December 7 1941

[Okiepan]

80 years ago today America was brutally attacked by the Empire of Japan , Changing the world forever.

Never forget our Brave warriors who defended FREEDOM.

Thank you for ALL that have Served our Nation.

[Cypress Sun]

[Texas Joker]

A day that will forever be remembered in infamy. 

[Subdeacon Joe]

Already today I'm seeing the anti-American left saying how FDR "forced" Japan to attack the US. They will parrot almost exactly the reasoning of the Japanese warlords that the US had no right to engage in economic warfare against Japan. And, as in all other years, they will neglect to mention that FDR was trying to use economic means to force Japan to stop her atrocities in China, Korea, and other nations in her "Co-prosperity sphere."

Never forget.

[Father Kit Cool Gun Garth]

[Cypress Sun]

And 80 years ago tomorrow, 12/08/41, a joint session of Congress declared war on the empire of Japan. The vote was 82 - 0 in the Senate and 388 - 1 in the House. The lone nay vote was cast by Jennette Rankin (R) of Montana. She had also voted against the declaration into the entry of WWI, although she was not the only one. 

 

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

I was born some three months after Pearl Harbor, but I clearly remember trains running below our home in Woodland, Washington.  Mom set me on the kitchen table so I could see out the window.and watch the trucks and tanks and passenger cars coming and going.  A year or so later we went back to Utah on one of those trains, still taking people home from war.  We (Mom, my baby sister and I) were going to visit my grandmother.  I remember the men coming home, some were battered in ways we will never know, and almost all wanted to "hold your baby, Ma'am?" and to play with me.  They were all very respectful and so desperate to just get back to normal.  At the time I didn't understand it, but Dad explained that many of them hadn't seem an American woman in years and would have protected her against any assault, no matter how slight

 

From Pearl Harbor to the largest and most successful nation on earth, helping others to recover all across the world, to the beginning of a terrifying downward spiral brought on by many of our own people.

 

I fear for the nation and mourn that which is gone and unlikely to ever return.,,,, but many of us will always REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR!

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

My dad's birthday is December 7.  On December 8, 1941 he was at the recruiting office.  He had just turned 16 so they would not let him enlist.  He enlisted on December 7, 1942.  His 17th birthday.  Every year we would take him out to a birthday dinner and make note of the date and its significance.  As time wore on fewer and fewer servers had any idea what happened on December 7.  Now if WWII is mentioned at all in schools it is only in the context of how the U.S. unjustly imprisoned Japanese-Amercan citizens.

[Rye Miles #13621]

Never forget! 

[Capt. R. Hugh Kidnme]

'Merica 

[Calamity Kris]

The event that spurred my father to join the Army, two uncles to join the Navy, one uncle to join the Marines.

[Utah Bob #35998]

5 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

Already today I'm seeing the anti-American left saying how FDR "forced" Japan to attack the US. They will parrot almost exactly the reasoning of the Japanese warlords that the US had no right to engage in economic warfare against Japan. And, as in all other years, they will neglect to mention that FDR was trying to use economic means to force Japan to stop her atrocities in China, Korea, and other nations in her "Co-prosperity sphere."

Never forget.

The anti-Roosevelt conspiracy goobers have been around for years. The Internet gives them a platform note to spout their “proof” that FDR was the cause of the attack. 

[Dirty Dan Dawkins]

https://www.c-span.org/video/?419693-1/president-roosevelts-day-infamy-address-congress

[Subdeacon Joe]

1 hour ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

The anti-Roosevelt conspiracy goobers have been around for years. The Internet gives them a platform note to spout their “proof” that FDR was the cause of the attack. 

 

Yep. They try to show him as a racist war-monger when what he was trying to do was get Japan to back off her occupation of other countries.

[MizPete]

That's when my Dad signed up.

[Blackwater 53393]

I lost an uncle and my dad and another uncle were changed forever as a result of those events.

 

As always, the people are made to suffer because of the shortcomings of their nation’s leaders!

 

As always, war/conflict is a leader’s choice in place of peaceful negotiation.

