As I look at the clock it occurs to me it was almost exactly seventy years ago that the Japanese Fleet launched the first wave of warplanes to attack Pearl Harbor. The largest air armada to ever hit American soil climbed into the dark pre-dawn sky and made their way to a small cluster of islands more than two hundred miles away.
In fairness, the Japanese had not intended the attack to be a complete surprise. The plan had been to declare war when it was too late to do anything about it. It was problems at the Japanese embassy in Washington D.C. that delayed the formal presentation.
The War was old news to Europe and China. Our government was giving as much aid to England as possible, and China under the table. With that attack the United States was not just in sprite, but in fact in World War Two.
The Generals and Polications made no grand claims, like "The War To End All Wars". The world knew better by then.
Still, there was a profound change that came over people all over the world. The generation that survived it knew "The World as we knew it came to an end." If you were five years old or seventy five, your live was split into two parts - before and after World War Two.
You might find my eariler post on this subject interesting.
http://homeplace-artsstuff.blogspot.com/2010/12/tuesday-night-at-movies-tora-tora-tora.html
No comments:
Post a Comment