A Date Which Will Live In Infamy

[RadishRose]

On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The assault killed or wounded more than 3,500 American troops and civilians; severely damaged the fleet; and shocked the nation. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed Congress and the nation, declaring the “American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.” The U.S. entered World War II within hours.

Remembering Pearl Harbor

 

[Aunt Bea]

 

[rgp]

Thanks OP, for bringing this up. I actually started to earlier this am, but then, I'm embarrassed to say, I forgot.

 

[IKE]

 

[chic]

I didn't have any relatives stationed there. Dad was 16 and enlisted as soon as he turned 17.

 

[Pappy]

I was 4 years old and I remember how upset my family was.

 

[rgp]

surprisingly very little on TV about it today. Only one program that I saw, and that was mostly about FDR ?! Not the actual attack. I suppose we are beginning to forget ?

 

[Aunt Bea]

It gets complicated.

I don’t believe that we should ever forget the attack on the American territory or the sacrifices that our brave men and women made that day and during the war that followed but I do believe that we need to acknowledge the strong bond that we have formed with Japan in the years since.

 

[ChiroDoc]

On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The assault killed or wounded more than 3,500 American troops and civilians; severely damaged the fleet; and shocked the nation. The next day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed Congress and the nation, declaring the “American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.” The U.S. entered World War II within hours.

Remembering Pearl Harbor

Very good of you to bring up the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, Radish Rose! It's a date that should not be forgotten in the U.S.

On several instances a veteran of that attack, who was a member of a club I was in years ago, would regale us each Dec. 7 with stories of how it was then. Fascinating stuff.

There's a good bit of evidence that has surfaced that FDR was aware of the impending Japanese attack, but he kept it under wraps because he had promised Churchill that the U.S. would get into the war. At the time the opposition to entering WWII was spear headed by the American First Committee, and that reluctance was the prevailing view of the public at the time. Pearl Harbor, of course, ended all of that.

 

[LoveTulips]

My husband remembered before I did. He is from California.