Pearl Harbor 68 Years Ago

[ECO]

December 7, 1941

The 7 December 1941 Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was one of the great defining moments in history. A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion. America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant. source & more http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/even ... arlhbr.htm

[LadySizzla]

December 7, 1941

The 7 December 1941 Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor was one of the great defining moments in history. A single carefully-planned and well-executed stroke removed the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat to the Japanese Empire's southward expansion. America, unprepared and now considerably weakened, was abruptly brought into the Second World War as a full combatant. source & more http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/even ... arlhbr.htm

and the atomic bombings of negasaki and hiroshima made them pay big style!

[ECO]

I actually worked for a little old man who never understood why he was not sent off to fight the war. After the war he found out that he had been working on government projects the whole time and those bombs were some of the projects. Weird how part of them were made just a few miles from my home and then used to destroy so many homes................

[LadySizzla]

I actually worked for a little old man who never understood why he was not sent off to fight the war. After the war he found out that he had been working on government projects the whole time and those bombs were some of the projects. Weird how part of them were made just a few miles from my home and then used to destroy so many homes................

i dont think anyone in the 'establishment' know WHY. they just do what they are told. and thats what it takes to be a soldier. not everyone is cut out for it. my grandad served in WW2 and was based in India. My nanna maintains to this day that the english were there 'to help them'

[ECO]

Lol, and my grandfather helped the people in Africa..........helped them stay healthy so they could harvest rubber for tires on the airplanes and jeeps.

[Wahoo]

My father-in-law (now deceased) was a young naval officer at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.

Less well known are the military battles in the North Pacific during WWII when the Japanese invaded and occupied the Western-most Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska (U.S. territory at the time). U.S.-occupied Dutch Harbor, close to mainland Alaska, also was bombed and strafed by the Japanese. The Japanese, under cover of dense fog, deserted Kiska just before U.S. forces landed to repel the invasion force, but the fighting on tiny Attu was intense. In the final throes of the battle, some 800 defeated Japanese soldiers crowded into a valley and started slapping grenades against their helmets and clutching the activated grenades to their chests, committing mass suicide. Out of the Japanese defenders, 2,351 were killed and only 29 were taken prisoner. The American figures were 549 killed, 1,148 wounded, and about 2,100 listed as casualties from exposure, trench foot, and shock.

[LadySizzla]

My father-in-law (now deceased) was a young naval officer at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.

Less well known are the military battles in the North Pacific during WWII when the Japanese invaded and occupied the Western-most Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska (U.S. territory at the time). U.S.-occupied Dutch Harbor, close to mainland Alaska, also was bombed and strafed by the Japanese. The Japanese, under cover of dense fog, deserted Kiska just before U.S. forces landed to repel the invasion force, but the fighting on tiny Attu was intense. In the final throes of the battle, some 800 defeated Japanese soldiers crowded into a valley and started slapping grenades against their helmets and clutching the activated grenades to their chests, committing mass suicide. Out of the Japanese defenders, 2,351 were killed and only 29 were taken prisoner. The American figures were 549 killed, 1,148 wounded, and about 2,100 listed as casualties from exposure, trench foot, and shock.

Thats interesting.

I duly note with amusement how you say the japanese 'invaded' japanese islands that were US occupied lol. it reminds me of britain defending their own territory - Falkland Islands against the 'enemy' Argentina (the war which Thatcher took us to that US objected to). and i suppose if Russia were now to invade Afghanistan again then they would be effectivel declaring war on US/UK. its senseless!

But apart from that the Japanese kamikaze tactics were baffling. why?

[Wahoo]

LS, the Aleutian archipelago is a thousand miles from Japan. Never was part of Japan. It's part of Alaska--all of which was purchased from Russia in the mid-1800s. Became the 49th US state in 1959.

[Wahoo]

Check out this link: http://victorian.fortunecity.com/ducham ... murai.html, which explains the Japanese warrior code of Bushido and the mentality behind the kamikazi attacks.

[LadySizzla]

LS, the Aleutian archipelago is a thousand miles from Japan. Never was part of Japan. It's part of Alaska--all of which was purchased from Russia in the mid-1800s. Became the 49th US state in 1959.

I stand corrected - never was much good at geography.