Dec 7th, 1941. "A date which will live in infamy."

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Loyal

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Franklin Roosevelt uttered those words 82 years ago. When I was young, the anniversary of that day still packed a punch in our society. The men who fought in WW2 were probably younger in the 70's than @den-the-coach is today. The sneak attack by the Empire of Japan on our Naval Base in Hawaii (and elsewhere in the Pacific) was shocking and was the catalyst for changing the mood of the public from neutrality to a war footing.

What's ironic is the date which FDR said would not be forgotten, pretty much has been.
 
Selassie I

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Brudda... since I grew up in Pearl City, that date is one that is burned into my melon almost more than my own DOB.
 
snackdaddy

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WWII has always fascinated me. It was not a war we were clearly the biggest and baddest. Things coulda happened differently if not for some good turns of fate in certain battles. Imagine if Japan decided to continue to the west coast after bombing Pearl Harbor? We didn't have enough defenses to stop them at the time.
 
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Selassie I said:
Brudda... since I grew up in Pearl City, that date is one that is burned into my melon almost more than my own DOB.
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When I was a paper boy in the late 70's, I remember seeing the color photos on the front page, above the fold, marking the event. Every paper in the country devoted front page space in remembrance The evening news always had a story about it on Dec. 7th and it was true every year until about the year 2000? It's hard to remember the exact year, but it seemed that all of the news media in a coordinated effort, stopped covering it. I remember being shocked at the time because it was so sudden. I don't think it was a conspiracy really, it just seemed so odd to me.
I even asked my wife, who is a little older than me what the significance of today's date and she had no clue until I reminded her. I would imagine those in their 30's and younger have no clue about the date's significance , unless they are history nerds like me!
 
Selassie I

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Loyal said:
When I was a paper boy in the late 70's, I remember seeing the color photos on the front page, above the fold, marking the event. Every paper in the country devoted front page space in remembrance The evening news always had a story about it on Dec. 7th and it was true every year until about the year 2000? It's hard to remember the exact year, but it seemed that all of the news media in a coordinated effort, stopped covering it. I remember being shocked at the time because it was so sudden. I don't think it was a conspiracy really, it just seemed so odd to me.
I even asked my wife, who is a little older than me what the significance of today's date and she had no clue until I reminded her. I would imagine those in their 30's and younger have no clue about the date's significance , unless they are history nerds like me!
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I'm really bad at remembering important dates... so I always think about how my brain doesn't allow me to forget 12/07. I really think that it's cool that I can't forget it even if I tried, because there aren't many other dates of the calendar that do that to me.
 
Dodgersrf

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snackdaddy said:
WWII has always fascinated me. It was not a war we were clearly the biggest and baddest. Things coulda happened differently if not for some good turns of fate in certain battles. Imagine if Japan decided to continue to the west coast after bombing Pearl Harbor? We didn't have enough defenses to stop them at the time.
Click to expand...
They sent balloons with bombs instead.
1 Family was hit in Oregon.

They were afraid of a ground attack, in a country that was full of armed citizens. True story.

LETS NOT TURN THIS INTO A GUN DEBATE.

www.nationalmuseum.af.mil

Balloon Bombs: Japan's Answer to Doolittle

One of the best kept secrets of the war involved the Japanese balloon bomb offensive. Prompted by the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in April 1942, the Japanese developed the balloon bombs as a means of
www.nationalmuseum.af.mil
 
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Loyal

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Dodgersrf said:
They sent balloons with bombs instead.
1 Family was hit in AZ, I believe.

They were afraid of a ground attack, in a country that was full of armed citizens. True story.

LETS NOT TURN THIS INTO A GUN DEBATE.
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Aside from an armed populace, the big issue for the Empire of Japan was the restriction of selling oil and steel to them and was the reason for the attack. They could have attacked our coastline afterwards, but what then? The supply lines were too long to support troops invading the US
 
Angry Ram

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It's still hard for me to imagine Japan at one point was an evil imperial country and now they're a western ally.

They be starting shit in the 40s and then churning out Power Rangers and anime in the 80s.
 
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Both my grandfathers served in the Navy in WWII, which is something I am very proud of. Both enlisted early (as was common given the threat the nation was facing). And both had ships they were on sunk in combat. I always loved my maternal grandfather's story of swimming to shore after his destroyer was obliterated by a torpedo (he was a gunners mate and manned an anti-aircraft gun). Basic synopsis was that he saw a komodo dragon and never told anyone because he thought he was hallucinating, only to see it years later on national geographic.

Such a terrifying time for the human race though. And a unique danger with Japan was that their admiralty had trained so heavily under the US. Which meant that they were well versed in modern (at the time) tactics and the latest US technologies of the day. If our carriers had been in port that fateful day US forces probably would have been defending our shores on the west coast. Still would have been a tough war for Japan due to our industrial might, however as we showed in bombing of German factories once you have a foothold industrial strength can be mitigated.

This channel has top-notch WWII documentaries on youtube. I don't think they have one on the war in the pacific, which was a uniquely challenging conflict. For those who enjoy reading as I do, this is probably my favorite written product on that aspect of the war.
 
Merlin

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Angry Ram said:
It's still hard for me to imagine Japan at one point was an evil imperial country and now they're a western ally.

They be starting shit in the 40s and then churning out Power Rangers and anime in the 80s.
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One of my favorite historical characters is George C Marshall, who authored the "Marshall Plan" to rebuild the post-war world. Truly great man there in my estimation.
 
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