My annual Pearl Harbor post.
This is the 68th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Imperial Navy. Wikipedia has a pretty good entry.
The Imperial Japanese Navy made its attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, was aimed at the Pacific Fleet of the United States Navy and its defending Army Air Corps and Marine air forces. The attack damaged or destroyed twelve U.S. warships, destroyed 188 aircraft, and killed 2,403 American servicemen and 68 civilians. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto planned the raid as the start of the Pacific Campaign of World War II, and it was commanded by Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, who lost 64 servicemen. However, the Pacific Fleet’s three aircraft carriers were not in port and so were undamaged, as were oil tank farms and machine shops. Using these resources the United States was able to rebound within six months to a year. The U.S. public saw the attack as a treacherous act and rallied strongly against the Japanese Empire, resulting in its later defeat.
When you think about it, it’s pretty remarkable that it took us only 1,347 days from being sucker punched on 12/7/1941 to having defeated the combined might of the Axis powers by VJ Day – August 15, 1945; a span of 3 years, 8 months, and 8 days.
An amazing feat by that generation, when you also factor in our large commitment to Europe at the same time.
Ah, if we could only mobilize halfway as well today. Too much has changed, I guess.
If we could only convince all of our enemies to dig in on far-flung islands, and then just run at our machine gun nests until they all were dead…
I think what I was trying to say is that asymmetric warfare is usually a decades-long thing. The you-shoot-at-me/I’ll-shoot-at-you wars tend to be quicker.
To T’s point, we could really do the world a favor if our armies would like up musket-style. Ranks of men shoulder to shoulder on each side.
I figure if we can get everyone to the same battlefield, we’ll be done in a week. 2 weeks, tops. We’ll have peace until the sons of the dead are old enough to fight.