 

The choice to go to war was made by the leaders of Japan. EVERYTHING after that is on them!!!  The blame is theirs!! The fault is theirs!

 

NOTHING before the dropping of that first bomb, the firing of the first bullet at Pearl Harbor, the crossing of our border with an attacking military force changes the fact that THEY attacked us!!

 

NOTHING that any of those who would deny or erase these truths can say will change the truth!!  Those who would are LIARS and deserve the maximum scorn and derision that we can give them!!  They are not to be trusted with the education of our youth or the making of policy for our nation!!

 

They should avoid religiously any mention of their feelings or beliefs within earshot of me or my family or friends!!

[Buckshot Bear]

Sad thing is that in the early 50's Japanese cars started to take over followed by German cars.

 

We may have won the war but we lost the battle.

 

I often try to imagine what it must have been like for my father and uncles not many years long from the Pacific jungles and fighting in Africa seeing Japanese and German cars being bought.

[Blackwater 53393]

What HAS TO be remembered is that our fight wasn’t with the people of these nations!!

 The fight was with the governments of these nations!!

[Buckshot Bear]

2 minutes ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

What HAS TO be remembered is that our fight wasn’t with the people of these nations!!

 The fight was with the governments of these nations!!

 

Don't believe that for one second, what my father saw in New Guinea he never forgave. There wasn't any Japanese government officials, just barbaric Japanese soldiers, fresh from atrocities perpetuated in Nanking.

[Henry T Harrison]

4 hours ago, Buckshot Bear said:

 

Don't believe that for one second, what my father saw in New Guinea he never forgave. There wasn't any Japanese government officials, just barbaric Japanese soldiers, fresh from atrocities perpetuated in Nanking.

Those islands should still be smoking radioactive  ruins uninhabitable for another 1000 years

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

So commemoration turns quickly into vituperation and bitterness.

 

Four of my senior law partners when I started practice were WWII Pacific vets. Two had been in heavy naval combat; one of those was on his LST when it hit a mine near Ulithi; most of his crewmates were killed.

 

Neither bore the slightest animosity toward Japanese people.

[Waxahachie Kid #17017 L]

They are sugar-coating, or trying to, about 9/11...so December 7th of 1941 is an even easier target to demean, and misconstrue. 

We were attacked, in both instances, without warning. 

Both groups, that attacked us, were too afraid to declare war, because they knew that would be a mistake. 

Thank God F.D.R. was not Traitor-joe. If he had been, we would not be here, right now. 

 

That generation of Japanese leaders started it, early on, in China, and the people of Japan supported it.

We finished it, after they attacked us, without warning. 

This generation of islamic terrorists started it, and we tried to finish it, but thanks to our gutless-wonder 2021 government, supported by the fake news media, we did not accomplish it...yet.  

 

It is up to us to tell our children, and our grandchildren, the truth...that being, we were in the right then, and we are now.

They chose to sow the wind, and they reaped the whirlwind. 

They were given the opportunity to surrender, before we dropped the first atomic bomb. 

They were given the opportunity to surrender, before we dropped the second atomic bomb.

Even after the second bomb was dropped, they still did not want to surrender. It finally took the emperor of Japan to step in and say enough is enough.  

The Japanese defeat, and the suffering they endured, was their choice. 

 

I did not know this, but...they refuse to allow our air-craft carrier, the U.S.S. Harry S. Truman, to dock in Japan, because that ship is named after the President that made the ultimate decision to use the atomic bombs. They need to blame the one's that started it, in the first place.   

 

 

God bless America, and the ideals the Founding Fathers put forth. We are not perfect, and never will be...but we try, and we want to be more perfect.

If anyone, or anything doesn't like it, then let me show you the door out of here. I suggest north korea to relocate to. 

 

 

 

 

[Buckshot Bear]

2 hours ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

So commemoration turns quickly into vituperation and bitterness.

 

Four of my senior law partners when I started practice were WWII Pacific vets. Two had been in heavy naval combat; one of those was on his LST when it hit a mine near Ulithi; most of his crewmates were killed.

 

Neither bore the slightest animosity toward Japanese people.

