Day of Infamy Options

[cupcake]

65 years ago, on this day, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

When the Dec. 7, 1941, onslaught was over, there were 2,403 dead and thousands others wounded.

Besides the mass causalities in the two waves of attacks that lasted less than two hours, the Japanese also had sunk or damaged 18 ships and destroyed more than 180 aircraft.

It was, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt would declare, "a day of infamy."

The next day, America was at war.

Although it was a day of great tragedy, it was also a day that revived our national pride and strengthened our determination as a nation.

This spirit of unity and reborn patriotism had "awakened the sleeping giant" and ultimately led us to victory and the end of World War II.

I have a really hard time believing that if that happened today, America would have the mettle to carry out an all-out offensive on two geographic fronts, be able to accept the mass casualties (ours and collateral), indiscriminate carpet bombing, and eventual use of atomic bombs. The media would have none of that. The politicians would be talking out both sides of their mouths. The "call to arms" would fall on deaf ears.

We would have lost WWII had it been fought in the 21st century. No doubt in my mind.

[Seeker]

Nope, it wasn't a conspiracy show. The Japanese did not believe in surprise attacks, it is samurai custom to wake your enemy from sleep and give him a sword to defend himself before you fight. The Japanese ambassador delivered a letter to Roosevelt 30 minutes prior to the attack, but Roosevelt had known about it even earlier because the U.S. had intercepted the information in the letter way earlier. The U.S. typically intercepted communications from Japan to the Ambassador before the Ambassador even got it. Nevertheless, the letter was still delivered to Roosevelt 30 minutes prior.

The show was on the History Channel around 8 this morning. It wasn't a conspiracy show, check tvguide.com or Yahoo TV.

[Hartmann]

Nope, it wasn't a conspiracy show. The Japanese did not believe in surprise attacks, it is samurai custom to wake your enemy from sleep and give him a sword to defend himself before you fight. The Japanese ambassador delivered a letter to Roosevelt 30 minutes prior to the attack, but Roosevelt had known about it even earlier because the U.S. had intercepted the information in the letter way earlier. The U.S. typically intercepted communications from Japan to the Ambassador before the Ambassador even got it. Nevertheless, the letter was still delivered to Roosevelt 30 minutes prior.

The show was on the History Channel around 8 this morning. It wasn't a conspiracy show, check tvguide.com or Yahoo TV.

I have heard this as well and don't deny it. My conspiracy comment was in regards to your "Roosevelt refused to alert Pearl Harbor" comments.

So what was Roosevelt supposed to do in those 30 minutes? Single handedly shoot down the entire Japanese Navy's attack force? Pearl Harbor was warned several times about a potential attack that morning. However, scrambling aircraft and readying guns, etc. was impossible to do, especially in 30 minutes. Even more of an undertaking would have been to get the fleet "under way" and out of the harbor. The Nevada attempted to exit the harbor but that was scrubbed and she was beached to avoid her being sunk in the entrance.

Talk to someone who was there. They could have known hours in advance and still not been able to prevent (or significantly mitigate) destruction of the fleet.

I would almost venture to say that a 30 minute warning could have done more harm than good. Ships could have been in the harbor entrance at the time of the attack and sunk there. That would delay our response and movement into the Pacific Theater for who knows how long.