Pearl Harbor Day
Today is the sixty-eighth anniversary of the December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attack. The generation that reacted to it by mobilizing and fighting World War II is on its last legs. But they were the ones we still call “the Greatest.”
I was reminded of this while watching one of those Oliver North “War Stories” TV shows, about Pearl Harbor. It featured some of the elderly participants reminiscing about that long ago day. Before each one spoke, there was a photograph of him back in 1941: young, vibrant, handsome, full of life. Now they were ancient, and most only vaguely resembled their former selves. But they still transmitted great moral strength and a kind of Gary-Cooperesque stoicism and understated bravery as they told their stories.
A couple of facts: it’s become fashionable to believe that FDR knew about the attack in advance and let it happen anyway. But those 12/7-truthers are almost undoubtedly wrong. Roosevelt wanted to get us into the war, and he knew a Japanese attack was coming at some point, and informed his generals to that effect, but he knew none of the particulars in advance.
It’s odd how this idea of a government in cahoots with the enemy, willing to let innocent Americans die, keeps coming up again and again. A certain not insignificant segment of the population appears to favor such conspiracy theories, probably because we don’t like feeling vulnerable to sudden attack. We’d rather think Daddy in the White House could have stopped it but chose not to—that makes him powerful but amoral, rather than powerless to protect us.
Here’s a post I published last year on Pearl Harbor Day. It focuses on FDR’s famous speech afterward, and the will and resolve he amply demonstrated. Will and resolve in war remain extremely relevant these days, in Afghanistan (at least Obama hasn’t made any references yet today to “the bomb that fell on Pearl Harbor,” his gaffe from July, 2008).
Here is just a little bit of Roosevelt’s post-Pearl Harbor speech, in case we need reminding of what American resolve used to sound like:
”¦No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.
Here’s the speech itself:
[NOTE: The memorable phrase that began FDR’s address, “a date which will live in infamy,” wasn’t in Roosevelt’s earlier draft. It reads “a date which will live in world history.” That sounds like a high school essay; Roosevelt crossed out “world history” and added “infamy” in his own hand. A wise choice.]
Comparisons are often made with 9/11 but before Pearl Harbor, the feeling that the US would eventually and should intervene in the building world war was growing. Although there was an isolationist element, the MSM of the time did not whitewash the German and Japanese atrocities or menace. One can see the generational differences between then and now. The sneak attack on pearl was the last straw for most americans. It was dishonest and made a mockery of all the attempts by FDR to be an honest broker.
Today even if you credit Obama with the best of intentions, his attempts to be an honest broker are failing rapidly but the public response is muted at best.
Google doenst care.. as usual.
wait… so sorry… i have to qualify who cares to stay out of trouble… i will endeavor to make a list when i say – no one cares…
I was eight years old on 12/7/1941 and it lives in my memory. I remember well huddling around the family radio listening to the details of the attack as they became available. I also remember everyone in our family listening to Roosevelt’s speech the next day.
I had two brothers and we could see how queitly determined and serious our parents and grand parents were. We all slept the same room in bunk beds. We lay awake several nights talking about what it all meant. It was hard for us to grasp that our world was going to change in numerous ways. Indeed, it did. In the next five years our parents divorced, the result of our father following work on defense construction jobs. He essentially left in February of 1942 and never came home. He eventually settled in a city where he worked on building a steel plant. As a result, we had little or no contact with him and we grew up in a single parent home. We met and admired young pilots who were training to fly the B-29s that flew the raids against Japan at the end of the war. They came to the small mountain community where we lived for R&R. What they were doing and did seemed remote, dangerous, and glamorous all at once.
We knew if the war lasted beyond 1946 my older brother and then I would have to go into the service. As the war went on, it became a fact of life that we accepted. And, even though the war ended in 1946, we both ended up going into the military as the result of Korea.
