December 7, 2012
It’s a good time to revisit Pearl Harbor on its 71st anniversary of the attack that started America’s official involvement in World War II.
FDR declared the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor “A day that will live in infamy.” Because the Japanese ambassador Nomura delivered the notice breaking off relations with the U.S. after the attack has been carried out.
This angered and roused the American people majority of which were isolationists who did not want to be involved in the war already raging in Europe for over two years. They did not care about the survival of England or the U.S.S.R. (Russia). World War II is the only war the American people unanimously supported.
The Japanese military was demoralized when they found out the attack on Pearl Harbor was launched before war was declared, unlike the wars with Russia (1904) and China (1937). They realized they will be fighting a dishonorable war and therefore it was almost impossible to win.
In the summer of 1939 Russia inflicted a stinging defeat on Japan in a war along the Manchurian-Mongolian border. Russia was looking for payback for their 1905 humiliating defeat. This would influence Japanese militarists’ decision to attack Pearl Harbor.
Up until six months before the Pearl Harbor attack, FDR has been in communication with the Emperor of Japan. When Hitler invaded Russia on June 22, 1941, perhaps inspired by Fascists victory in the Spanish Civil War under Franco, Tojo and the Japanese militarists, decided to cut off the Emperor’s communications with FDR and started preparations for the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Pacific war.
It would have made a big difference if Japan broke off relations with the U.S. and then attack Pearl Harbor. Japanese morale would have been very high because it is an honorable war they are fighting.
As David Krieger of Nuclear Age Peace Foundation would remind us time and again, Japan is still the only country to suffer not one but two nuclear attacks. Prime Minister Tojo and many Japanese officers were tried, convicted and executed as war criminals for waging an aggressive and tenacious war necessitating the use of nuclear bombs.
“Wars are won or lost long before the first battle has ever been fought” – Sun Tzu
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