them correctlly. There's a good chap. You may fondle the cat now. :D

[ishmael]

"Hence" is perfectly good usage, meaning from that time. Look it up.

If you're going to critique usage, try to get it right.

[geeman]

The Japanese WERE arrogant,brutal,and ugly.Because they had isolated themselves from the rest of the world for centuries.They did that themselves.It was ingrained in them from an early age that THEY were the master race.That has been proved out in the activities they engaged in during the war, in the islands they occupied.
This is a perfect case of them not understanding us and not wanting too.WW2 was won because we simply beat them down,there was no other way.They attacked while the peace talks were in progress.Their hope was to hang on until we got tired of fighting,thats all they were hoping for, they knew ,at least the brightest knew they could never beat us. What they were hoping for ( wearing us down) is what we are now.They were just 60 some years early in that type of conflict.
The Japanese attacked a base of ours in 1941,the Islands were not even a state then.
We have been attacked on American soil several times since and we no longer have the gonads to simply go all out and get it done.You either fight a war or you go home and sulk and lick your wounds.Right now we're not doing either.
Before the show starts I must tell you that my use of the word "WE" was intended for ALL the ALLIES in that war.So dont get the idea I am saying only the US won the war.