It seemed everyone was involved in the war effort. We participated in scrap metal drives, paper drives, bacon grease drives, and saved balls of tinfoil. Women and young girls knitted socks and sweaters for our soldiers. There was rationing of meat, eggs, gasoline, tires, and more. There was a general feeling that all must do their part. Oh yes, there was some grumbling and complaining but nothing anti-American or anti-war. I also remember my grandfather did not like Roosevelt, but he never said anything personal or mean like the kinds of things we hear said about the Presidents today.
The war was not going well for us in the early years. I remember asking my grandfather if we were going to win. I’ve never forgotten what he said, “Yes we’re going to win. Our boys don’t have all the planes, ships, tanks, and artillery they need now. But we’re building them and when our boys get the tools to do the job they will win. They will win because they know what they’re fighting for – freedom! And because they know how to think and lead. If a Lt. goes down, the sergeant will step up and take his place. If the sergeant goes down, the corporal will step up and take his place. And so on down the line. Those German and Japanese soldiers are not taught to think for themselves. When their leaders go down, they are not allowed to step up and take command. It will make all the difference.” I hoped beyond hope that he was right about our boys and their abilities. He was.
This day always triggers many memories, and will to the end.
Thanks for sharing those memories, JJ. I hope the end is a long way off.
fmt, So do I. :>) JJ.
One of my dad’s high school friends is still aboard the Arizona…
Once I asked my dad what his reaction was when he heard the news of the attack (he was in front of his garage, working on his car when the newsflash came on the radio). He refused to tell me – it must have been pretty personal. He’s gone, now, so we’ll never know…
I do know that he went to the Navy recruiter on Dec. 8, and was back out on the street five minutes after one of the doctors asked him to take off his glasses and read the chart…then, in 1943, the Army drafted him and put him on a boat. The glasses got just as wet as they would have in the Navy…
We’d rather think Daddy in the White House could have stopped it but chose not to–that makes him powerful but amoral, rather than powerless to protect us.
Nailed it. Similarly, many of the peaceniks consider the US to be invulnerable. As I grew up with many refugees from Nazism and Communism, I realized we are all vulnerable. Good fortune can change in a heartbeat, even for Americans.
Back to Pearl Harbor. I didn’t find out until after my mother’s death, that she had a boyfriend who went down with the Arizona. Our aunt told us, even the special nickname. I think we discovered a letter in a scrapbook that our grandmother saved. One of the secrets that went down with the ship, I guess- at least as regards our mother not telling us anything.
Interesting that I am not the only poster who has a connection with someone who went down with the Arizona.
With the theme of secrets and ships going down, here are two videos that reflect that time. Here is a WW2 cartoon that warns that Loose Lips Sink Ships. Or at least some of the headers talks about loose lips. Whatever.
Here is a Portuguese group interpreting Duke Ellington’s A Slip of the Lip Can Sink a Ship. YouTube does not have the Ellington version, but as I post this I am listening to an Ellington CD that contains the original A Slip of the Lip Can Sink a Ship.
My dad was a gunner’s mate aboard the carrier U.S.S. Lexington. That ship left port a few days before the attack in order to ferry a squadron of scout planes to Midway Island. He always said that he saw Pearl Harbor a week before and a week after the attack.
It’s a hell of the time of year to have uncharitable thoughts–of course, I’m Jewish–but I wonder with some ideologues on both sides of the spectrum if the reason they can accept the idea of the government deliberately allowing Americans to be killed in order to achieve a policy end is because it’s the sort of thing they themselves might well do.
Rightists with Roosevelt and it is interesting that those on the left who insinuated–or flat out made the accusation–that Bush either knew about the impending attcks or fomented them, were not read out of legitimate political discourse on the left.
As your mom told you, you can’t choose your family but you can choose your friends. The left has chosen some odd ones of late.
You might be interested in my account of Pearl Harbor day as I saw it at the age of seven. Go to:
http://pianofritz2.blogspot.com/2009/12/pearl-harbor-december-7-1941.html
Fritz Owens
Professional pianist, composer, photographer, teacher and keyboard recording artist for over 40 years in New Orleans – until Katrina.
347 Royalwood Dr.
Zirconia, NC 28790
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