"December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy"

[xl_target]

Seventy One years ago (tomorrow), President Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the United States of America, uttered those words in front of a shocked and angry Congress of the USA. He was responding to an attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy on the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii. He was asking permission from the Congress of the USA to declare war on the Empire of Japan.

Pearl Harbor Survivor Remembers Attack on 71st Anniversary (video)

Today is the 71st anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, a day when over 2,400 Americans lost their lives. Last summer, more than a dozen Pearl Harbor veterans went back to the site of the attack to reflect on “a date which will live in infamy.” Their entire honor flight journey has been documented in a film called ‘Back to Pearl.’

The film’s director, Chris Hibben, and Pearl Harbor survivor Ewald “Cookie” Koch joined Fox and Friends this morning. Koch was in the barracks when the attack began. He described running out of the building and taking cover underneath a car. He credits another GI for saving his life that day. Koch said, “The shrapnel from the bomb hit him first because he was in front of me under the car.”

Hibben, who is an Air Force veteran and combat cameraman, used his own money to make the film. He did it to say thank you to our veterans. “These guys we owe our lives to … There’s nothing better than going back, letting them see their memorials, letting them tour the places that they were at that day,” he said.

Other related Links
NEW FOOTAGE: Never-Before-Seen Video and Photos Discovered of Pearl Harbor Attack, 70 Years Later

[ckkalyan]

Uncanny post xl_target-ji as I was just watching a TV documentary on exactly the same thing plus how WW's started in 1931, with Japan invading Manchuria...Thank you!

[timmy]

Pearl Harbor was a pivotal event, not only to the USA, but to the rest of the world.

Remember, the people of the USA wee not interested in going to war with anyone. President Roosevelt recognized the threats of Germany and Japan to the interests of the USA, but the American people were having none of war or anything like it.

But after Pearl Harbor, almost every American was spoiling to give the Japanese a thrashing they would never forget. The ordinary American didn't give a hoot about Britain and the war raging in Europe, until Hitler declared war on the USA.

So just ask yourself: what would have happened if Japan would have sailed right by the Philippine coast and attacked the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, and Malaysia? I believe that the US not attacking Japan is a very realistic alternative history in this case.

And ask yourself, what would have happened, had the USA not joined the UK and USSR to fight Germany? I tend to think that the USSR would have eventually triumphed. (Those who think that US Lend Lease made the difference ignore the fact that Lend Lease didn't began to play a role in the European War until after Stalingrad.) But Europe would certainly look much different today.

That's why I think Pearl Harbor was so pivotal-- it affected so much more than just the USA.

[winnie_the_pooh]

USA's entry probably prevented something like what happened to Nanking being repeated in India.Calcutta would have been the first major city to understand the true meaning of the Jap 'co-prosperity sphere'....just one example is this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_o ... an_Islands

[xl_target]

USA's entry probably prevented something like what happened to Nanking being repeated in India.Calcutta would have been the first major city to understand the true meaning of the Jap 'co-prosperity sphere'....just one example is this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_o ... an_Islands

Interesting, I learn something new every day.