 

They were lucky then and were maybe oblivious to the atrocities committed by Japanese airmen, navy and army personnel, or just really forgiving folks.

 

When I was 14, I worked at a Woolworths food supermarket in Double Bay in Sydney, a high Jewish population. Seeing tattoo'd numbers on older peoples forearms was the norm. I spoke to a lot of them, trust me, one was my history teacher...... they held animosity in their hearts as well.

[bgavin]

My Dad was the officer of the day on the California when it was sunk at Pearl Harbor.
After 10 hours in water up to his chest, he was the last man alive to leave the ship.
He spoke of walking across the deck on the "guts and brains" of what used to be his shipmates.

Dad spoke of the torture inflicted by jamming glass rods into the penis of POWs, then smashing them for a lifetime of misery.
"Flyboys" by James Bradley does a deep dive into Japanese barbarism and cannibalism of American POWs.

Bradley also draws a strong parallel of the barbaric expansion of the American West and the Japanese Expansion in the Pacific.
He makes note how American soldiers massacred Indians, and stretched the vaginas of the dead across the brims of their heats.
This particular specimen of American brutality was John Chivington, "Preacher John" who had a display of Indian penises piled up on exhibition in Denver after the cavalry attack on Sand Creek.

"I don't go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every ten are, and I shouldn't like to inquire to closely into the case of the tenth."
--Teddy Roosevelt
 

[watab kid]

"....From Pearl Harbor to the largest and most successful nation on earth, helping others to recover all across the world, to the beginning of a terrifying downward spiral brought on by many of our own people.

 

I fear for the nation and mourn that which is gone and unlikely to ever return.,,,, but many of us will always REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR!..."

 

amen to that , enough already of cutting down our own country 

[Sixgun Sheridan]

Yesterday I had to really dig just to find any mention of the anniversary in the news. I was going to bring my USS Arizona model to work, but I forgot, and when I mentioned it to my co-worker he said nobody would've cared anyway.

 

That shows where we're headed. Pretty soon nobody will care about 9/11 either.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

On 12/7/2021 at 8:41 PM, Buckshot Bear said:

 

They were lucky then and were maybe oblivious to the atrocities committed by Japanese airmen, navy and army personnel, or just really forgiving folks.

 

No, of course they were very intelligent men who fought the Japanese themselves and were perfectly aware of all that. Nor do I think 'forgiveness' had anything to do with it. They simply went about their lives; they were very successful and happy men. They understood the limits of emotion. To them, life after the Depression and the War was great; they looked forward, not back.

 

Yet we have one pard who says that the Japanese islands should have been sterilized by radioactive fire for a thousand years. This, I would say, was definitely not their attitude!

 

Why should former enemies not become friends and allies? No reason, of course. They have done so for thousands of years. Well, it's par for the course; every year a commeroration will bring the same thing forward again....

[Buckshot Bear]

11 minutes ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

 

No, of course they were very intelligent men who fought the Japanese themselves and were perfectly aware of all that. Nor do I think 'forgiveness' had anything to do with it. They simply went about their lives; they were very successful and happy men. They understood the limits of emotion. To them, life after the Depression and the War was great; they looked forward, not back.

 

Yet we have one pard who says that the Japanese islands should have been sterilized by radioactive fire for a thousand years. This, I would say, was definitely not their attitude!

 

Why should former enemies not become friends and allies? No reason, of course. They have done so for thousands of years. Well, it's par for the course; every year a commeroration will bring the same thing forward again....

 

So Goering, Hitler, Himmler, Koch, Goebbels, Mengele, Heydrich should have been welcomed to break bread with folks after cessation of hostilities?

 

Why did the Allies hang so many German and Japanese war criminals?

 

You should read up on how many more should have been hanged but weren't.

 

Your former colleagues weren't in the jungles, not on the Bataan Death march, Sandakan Death march,  not in any of the POW camps through Asia or Europe, weren't used a experimental guinea pigs, weren't eaten as food with bits cut off them over days, weren't used as sport in beheading contests.

 

Its good that they weren't haunted for the rest of their days and had no animosity. 

