Tuesday, December 07, 2010

December 7th, 1941

Is the day the Empire of Japan attacked, without provocation, the US at Pearl Harbor, and Schofield Barracks, and Wheeler Field, and Hickam Field, and Kaneohe, which later became Kaneohe Marine Air Base, which is where my father was stationed when I was a kid.

I've been to the USS Arizona memorial.  It's still leaking oil, one tiny drop at a time, blossoming on the water's surface bit by bit.

Do I blame modern day Japan for this?  Of course not.  The Japanese of today have as little to do with that war as I do.  But I bring it up because it shows the folly of sitting around while violent men with hostile intentions plan to attack you.  A lesson that quite a bit of this country seems to have forgotten.  And we've forgotten it before, to our detriment.

I wonder how many of our high school students in America today even know why December 7th happened?

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