OT: Happy Pearl Harbor Day
 

70 years ago today the Empire of Japanese made it's greatest strategic mistake of WWII and lost their bid for the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

Happy is not the word I would choose. Remember. Give a moment or reflect on.

Agreed about this being a day to take a moment to reflect on the events of 07DEC1941.

That the Japanese made a monumental strategic mistake?

It would have been interesting had the Japanese ignored US possessions for as long as possible but still invaded British possessions, leaving the US neutral for as long as possible.

Wasn't their biggest mistake of the day not sending the last wave of aircraft to finish the job properly? Well, second to being a touch late with the declaration of war, but that was really a PR issue rather than military.
Ok, the whole thing turned out to be a tremendous blunder, but it would seem in the circumstances of the time they had little real choice if they wanted to continue expanding and have a hope of holding onto their new territories.

The US entry into the war in the Pacific was of tremendous benefit to Australia. It's in no small part due to that, that Australia has backed up the US in every major conflict in the Asia-Pacific since then. We still appreciate it. So for us, no US serviceman or woman died in vain in the Pearl Harbor attacks. We honor their sacrifice.

I had three great uncles that survived Pearl Harbor. Two of them survived the rest of the war. The last one died last year, buried with three of his brothers at Arlington. I've never been to the USS Arizona Memorial, but I'd like to visit.

It would have been even more interesting if Hitler had been the strategic genius his fanboys believe he was, and immediately declared war on Japan...

I lived in Hawaii from 1975-1980 (my stepfather was stationed at Kaneohe, and then left us there while he went on float and then was transferred to Japan). Places like the Arizona Memorial, the Punchbowl, some places at Ft Shafter and Ford Island -- you can feel the ghosts. You find you can't talk in much more than a soft voice, and you fight to keep the tears down. It's like the feeling you get at Arlington and the Unknown Soldier Memorial or the Ft Sam Houston Cemetery or the Vietnam Memorial -- almost spooky.

It’s a sad commentary that we’ve lost so much manufacturing capacity that were we to get Pearl Harbored today, we’d need ten years to retool and rebuild. If we weren’t at war with China, we’d buy everything from them and praise free trade.