December 7th, 1941
 

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/3725/harbormj6.png

http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor/
(click on the timeline)

The lives of almost everyone in the US changed that day and 100's of thousands would be dead within 5 years as a result of this attack.

For the 1000's that died that day and those who died in the war that resulted, lets remember them and try our best to never be so vulnerable again.

It was such a dramatic event, even for those of us who were born after it happened. It always stirs up a lot of thoughts for me.

War always sucks, but I'd rather be winning a battle than losing it, and sadly in that one we got creamed.

Alternatively, millions more would likely have died had the US not been forced to finally enter the war and that, along with Hitler's foolhardy invasion of the USSR, changed everything.

In hindsight, perhaps a reasonable, if harsh, sort of trade off.

WW2: I think that is the last time that troops were deployed for a solid reason.

Our vulnerability is our freedom and our freedom is our vulnerability.

My Fathers Colonel, is over 90. We called him uncle Dan.
The memories I have of these two sitting around talking about history,
was better than any textbook.

I had the very real sense and flavor of it all.
My father sat in the alert shacks during the Cuban Missile Crisis, playing
cribbage, he was a navigator on the re-fueling jets.


I too, believe it was a solid reason.
I would of been superb in the French resistence.

Maybe that is the angsty feeling people have these days,
what is a true clear-cut purpose anymore?

Thanks Ustwo.

What Crompsin said is Very so true and bittersweetly deep.

The entrance of the United States into WWII is what saved my family. I likely would not be here today if it weren't for Pearl Harbor. It's a bittersweet thing to think about.

I am very thankful for all of the men who served in WWII.

Check out these pictures:

http://www.sflistteamhouse.com/Misc/...r/original.htm

Nice post Ustwo.

Thank you Veterans. Never forget. Remember Pearl Harbor.

Here's to remembering, and preventing, days of infamy.

Both my grandfathers fought in WWII, one as a driver in North Africa, one was a navigator in the RAF. And one of my grandmother's worked in the anti-aircraft guns in London in the blitz.

There is a real sense of creeping anti-Americanism all over Europe, but people should take time to remember that there was a time not so long ago when America stood shoulder to shoulder with England - and genuinely so - and the rest of Western Europe - in a fight against a tyranny of the worst things, and a fight that really was not their's. America faced no immediate threat from the Nazi's (who would have normalised after 10 years of horror I suppose), but they fought hammer and nail on the side of what the people believed was right.

And the Canadian troops as well, in defence of an empire that was even then only symbolically meaningful. On both sides, the Canadians were rightly feared or respected as the toughest and bravest men there was.

Pearl Habor represented a massive miscalculation by the Japanese, almost worse than Hitler's attack on Russia (which at least had a chance to win, or a very favourable peace against an under industrialised foe: if the German's had attacked as liberators and opponents of communism and had not mistreated the people and allowed ordinary Russians to be gathered under the banner of Mother Russia and the Great Patriotic War). Japan needed a fast aggressive war to force America to negoiate a favourable peace for them that gave them more of the Pacific (and capitalise on England's empire being killed off in south Asia)... and they utterly underestimated the fighting spirit and heart of the American people... it was idiotic to believe that a nation so prosperous and so independant and so proud would ever allow such an attack to be not avenged. The Japanese people paid a heavy price for this miscalculation of their leaders. They thought that Americans would not fight and die for far off places... and were very much wrong.