Greetings and Salutations…

69 years ago, today, just a few minutes ago (posting this at 8:00 Hawaiian time), the first waves of Japanese planes swooped across Pearl Harbor and turned a quiet morning into a Hell-storm of death and destruction. The attack lasted for less than two hours, but, started a landslide of action and resolve that eventually led to the defeat of Japan. There are only a few thousand folks who were survivors of that action still alive today, but in spite of their dwindling numbers they still gather for memorial services to remember the events of the day, and, to commemorate the actions of those who lost their lives.

Over the years, as this day has come and gone, my reactions and thoughts about it have evolved through many points of view. When I was being taught history lessons in Elementary and as a freshman in High School, I had the outrage of youth over the underhanded actions and sneakiness that killed thousands of loyal Americans. As a senior in High School, and, on into college, my world view changed and expanded, and, my outrage evaporated away, to be replaced with a great sadness over the waste of War. For a time, as a young adult, I dealt with it with humor – A group of us would go to the restaurant “Kanpai of Tokyo” and get bombed…. Now, I look around at the world situation, and, think back to that day in 1941, and I wonder why it is that humanity cannot seem to learn the lesson that war, if necessary, should be the absolute last resort. We, as a species, really need to learn not only that lesson, but, to remember that demonizing our opponents does no good at best, and, always makes the conflict worse.

In addition, Pearl Harbor should be a lesson about making decisions and making sure that we have good information before we make that decision. Up to that day, the US had been fairly isolationist, and had refused to enter into WW2. The attack on Pearl Harbor was such a shock, though, that it “wakened the sleeping tiger” and was a direct cause of America entering the war. I suspect that this getting caught up in the conflict would have happened eventually, no matter what else went on. Perhaps the difference is that, after the attack, America was not being dragged reluctantly into conflict, but, was motivated to move forwards and take on the world. To get back to that demonization of one’s opponents, I mentioned earlier, it also cemented the image of the Japanese soldier as being a subhuman monster in the minds of Americans, eventually making it easier to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It may, too, be an example of the ongoing duplicity of Government, in that over the years, increasing amounts of evidence has surfaced showing that Roosevelt and Churchill used the attack on Pearl Harbor to force America into the war, as they were convinced that the threat of the German and Japanese warfare could not be contained without America’s presence.

In any case, thousands of good and honorable men on both sides of the conflict lost their lives on this day, and, we should remember them, and honor their sacrifice. Whether they were simply following orders, or were motivated by patriotic thoughts, they gave their lives to try and preserve their society and help it be stronger. Today, I hope that we remember this, and hold to that point of view when we look at the events happening now. Evaluate what is going on based not on our narrow, parochial view, but, on the larger view of helping keep those aspects of America that made it great growing stronger every day, instead of being eroded away in the name of some unachievable goal.

Pleasant dreams

BeeManDave