I woke up on this Sunday morning with a realization that it was the first day of December. I also realized it had been 78 years since the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. This event took place twelve years before my birth but it is a date that does live in infamy. A date etched in my mind, never to be forgotten. Even though I lost no one in that attack, even though I lost no family members in the war that followed, even though I have no direct knowledge or memory of any of that, it being before my birth, I will not forget. As for forgiveness I leave that to those that were affected, to those that fought the conflict. although their numbers are diminishing rapidly. But I will not forget them. It has become cliché to call them the greatest generation. My father was one of them and I can guarantee you he is no cliché. I've known many others and none of them were cliché. A generation that will never be lost, a generation remembered for their valor, their commitment and their accomplishments! There's is a generation that offered no sacrifice, they fought for what they believed to be justice, they fought for redemption, for equity. Revenge for a wrong was extracted from the enemy without apology. Unconditional surrender was the terms and those terms were achieved!
Why did Japan attack Pearl harbor? The answer is oil. Yes oil and natural resources. Not much changes in the world as far as that goes. It's about money. After Japan attacked China President Roosevelt banned doing business with Japan. That action alone cost Japan about 90% of their oil supply. An army without oil isn't going anywhere! Steel and scrap metal was also banned for export to Japan. All Japanese assets in America were frozen. FDR moved the fleet from California to Pearl Harbor. The Japanese decided war with the United States was inevitable and decided to strike first. Their goal was to expand in the pacific and Pearl and those warships were in the way. Against sound judgement and warnings from their allies, they attacked. The rest, as they say, is history.
You could say if the world had gone green back then, the dependence on oil eliminated, there would have been no war. I don't believe that however, another excuse would have been found. Empires need to expand, that's just how it goes. It doesn't matter much if it just small bands of people or huge nations, empires by there very nature must expand. That expansion means the elimination of other, less powerful empires. It's a never ending process and I believe will one day destroy us all. If we are not wiped out by some giant space rock, we'll manage to kill ourselves. We stood on that very edge, we have looked over the precipice. We stared in fear and dread for forty five years, a period we call the cold war. That's because a " cold " fear was in all our spines, the fear of nuclear annulation. The fear was all too real and that fear, despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, despite the Berlin Wall being torn down, exists to this day. It's more than fear, it's a reality in our world. It has been so since 1945. Seventy four years ago the Enola Gay dropped the first nuclear ( called atomic back then ) bomb on Japan and exposed that reality to the world! A decision made by President Truman. It was a decision he justified the rest of his life. He could have deployed it earlier in the war but declined having been told about its' terrible destructive force. Eventually he felt he had no choice. That ended the war saving thousands of lives. The world has never been the same. A world I never knew had been transformed. I heard of this world from my parents and grandparents. I also heard of the event that changed it forever, the attack on Pearl! If the Japanese hadn't attacked Pearl we wouldn't have used the bomb, the Germans had already surrendered. The Japanese refused to admit defeat, we had no choice.
My generation had no such war, no victory. The fight was still over the same thing, power and money. We weren't allowed to win! Perhaps that was because we had seen the real cost of victory and the vision of that was just too horrible. Perhaps the powers that be, those making the decisions, couldn't bring themselves to make that choice again. The fight continues to this day, a back and forth between good and evil. And good and evil changes sides each decade or so depending upon political status. There are no clear lines anymore. Mankind has grown weary of war but never weary of conquest. It is only the means of achieving that conquest that is changing. Now we use cyber threats and terrorism. Finding the enemy is the issue. You can't bomb a ghost. Yet it is the ghosts of those that were destroyed in those two terrible blasts that ended WW2 that restrain us today. It is my hope that we never forget.
Remember Pear Harbor is a cry I have heard all my life. It has changed in meaning over the years, at least in my mind it has. Now I find myself remembering Pearl Harbor not for the dastardly attack that is was. Not for the treachery and deceit by the Japanese government, and we must remember it was the government that made this decision, not the individual soldiers. I remember Pearl Harbor for the response it elicited from our soldiers, sailors and airmen. Our troops responded with valor and a commitment to total and absolute victory! We were going to settle for nothing less and our President made that perfectly clear to the rest of the world! One of those airmen was my own father, my uncles were sailors and soldiers. The war was won and they returned home, victorious and honored for their victory. But they returned to a different world, a different America than they had known before. I remember them, I remember their pride and their humility. I remember the lessons taught by them. Only now, some seventy eight years after that attack, am I seeing the result. In the streets of Hong Kong, right now, the Japanese people are waving the American Flag, grasping for freedom, longing for what the Greatest Generation fought to preserve for all mankind. And I will remember forever what they accomplished, I will remember Pearl Harbor, the attack, the response and the result. Roosevelt said, " the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. " The greatest generation is leaving us and it is up to us to remember. Remember Pearl Harbor? Yes I will remember for them, I will remind others, I will not forget. As for forgiveness; that is left to those that fought the battle and is not for me to offer, nor is it a burden for me carry.
