Pearl Harbor Day Plus 68 Years

Six comments on this post so far. Add yours!

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  Don_Sausser on December 07 at 9:02 a.m.

  I’ll never forget the announcement in my 2nd grade class at Colin P. Kelly grammar school, Compton, California. Yes, unlike today, Compton was a great little family town during those years. And also, unlike today, everyone was involved with the war effort.

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  Digger on December 07 at 9:36 a.m.

  Ironically, there is a Japanese restaurant opening in Moscow today.

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  Stickman on December 07 at 9:41 a.m.

  A little before my time, but since I grew up in Hawaii, it was always on people’s minds and the stories from the ones that were there will never be forgotten. I have told the story before of my Aunt who was on the hillside overlooking the bay that fateful day when Japanese planes were flying in to attack. She is still alive and her stories are chilling.

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  Cindy_H on December 07 at 9:56 a.m.

  After writing stories like these: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2007/dec/06/a-sailor-remembers/
  http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2007/may/24/wwii-vets-remember/
  I am in awe of those who survived this horrific experience, and then returned to civilian life, raised families, and rarely spoke of their experiences. They are true heroes.
  A great book about one man’s experience can be found here: http://www.carolhipperson.com/

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  Joker on December 07 at 10:24 a.m.

  Here are the lessons of Pearl Harbor.

  1. An enemy will attack you when and where you least expect it. Pearl Harbor was thought to be too far from Japan.

  2. Nothing is impossible. The Navy believed Pearl Harbor was too shallow for torpedo attacks from aircraft. The Japanese came up with a new torpedo to decimate the Pacific Fleet.

  3. Think like your enemy. The United States failed to understand the Japanese government, culture and motives in its aggression before Dec. 7, 1941. If it had, we might have been ready for war.

  4. Overconfidence in your technology and tactics. Aircraft carriers were viewed as a novelty by most people in the Navy. The prevailing wisdom of the day was that battleships won naval engagements. The Japanese unleashed its airpower in a devastating attack that sunk or disable most of the battleships.
  As luck would have it, three US carriers were not in the harbor at the time of the attack.

  5. Don’t be stupid. There were people who believed the attacks would happen, but their warnings weren’t heeded because the military brass thought they were smarter than the underlings.

  Bonus lesson: Don’t park all your damn airplanes so close together. It was believed that only a Japanese terrorists could disable planes, so an order was given to the bunch them all together. When the bombs fell, well, it was maximum destruction.

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  idawa on December 07 at 10:51 a.m.

  I had the privilege once to interview one of Cd’A survivors of Pearl Harbor and the battle of Midway for a High School project in Mrs. Sayler’s Honors English class. I need to look to see if I still have the paper I wrote and the interview I recorded (hope it wasn’t lost when my parents moved away from Cd’A) - it may be useful to save for posterity’s sake.

  Anyway, it was a fascinating interview, hearing about the actual attack, what was going through his mind at the time, etc… Definitely one of my formative experienceS courtesy of the Cd’A public school system.

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