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Audacity of Truth
67th anniversary of Pearl Harbor
Scared Monkeys has an awesome tribute to the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. It’s a day that, like 9-11, we should never forget – even though unfortunately all too many have.
Randy Barnett, in Oahu, HI this week, has more thoughts.
God bless our veterans, and for those who passed on that day and for those who passed on later in defense of our great nation, RIP.
Related, via the NYT: Report Debunks Theory That the U.S. Heard a Coded Warning About Pearl Harbor
Cross-posted to Right Wing News, where I am helping guestblog for John Hawkins on Sundays.
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11 Responses to “67th anniversary of Pearl Harbor”
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Not forget the attack Pearl Harbor?
That was over 60 years ago; some short-sighted individuals have seemingly already forgotten the events of 9-11-01…
LINK
This military blogger reveals how 36 pairs of brothers served on the USS Arizona. And a three brother set and a father and son. Amazing
No one will ever convince me that FDR didn’t know, and he didn’t sacrifice our battleships to get us into WWII. The very fact that soon after the Japanese fleet left for the attack FDR ordered our aircraft carriers to Alaska with almost no support ships only proves that he knew the Carriers where more important to winning the war than the Battleships. The primary target of the surprise attack was the Carriers, when the Japanese pilots didn’t see the Carriers, they went after the Battleships and that is why they were hurt so badly. Nope, no one will ever convince me that he didn’t know. – Lorica
I don’t really think that FDR knew in advance, but he certainly took advantage of the situation.
We do know that FDR wanted to enter the war long before we actually did, and I think for once FDR was right. If we had gotten involved sooner, a lot of death and grief could have been avoided.
Ok maybe “knew” is abit strong. Let’s just say he had a strong hunch. When our spies in Japan reported that 6 carrier groups were no longer in harbor, he guessed that Pearl was going to be the target, and was proven right 2 weeks later. Between FDR’s desire and that of the joint chiefs, I think alot more could have been done to save lives at Pearl that day. Instead of doing nothing. Even if it were only putting the destroyers on patrol routes 300 miles out from Pearl, something that was really simple considering there were over 2 dozen destroyers there. – Lorica
Lorica–
And what do you suppose the reaction would have been if FDR had done all that and the attacks didn’t materialize? Pacifism was just as strong (and just as wrong) in those days as it is now.
Trish, The Navy is duty bound and at that time, expected and wanted to be used in this way. The Japanese had been at war with the Chinese for almost 10 years, we knew they were an aggressor nation. We knew they were very un-happy at our continued support of the British and the Russians against Hitler. The Japanese still hated the Russians from the Russo-Japanese war in 1904. It would have fairly easy to put the Army and Navy on alert for a couple of weeks after we knew the Japanese fleet left harbor. Which FDR didn’t do. Outside of Carriers, we would have had a larger fleet to go out and meet the Japanese. 4 times the Battleships, and twice as many destroyers. They would have beat us on Carriers 6 to 4, which a couple of their Carriers were very small, all of ours had compliments of 100 planes or more. Even if FDR would have put search planes out on patrol, he could have done something, but absolutely nothing was done, which, even not using hindsight, makes no sense. The Pentagon was very worried about the Japanese. They knew it was only a matter of time before they attacked us. Gen. Billy Mitchell almost 20 years earlier stated that the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor. Trish, we knew it was going to happen, and Nothing was done to protect Pearl Harbor. FDR is the only person to blame, and the nothing is why I feel the way I do. – Lorica
The Navy may have been duty-bound, but the President is a politician, and there’s no getting around that. The domestic reaction had he done as you suggest would have been a disaster.
We should have entered WWII long before we did. There was tremendous opposition to that course of action, though.
I fault FDR for a lot of things, but not this.
Trish, the President is also Comander in Chief, He had already won re-election to his 3rd term, the political fall out in 1944 would have been so infantismal it would not have even been noticable. Also, all we are talking about is a 2 dozen ships, who should be patroling and protecting their harbor anyway, and maybe a dozen sea planes. Considering there were over 300 capital ships in our Navy at that time, this was really insignificant. You can ignore all the things I have said, and all the things I point out, but the very fact is, we knew that 6 Japanese Carriers had left habor, and we knew that the Japanese would eventually want to go to war with the US. Putting the 2 together isn’t really rocket science, even in 1941.
Here is yet another tid bit regarding the US Pacific Fleet that I wasn’t aware of, but FDR would have been:
Trish, we expected war with Japan, and were preparing for just that. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, came as no surprise to those who were in the know. – Lorica
Lorica, I think you underestimate just how much of a political animal FDR really was. Certainly he was Commander in Chief, but he was also trying to turn the Presidency into a Democratic Party dynasty. He almost succeeded, at that.
I think also think you underestimate what the domestic reaction would have been.
And I think you are ignoring the historical actions that has been presented. FDR was a political animal, but yet was a dove when it came to the war??? Sorry Trish, but to me that just isn’t reasonable to think. Also, to just send ships to circle around Pearl Harbor is really nothing. I bet we have ships doing this as we discuss this. I am not talking about sending the Pacific Fleet to meet the Japanese Fleet, all I am talking about is a simple little thing of guarding the Harbor which was the HeadQuarters of the Pacific Fleet. To me that makes a great deal of sense, and should have been done. Say what you want, but FDR had the ability and the power to guard against the Japanese attack, and he should have. – Lorica