Why did Japan attack Pearl harbor? The answer is oil. Yes oil and natural resources. Not much changes in the world as far as that goes. It's about money. After Japan attacked China President Roosevelt banned doing business with Japan. That action alone cost Japan about 90% of their oil supply. An army without oil isn't going anywhere! Steel and scrap metal was also banned for export to Japan. All Japanese assets in America were frozen. FDR moved the fleet from California to Pearl Harbor. The Japanese decided war with the United States was inevitable and decided to strike first. Their goal was to expand in the pacific and Pearl and those warships were in the way. Against sound judgement and warnings from their allies, they attacked. The rest, as they say, is history.
You could say if the world had gone green back then, the dependence on oil eliminated, there would have been no war. I don't believe that however, another excuse would have been found. Empires need to expand, that's just how it goes. It doesn't matter much if it just small bands of people or huge nations, empires by there very nature must expand. That expansion means the elimination of other, less powerful empires. It's a never ending process and I believe will one day destroy us all. If we are not wiped out by some giant space rock, we'll manage to kill ourselves. We stood on that very edge, we have looked over the precipice. We stared in fear and dread for forty five years, a period we call the cold war. That's because a " cold " fear was in all our spines, the fear of nuclear annulation. The fear was all too real and that fear, despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, despite the Berlin Wall being torn down, exists to this day. It's more than fear, it's a reality in our world. It has been so since 1945. Seventy four years ago the Enola Gay dropped the first nuclear ( called atomic back then ) bomb on Japan and exposed that reality to the world! A decision made by President Truman. It was a decision he justified the rest of his life. He could have deployed it earlier in the war but declined having been told about its' terrible destructive force. Eventually he felt he had no choice. That ended the war saving thousands of lives. The world has never been the same. A world I never knew had been transformed. I heard of this world from my parents and grandparents. I also heard of the event that changed it forever, the attack on Pearl! If the Japanese hadn't attacked Pearl we wouldn't have used the bomb, the Germans had already surrendered. The Japanese refused to admit defeat, we had no choice.
My generation had no such war, no victory. The fight was still over the same thing, power and money. We weren't allowed to win! Perhaps that was because we had seen the real cost of victory and the vision of that was just too horrible. Perhaps the powers that be, those making the decisions, couldn't bring themselves to make that choice again. The fight continues to this day, a back and forth between good and evil. And good and evil changes sides each decade or so depending upon political status. There are no clear lines anymore. Mankind has grown weary of war but never weary of conquest. It is only the means of achieving that conquest that is changing. Now we use cyber threats and terrorism. Finding the enemy is the issue. You can't bomb a ghost. Yet it is the ghosts of those that were destroyed in those two terrible blasts that ended WW2 that restrain us today. It is my hope that we never forget.
Remember Pear Harbor is a cry I have heard all my life. It has changed in meaning over the years, at least in my mind it has. Now I find myself remembering Pearl Harbor not for the dastardly attack that is was. Not for the treachery and deceit by the Japanese government, and we must remember it was the government that made this decision, not the individual soldiers. I remember Pearl Harbor for the response it elicited from our soldiers, sailors and airmen. Our troops responded with valor and a commitment to total and absolute victory! We were going to settle for nothing less and our President made that perfectly clear to the rest of the world! One of those airmen was my own father, my uncles were sailors and soldiers. The war was won and they returned home, victorious and honored for their victory. But they returned to a different world, a different America than they had known before. I remember them, I remember their pride and their humility. I remember the lessons taught by them. Only now, some seventy eight years after that attack, am I seeing the result. In the streets of Hong Kong, right now, the Japanese people are waving the American Flag, grasping for freedom, longing for what the Greatest Generation fought to preserve for all mankind. And I will remember forever what they accomplished, I will remember Pearl Harbor, the attack, the response and the result. Roosevelt said, " the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. " The greatest generation is leaving us and it is up to us to remember. Remember Pearl Harbor? Yes I will remember for them, I will remind others, I will not forget. As for forgiveness; that is left to those that fought the battle and is not for me to offer, nor is it a burden for me carry.
Thank you so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWonderful, terrible read.