I Remember Dec 7th 1941 Very Well

[Lon]

i was at Hinchcliff Stadium in Paterson New Jersey watching a football game with my dad and his nephew who was in the Navy and stationed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. They interrupted the 1 PM kickoff to announce that Pearl Harbor had been bombed.

 

[Butterfly]

I wasn't born till just after the war, but my mother talked a lot about that day. She said she and my dad were in church and the pastor announced the bombing. She never forgot the details of that day. They were in California at that time and she was afraid California would be next.

 

[Knightofalbion]

I believe the Japanese Ambassador in Washington was slow in translating and typing up the declaration of war, so the attack took place without a formal declaration.

There are two sides to every story though. These things are never black and white. Britain and America came very close to war back in the 1930s ...

I feel desperately sorry for all those - of all sides - who were killed and wounded and suffered during those times.

As always, it's the politicians who fan the flames and start wars, but it's the innocent who pay the price.

'Let there be peace on earth...'

 

[rkunsaw]

I came along 3 days later.

 

[oldman]

The movie, "Tora, Tora, Tora" which I am sure will be on again today, depicts as close to reality as we will ever know it to be for those of us that missed being around back then, Of course, Hollywood has thrown in some of its own exciting stuff to make it appealing at the box office, but it is a very good movie.

 

[Pappy]

I would have been 4 years old and don't remember too much. I seem to recall a lot of people very excited over something.

 

[jujube]

Did you hear about the guy who is half Jewish and half Japanese? Every December 7th, he attacks Pearl Schwartz.

 

[Falcon]

There was a lot of, "Where's Pearl Harbor?" "Why the Japanese?"

Next thing I knew, I was in uniform.

 

[hollydolly]

Oh my goodness Lon what a memory to have..something that within a couple of decades hardly anyone will be able to say the same.

I hate to make you or anyone who remembers it feel old..lol...but I was born long after the war finished, and even my mother was only 5 years old in 1941

 

[Butterfly]

My mother never forgave the Japanese for the attack. My parents lost so many friends and contemporaries during the war. Funny that she didn't hold ill will toward the Germans -- she even visited with us in Germany a couple times after my father died and had a great time.

 

[AZ Jim]

I was 5 years old and I remember my folks trying to explain it to me. Soon I was very savvy about what was going on in the war.

 

[Ralphy1]

It took that awful event to get the US into the war. And it came just in time to probably save England from defeat...

 

[oldman]

Did anyone watch any of the very good documentaries that were on TV yesterday regarding the bombing? I never saw the documentary "in color" of MacArthur signing the peace treaty with Japan. It was a great documentary. My Dad spoke of General MacArthur quite frequently, being a serviceman himself, although my Dad served in the European theater of the war under Eisenhower and was one day short of being in France on D-Day. I think MacArthur's finest hour was when he was able to return to the Philippines, like he said he would and took control of Manila from the Japanese. In my opinion, after watching the documentary and studying the war, I think Manila was perhaps very expensive to overtake with the loss of lives. Even MacArthur was somewhat horrified at the amount of lives that were lost with gaining control of Manila.

I was also impressed with the number of ships that were bombed at Pearl Harbor and were able to again be repaired or retrofitted and returned to service. The aftermath of the attack proved to be not as costly to the Navy as was first thought. The loss of life is another thing. Eleven hundred lives were lost on the Arizona alone, not to mention the loss of life at Hickam Field.

MacArthur's biography is quite impressive. There is no doubt in my mind that General MacArthur is a true American hero.