 

https://www.pacificwar.org.au/JapWarCrimes/TenWarCrimes/Murder-cannibalism.html

 

https://www.pacificwar.org.au/JapWarCrimes/TenWarCrimes/Banka_Massacre.html

[Cold Lake Kid, SASS # 51474]

We, of the British Commonwealth and Dominions, had been at war with NAZI Germany since September 1939, and were having a long hard fight.

My Father, seeing a war in the offing,  had joined the permanent RCAF in 1936 after having served 5 years in the Auxiliary RCAF, #19 City of Hamilton Bomber Squadron, in order to be trained up and able to contribute for King and Country.

My Mother told me of his coming home, December 8, after learning some of the details of Pearl Harbor, at his airfield duty station.

He told her "Well, it'll take a while, but the Americans are in it now. We just won the war!"

Thank-you America.

 

[Arkansas Jim 107095]

One of my uncles was captured in the Philippines at the start of the war. Spent the entire war a POW. Had some very interesting stories, when he would talk about his captivity. Due to the way he was treated by the Japanese, he had health issues for the rest of his life. He didn’t hate the Japanese, but he sure didn’t have anything for them. From what he told us about the camps, not enough of the Japanese were tried as war criminals. Some were decent, but many were not 

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

16 hours ago, Buckshot Bear said:

 

So Goering, Hitler, Himmler, Koch, Goebbels, Mengele, Heydrich should have been welcomed to break bread with folks after cessation of hostilities?

 

Why did the Allies hang so many German and Japanese war criminals?

 

Sorry, Pard. This is hardly the point. I'm not talking about the leaders and the war criminals, I'm talking about the nations, obviously. Are Germany and Japan allies of ours or are they not? In fact, they became allies not very long after the War, and have been ever since.

 

What was MacArthur's view of the Japanese during the years he was their effective ruler? His men had suffered the atrocities.

 

The canard about Japanese and German cars is about 45 years out of date, at least.

[Sedalia Dave]

Something to consider.

 

There are darn few people alive today that participated in WWII on any side. A person that was 16 in 1945, would be 92 today.

 

You holding their descendants responsible for sins they may or may not have committed is just as ignorant as you being held responsible for your ancestors sins.

 

Think about it.  

[Buckshot Bear]

12 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

Something to consider.

 

There are darn few people alive today that participated in WWII on any side. A person that was 16 in 1945, would be 92 today.

 

You holding their descendants responsible for sins they may or may not have committed is just as ignorant as you being held responsible for your ancestors sins.

 

Think about it.  

 

Dave none of my comments have even hinted at what you've suggested above.

 

Reference was for those that did fight against the Axis -

 

'Sad thing is that in the early 50's Japanese cars started to take over followed by German cars.

 

We may have won the war but we lost the battle.

 

I often try to imagine what it must have been like for my father and uncles not many years long from the Pacific jungles and fighting in Africa seeing Japanese and German cars being bought'.

 

Do I personally hate Japanese or Germans or Japan or Germany as a people or as nations, no.

 

Do I hold a deep and utter searing burning hatred towards them in WWII .....you betcha' I do.

 

[Sedalia Dave]

10 hours ago, Buckshot Bear said:

 

Dave none of my comments have even hinted at what you've suggested above.

 

Reference was for those that did fight against the Axis -

 

'Sad thing is that in the early 50's Japanese cars started to take over followed by German cars.

 

We may have won the war but we lost the battle.

 

I often try to imagine what it must have been like for my father and uncles not many years long from the Pacific jungles and fighting in Africa seeing Japanese and German cars being bought'.

 

Do I personally hate Japanese or Germans or Japan or Germany as a people or as nations, no.

 

Do I hold a deep and utter searing burning hatred towards them in WWII .....you betcha' I do.

 

 

My comment wasn't directed towards you. I meant no offense.

What I was attempting to do was get those reading and commenting on the thread to think a bit.

 

In my travels I have met people that carried animosity against certain races because of past events that the current generation had no part in. They failed to realize that the yard stick they were measuring others with equally applied to themselves.

 

To paraphrase the Bible.  Sons and daughters shall not suffer for the iniquities of their father or mother. They should be judged on their merits.