December 7, 1941

After the United States cut off oil supplies to the Japanese in the Summer of 1941, the Japanese Combined Fleet Commander Yamamoto was finally able to convince Emperor Showa that the U.S. Fleet, recently moved to Pearl Harbor from San Diego by President Roosevelt had to be neutralized. Japan's expansion into Malaya and the Dutch East Indies was critical to the need for oil and rubber to conduct the war. The actual go-ahead came from the Emperor on December 1st.

The removal of any threat by the U. S. Fleet seemed a reasonable strategy. The Japanese were concerned that by attacking British and other western interests in Southeast Asia, the United States would enter the war in the Pacific. They were mistaken. The U. S. wanted only to protect the Eastern Pacific sea lanes while it prosecuted the war in Europe. While most Americans know little about what happened at Pearl Harbor that Sunday morning 67 years ago, President Roosevelt called the act "a date which will live in infamy".

The American death toll was 2,400 dead and half again as many wounded. 5 Battleships were sunk and 3 badly damaged. Almost half of the casualties were the men entombed on the U.S.S. Arizona when she sank. Two destroyers sank, on fire, and three Cruisers were badly damaged. A vast majority of the Army Air Corp's 390 airplanes were destroyed (188) or damaged (155). Among the chaos and carnage, there were incredible acts of gallantry. Ensigns taking control of their ships from dead cold to full power in minutes in attempts to save their ships; sailors stepping over the bodies of their friends to reach their battle stations, pulling shipmates out of the fires. Army Air Corps pilots kept trying to take off under withering fire from the Mitsubishi Zeroes.

Though a tactical victory, the Empire of Japan made a fatal strategic error. Far from breaking American morale, the isolationism we felt as a nation was instead destroyed. Debate ceased and the entire country quickly got on war footing. Never before, and not since, have Americans sacrificed and struggled to bring an end to the totalitarian regimes that threatened to envelope the world. The Great Generation created the most awesome war machine in history, in a very short period of time. In less than four years, America and her allies utterly destroyed the Axis powers.

Lest we forget.....