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Mom Reminds Us – It’s A Holiday

As always I like to keep my kids well educated. Did you realize it’s an American National Holiday? To be exact it is a day of remembrance. Can you tell me which historical event we are supposed to be remembering with solemn awe and great respect? You can’t?
Don’t beat yourself up – even the American population needed reminding the very next year!

On Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese warplanes attacked the home base of the United States Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, an act that led to America’s entry into World War II. Pearl Harbor Day is the day President Franklin Roosevelt referred to as “The Day That Shall Live In Infamy“.
The Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was one of the great defining moments in history. A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy’s battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire’s southward expansion. America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant.
Eighteen months earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had transferred the United States Fleet to Pearl Harbor as a presumed deterrent to Japanese aggression. The Japanese military, deeply engaged in the seemingly endless war it had started against China in mid-1937, badly needed oil and other raw materials. Commercial access to these was gradually curtailed as the conquests continued.
In July 1941 the Western powers effectively halted trade with Japan. From then on, as the desperate Japanese schemed to seize the oil and mineral-rich East Indies and Southeast Asia, a Pacific war was virtually inevitable.
By late November 1941, with peace negotiations clearly approaching an end, informed U.S. officials fully expected a Japanese attack into the Indies, Malaya and probably the Philippines. Take note: history proves that the military officials truly believed they were well-informed through an ability to read Japan’s diplomatic codes. Even the prospect that Japan would attack east, as well, was completely unanticipated.
The U.S. Fleet’s Pearl Harbor base was reachable by an aircraft carrier force, and the Japanese Navy secretly sent one across the Pacific with greater aerial striking power than had ever been seen on the World’s oceans. Its planes hit just before 8AM on 7 December.
Five of eight battleships at Pearl Harbor were sunk or sinking, with the rest damaged. Several other ships and Hawaii-based combat planes were also knocked out of commission at the same time. Over 2400 Americans were dead. All of this happened within a short time – less than 30 minutes.
Soon after, Japanese planes eliminated much of the American air force in the Philippines, and a Japanese Army was ashore in Malaya.
These great Japanese successes achieved without prior diplomatic formalities – shocked and enraged the previously divided American people! The nation dropped all else to join together with a level of purposeful unity hardly seen before or since. Even so, American and Allied morale suffered accordingly for the next five months as Japan’s far-reaching offensives proceeded untroubled by fruitful opposition. Under normal political circumstances, an accommodation might have been considered.
Fueled only with the determination to “not forget”, against all odds they continued until the first major success, the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942. This provided the troops with the conviction for the Battle of Midway in early June 1942 which virtually eliminated much of Japan’s striking power in the region. The memory of the “sneak attack” on Pearl Harbor stoked the fire within the troops to reverse all Japanese conquests and remove them and their German and Italian allies, as future threats to World peace.
Mom’s history lesson: Today is, in fact, a National Holiday as stated by law.
“December seventh of every year shall be known and designated as ‘Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day‘. It shall be a day on which to commemorate the sacrifice of more than two thousand citizens of the United States who were killed and more than one thousand citizens who were wounded when the Imperial Japanese Navy and Air Force attacked units of the armed forces of the United States stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. This caused the United States to enter into World War II. The teachers and students shall observe this day with appropriate exercises.
“All citizens should devote some portion of Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day to solemn contemplation of the selfless sacrifice made by those who gave their lives for their country in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
“The flag of the United States shall fly at half-staff each December seventh in honor of the individuals who died as a result of their service at Pearl Harbor.”
Mom’s History Homework: Even with fires still blazing, daily bombings, no clear goal or exit strategy in sight – wouldn’t now be a good time to bring to mind what those who fought before wanted in return to prevent it ever happening again?
Extra Credit: What image or event is seen as our ‘iconic’ reminder that should imbue us with the conviction to continue in Iraq?