Pearl Harbor

Seventy-five years ago, December 7, 1941, the “Day that will live in infamy,” was initiated at 7:45 AM, a Sunday morning. Whether the United States would have, or should have entered the war became a moot point. We were in it. And a country that had largely demilitarized itself, suddenly initiated a united (pun intended) effort to defeat an enemy on two fronts. And  by September, 1945, that task was completed.

A string of victories from North Africa, to the Mediterranean front and Italy, to the Normandy invasion of Northern Europe was coupled with the campaign in the Pacific. A partial listing of the islands marching from Midway and the Coral Sea, Guadalcanal, the Philippines, Iwo Jima up to Okinawa coupled with other offensives in SE Asia, Burma, borneo, India, and even China were the prelude to the attack on the Japan itself.

The bloody battles for Iwo Jima and Okinawa were portents of the nearly impossible task of taking the main islands. The ultimatum of the Potsdam Conference July 26, 1945, demanded the surrender of Japan or threatened ultimate destruction.

When there was no response, on 6 and 9 August, 1945 said destruction was unleashed. The strategy has been variously debated since, but the clear result was immediate, unconditional surrender and the end of the war. One minor irony is that the Japanese empire feared additional bombing and capitulated, unaware of the fact that there were no more functional bombs available. That would appear to be a coup for our nascent intelligence agencies.

Wednesday commemorates the end of a true “world war.” It was a “hot” or shooting war. Other offensives have been mounted and faced in the intervening years. We hope and pray that another such conflagration will not occur, ever.

The loss in human terms, in economic terms, and in cultural terms is literally incalculable. The United States, its allies, and the world cannot afford another such conflict. Alfred Nobel wished that his invention, dynamite, would be so horrific that no future wars would be fought. He was sadly mistaken and every destructive advancement since has multiplied the “killing efficiency” of arms. Our latest technological advances have not been actually deployed, but potentially are available.

We are technologically superior to our ancient forefathers, but our aggressive tendencies are no less developed or controlled. Much of our human “genius” is applied to improvised killing devices of all types from the relatively primitive conditions in the Mideast confrontation to computer generated electronic attacks to mind boggling technological threats.

Just as the Civil War, WWI, and WWII, and every conflict before, in between, and after have siphoned vital resources from the world, so the continued fascination with destruction efficiencies drains our world of needed resources and solutions to human problems. It is a high price to pay.

On the other hand, failing to defend against those who harbor ulterior motives will result in a world wide domination more catastrophic than that of the barbarians who destroyed the Roman Empire. Hope and prayer are our only hope, and we better pray first.