Not long after the first bombs fell, the USS Oklahoma took three torpedoes and began to capsize. Two more torpedoes tore into her hull.
In less than fifteen minutes, she had rolled so far that her masts touched the bottom of the shallow harbor. In one of her gun turrets, Ensign Francis Flaherty grabbed a flashlight and calmly lit the way for the crew to escape. He remained in the dark turret, even after the order was given to abandon ship. Isaac Kidd remained on the bridge, diligently discharging his duties as the Senior Officer Present Afloat until he died from an enemy bomb.
Cassin Young sprinted to the bridge. As he directed the actions of an antiaircraft gun, he was blown overboard by the exploding ammunition magazine of the Arizona. He proceeded to swim back to the Vestal , which was afire, listing, and under heavy strafing attack from enemy aircraft.
Young calmly moved the Vestal away from the Arizona , and then beached her in order to save her from sinking. The day after the attack, President Franklin Roosevelt declared December 7 as a day that would live in infamy.
And the Greatest Generation did rise up in their righteous might. Their children and grandchildren are heirs to this legacy.
They answered the question in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. When we sing our national anthem, we end with a question.
At the end of what has become the national anthem, Key wonders if the flag will still fly in the morning. But many Americans might not realize that Key penned four verses—not just the first that we sing as the anthem. Why do we stop singing with the question unanswered? The question always remains unanswered because we must never forget that this thing called democracy is truly an experiment. And to preserve it, we must work for it, protect it, and if necessary, fight for it.
Then comes the fourth and final verse:. In this fourth verse, Key predicts that America will always answer the question. Despite the passage of more than three quarters of a century, Pearl Harbor remains a poignant symbol of freedom and sacrifice. Spurred into an urgent military and industrial mobilization, Americans proved equal to the challenge and implacably resolved to accept the heartbreaking sacrifices that victory would demand.
More than , U. Not until Sept. The Allied occupations of Japan and Germany transformed each into a peaceable, democratic nation and a close American friend. These monumental achievements could hardly have been imagined that horrific day in In the U.
Instead of retreating into the isolation of the prewar years, America chose greater engagement with the rest of the world — diplomatically, militarily and economically.
Unfortunately for Japan, one of its main targets at Pearl Harbor was a cluster of newly minted aircraft carriers that were out at sea at the time of the attack. The fact that these carriers played a decisive role in defeating Japan at the Battle of Midway only six months later, coupled with the fact that the Japanese failed to destroy the American oil storage depot at Honolulu, meant that the attack on Pearl Harbor was anything but a re- sounding military victory for Tokyo.
Although the US and Japan enjoyed a very close relationship up through the Russo-Japanese War of —, there had been a general souring of relations between the two nations ever since. However, there was little danger of war through the s between the US and Japan because the Japanese worked hard not to appear too belligerent when dealing with Washington.
Iguchi alleges that war between the US and Japan was not inevitable and that it could have been avoided, even at the last moment. Should Japan confront the Soviet Union over northern China? Would it be better to seek greater accommodation with the British and Americans or should Japan gamble on war? The Japanese military was more concerned with its war in China and a potential threat from the Soviet Union until well into Although Iguchi is a bona fide Japanese scholar, his conclusions are wholly objective, and he is far more critical of the Japanese than the Americans.
He totally rejects the oft-quoted thesis that the Roosevelt administration deliberately provoked Japan into attacking Pearl Harbor as a backdoor method of entering the European theater to rescue Britain. Iguchi also challenges the notion that American economic sanctions and its demands for a complete Japanese withdrawal from Indochina and China and a termination of the tripartite pact with Italy and Germany directly forced Japan to attack the US and Britain. Iguchi effectively counters the frequently made claim that the negotiations between Ambassador Nomura and Secretary of State Hull were not serious.
Many parties in Japan and the US genuinely hoped for a last- minute settlement. By then, major military powerbrokers in Japan had decided on war but failed to inform anybody in their embassy in Washington of the impending attacks. Those involved in the attack at Pearl Harbor were regarded as heroes during the war but later viewed negatively, Yaguchi said.
Minoru Genda, who helped plan the Pearl Harbor attack alongside Adm. Across the political spectrum, many agree that Abe is the perfect person to make this trip. His sister, Sadako, was a Hiroshima girl who survived the atomic bomb attack and died of leukemia 10 years later.
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