December 7

66 years ago today the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. What amazes me is that a lot of people today have absolutely no idea regarding the details. Half couldn't even tell you were Pearl Harbor is.

The Jewish people held together and did not become absorbed into the various lands they were disbursed in for thousands of years because they remembered their heritage. During Passover they have a seder, which recites their history.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has a ceremony at their academy. Each day at sunset a chapter is read out of their history book (which has been meticulously recorded for over 200 years).

We need an American seder. We need to put together some kind of ritual that tells people about our founding, our wars, the events in history that have defined us as a nation. It also keeps us from making the same mistakes twice.

One thing about Pearl Harbor that has always intrigued me is the fact that the Japanese did not really plan it as a sneak attack. The Japanese diplomatic staff in Washington totally screwed the pooch - they were suppose to deliver an ultimatum to Roosevelt before the attack, but because of the slow decoding process, the Japanese ambassador didn't show up to the White House until after the attack.

Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, the architect of Pearl Harbor, wasn't real thrilled about war with the United States. He went to Harvard and was Naval attache in Washington, so he had a unique understanding of what the U.S. was capable of. He said that he had 6 months, after that he had no expectation of winning a war with America.

After the attack, he learned about the diplomatic bungling. He was said to go into a deep depression. He told his staff (I don't have the exact quote) that the diplomatic bungling made the Pearl Harbor operation a sneak attack. He could think of nothing that would infuriate the American people more. He then said "We have awakened a sleeping giant and have instilled in him a terrible resolve". That is a direct quote.

He was right.