Today is a day that will live in infamy...
@nobodyspecial (1011)
United States
December 7, 2006 4:54pm CST
So said President F.D. Roosevelt 65 years ago.
What prompted the attack on the Fleet resting at Pearl Harbor?
Did our government have advanced warning they didn't understand?
Do we give enough credit and honor to the veterns that still live and those those who perished that day?
For some of you Pearl Harbor is merely a footnote in history, but it was an act that propelled our nation into war.
For others it may be fathers or mothers who served that day and after, maybe some few who were there, or listening to the radio hearing in their imaginations the cries of the wounded or the pleas of those who would drown.
Since then only one foreign attack has taken place upon American soil...The attack on nonmilitary persons, upon children, men and women who bore no ill will, who were no threat.
I am not talking about a terroristic act nor terrorist. I am talking about a military mannuver, to bring the people of the US into a war they did not want, and few condone.
Today is a rememberance of a day of infamy. We have another.
Honor our dead, for they died honoring the future.
3 responses
@srhelmer (7029)
• Beaver Dam, Wisconsin
7 Dec 06
I think our government had advanced warning to an extent but, much like 9/11 had either a communication breakdown or misinterpreted the information they had.
@Ashida (1370)
• United States
3 Jan 07
The attack was prompted by Admiral Yamamoto's belief that the only way Japan could defeat the US was to deliver a quick knockout blow. He spent time in America, and knew what he was up against.
Our government did have advanced warning that they didn't understand. In hindsight it all seems clear to us, but at the time, things weren't so clear. The US knew a strike was coming -- they just weren't entirely sure when and where.
I don't think we give enough credit to veterens in general. And it's sad really.
Thanks for the interesting post.
@Argonaut (260)
• United States
11 Dec 06
The Japanese were pushed into attacking us because we kept cutting off their oil supply routes. We would have had to enter the war eventually anyway. I do believe the government knew there was an impending attack. The commanding admirals of the fleets at Pearl Harbor were strangely ordered to remain at port the previous day. One of the admirals, whose name escapes me right now, disobayed orders and took his fleet out to sea. His fleet survived.
