A Date Which Will Live in Infamy

A Date Which Will Live in Infamy “The Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island of Oahu on Dec. 7, 1941 was the climax of a decade of rising tension between Japan and the U.S.,” master of ceremonies Stephen Brady said. “Although the U.S. had been trying to contain Japan’s expansion during these years, the U.S. was a strong trading partner. Therefore, since America supplied more than half of Japan’s iron, steel and oil, Japan was reluctant to push the U.S. too far, but it was also intent on getting control of its own sources of raw materials.” The United States placed an embargo on materials when Japan joined the Triple Alliance in 1940 and closed the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping when it seized the rest of Indochina in 1941. “Negotiations seeking a peaceful settlement went on in Washington, but both sides seem to have decided that war was inevitable,” Brady said. “On Nov. 25, 1941, though continuing the discussions, the Japanese dispatched aircraft carriers eastward toward Hawaii and began massing troops on the Malayan border.” On Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor at 7:55 a.m., and a second wave hit an hour later. “By the time the planes returned to their carriers at 9:45 a.m., most of the American planes on Oahu were wrecked; eight battleships, three destroyers and three cruisers had been put out of action; and two battleships, Oklahoma and Arizona, were utterly destroyed,” Brady said. “A total of 2,323 U.S. servicemen had been killed.” The next morning, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Dec. 7 as “a date which will live in infamy” and declared war against Japan, entering the United States in World War II. The Impact VFW commander Mike Mastrangelo said there are two reasons why Pearl Harbor was important in military history. “It reminded us of the need to be ever vigilant,” he said. “I bear no ill-will to the Japanese military. The issue on our part was we were unaware of it. We were caught, exposed. And this really becomes a lesson that lives with us to the present. “This country represents a way of life that’s unique, a way of life that’s worth defending, but it’s (opposed by) forces of evil throughout the world,” he said. “And if we don’t recognize that and prepare ourselves to defend against those evils, then we will be talking about another event at a later time.” Mastrangelo said the second reason was because of the “resiliency of the American people” and the “incredible ability to band together for a common purpose and fight for victory.” While United States tended to its wounded and dead, Americans mobilized and prepared for war. “The country responded in a way that was unprecedented,” Mastrangelo said. “They responded to the threat over the Pacific and Europe. Less than four years later, peace would come to the region.” Mastrangelo said the attacks on Pearl Harbor is an important part in American history and hoped that the lessons learned will never be forgotten.

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