Friday, December 07, 2007

66 years ago today...

...Pearl Harbor was attacked, without warning, by the air forces of Imperial Japan...



The United States was unprepared, militarily and politically, to deal with the attack. Opinions differ on how much our leaders knew in advance, how much responsibility they bore, for the events of December 7, 1941 and the subsequent war. Some say we were blindsided by the Japanese, while others say the attack was inevitable given the machinations of Franklin Roosevelt.

Today's "leaders" have learned nothing from the "day that will live in infamy."

I have my own opinions regarding apportioning blame between the politicians and militarists on both sides, but they don't matter. Neither I nor any of the "experts" know, or can ever know, the whole story.

What I do know is that the attack took place, and some 2350 people, mainly sailors, died on that Sunday morning.

Today is a day to honor them, for their service and sacrifice.

3 comments:

Dorrie said...

thanks for the reminder.

I saw the Arizone memorial in 1963... they were just building it then.

Anonymous said...

One of my more unpleasant travel experiences was watching grinning Japanese tourists taking thousands of pictures at the Pearl Harbor Memorial.

Fin

John0 Juanderlust said...

One thing for sure, they haven't tried it again. We're lucky the citizenry and the people in Washington were not of today's culture and government.