Friday, December 05, 2008
PEARL HARBOR DAY
Day of Infamy
On wings as hawks they came,
As dawn broke forth that holy day,
That lives in infamy and shame,
That years have failed to wash away.
For immortality and for fame,
They came as birds of prey;
Laden with fire and flame,
Over the hills and across the bay.
Their mission then to kill and maim.
In peace below the sleeping giant lay,
Exposed to treachery's deadly aim,
In this most infamous foul play.
To some came honor and acclaim,
Amidst the horror of that melee.
To the victims give laud and fame;
But none to betrayers in the fray.
On occasion of the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1991 ------ Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard
“A day which will live in infamy,” President Franklin D. Roosevelt dramatically stated as we listened anxiously on the radio, and then watched later on Movietone News in the theatre. He was asking Congress to declare war on the Empire of Japan, two days after what he described as the “cowardly” and “dastardly” attack on Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.
Those of us living at that time remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news that Sunday afternoon. Quickly we became glued to our radios.
Our utter repugnance for the Japanese then is difficult to describe now. Despicably they actually had two diplomatic envoys of peace in Washington for a Monday audience with Cordell Hull, our Secretary of State. We then understood quickly that was simply a smokescreen for their treacherous plotting of the sneak attack.
Some of us will not buy a Japanese car to this very day, nor would we buy anything else made there if given a choice. The modern stereotype of the sweet, peaceful, lotus-flower Japanese has had difficulty taking hold on some World War II veterans and families. Some of us remember all too well Pearl Harbor, the sieges of Bataan and Corregidor, the Bataan death march of the captives, and the cruel barbarism of Japanese treatment of American prisoners – several of whom were relatives or brothers of our close friends.
The world was already under the dark sinister pall from a Germany dominated by and loyally subservient to a man so evil that we have seen in his hometown on the sidewalk in front of his boyhood home a crude stone marker with an inscription attesting to evil this man wreaked on the earth, documenting the millions of deaths, and calling forth “never again.” What a terrible legacy!
The German and the Japanese people were not exempt from all responsibility for the conduct of the governments and officials. Neither are we immune from some responsibility for the conduct of our government and its officials.
During those ensuing years of 1942, 1943, 1944, and until 1945, the world was engulfed in the fire of war. It touched every family. Some of us served, some of us lost family members in that war, and others sacrificed. But we never looked back. We never questioned. We knew what we had to do. Our nation’s honor and our honor were at stake. The security of the United States and the world hung in the uneasy balance.
Never again have we had a war in which the issues and reasons were so clear.
They said that the Korean War was about containing communism in Asia. They said the Viet Nam War was about containing communism in Asia. That issue was not personal with us. We felt limited in the level of sacrifice we were willing to make, and that did not include the lives of our family members. The urgency of our national interest was not that clear to us.
Some of who have been through all these wars feel offended when others around declare that our troops in Iraq are protecting our lives and liberty. We were not attacked by Iraq or even threatened. We are not “fighting them in the streets of Baghdad to keep from fighting them here.” Iraq did not attack us on 9/11. A gang of terrorist Arab thugs, who may also have been religious fanatics, attacked us.
But our troops are overseas doing their duty in accordance with orders from their commander-in-chief, whom they must presume knows what actions are necessary in our national interest. For this, we honor them.
Some among us may have been considered as unpatriotic because we did not support an undeclared pre-emptive attack on another nation based upon twisted interpretation of bad intelligence information. The hawkish have tried to make some of us feel unpatriotic for lack of zeal for the war.
Some of all ages blindly follow, of course, but a few of us who have been through other real wars for the survival of our nation are still very stubborn about what we know and what we feel. Naturally there are those among us who have tried to exploit patriotism for political purposes.
It seems to this one old veteran that Pearl Harbor Day is a good time to remember these things.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
On wings as hawks they came,
As dawn broke forth that holy day,
That lives in infamy and shame,
That years have failed to wash away.
For immortality and for fame,
They came as birds of prey;
Laden with fire and flame,
Over the hills and across the bay.
Their mission then to kill and maim.
In peace below the sleeping giant lay,
Exposed to treachery's deadly aim,
In this most infamous foul play.
To some came honor and acclaim,
Amidst the horror of that melee.
To the victims give laud and fame;
But none to betrayers in the fray.
On occasion of the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1991 ------ Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard
“A day which will live in infamy,” President Franklin D. Roosevelt dramatically stated as we listened anxiously on the radio, and then watched later on Movietone News in the theatre. He was asking Congress to declare war on the Empire of Japan, two days after what he described as the “cowardly” and “dastardly” attack on Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.
Those of us living at that time remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news that Sunday afternoon. Quickly we became glued to our radios.
Our utter repugnance for the Japanese then is difficult to describe now. Despicably they actually had two diplomatic envoys of peace in Washington for a Monday audience with Cordell Hull, our Secretary of State. We then understood quickly that was simply a smokescreen for their treacherous plotting of the sneak attack.
Some of us will not buy a Japanese car to this very day, nor would we buy anything else made there if given a choice. The modern stereotype of the sweet, peaceful, lotus-flower Japanese has had difficulty taking hold on some World War II veterans and families. Some of us remember all too well Pearl Harbor, the sieges of Bataan and Corregidor, the Bataan death march of the captives, and the cruel barbarism of Japanese treatment of American prisoners – several of whom were relatives or brothers of our close friends.
The world was already under the dark sinister pall from a Germany dominated by and loyally subservient to a man so evil that we have seen in his hometown on the sidewalk in front of his boyhood home a crude stone marker with an inscription attesting to evil this man wreaked on the earth, documenting the millions of deaths, and calling forth “never again.” What a terrible legacy!
The German and the Japanese people were not exempt from all responsibility for the conduct of the governments and officials. Neither are we immune from some responsibility for the conduct of our government and its officials.
During those ensuing years of 1942, 1943, 1944, and until 1945, the world was engulfed in the fire of war. It touched every family. Some of us served, some of us lost family members in that war, and others sacrificed. But we never looked back. We never questioned. We knew what we had to do. Our nation’s honor and our honor were at stake. The security of the United States and the world hung in the uneasy balance.
Never again have we had a war in which the issues and reasons were so clear.
They said that the Korean War was about containing communism in Asia. They said the Viet Nam War was about containing communism in Asia. That issue was not personal with us. We felt limited in the level of sacrifice we were willing to make, and that did not include the lives of our family members. The urgency of our national interest was not that clear to us.
Some of who have been through all these wars feel offended when others around declare that our troops in Iraq are protecting our lives and liberty. We were not attacked by Iraq or even threatened. We are not “fighting them in the streets of Baghdad to keep from fighting them here.” Iraq did not attack us on 9/11. A gang of terrorist Arab thugs, who may also have been religious fanatics, attacked us.
But our troops are overseas doing their duty in accordance with orders from their commander-in-chief, whom they must presume knows what actions are necessary in our national interest. For this, we honor them.
Some among us may have been considered as unpatriotic because we did not support an undeclared pre-emptive attack on another nation based upon twisted interpretation of bad intelligence information. The hawkish have tried to make some of us feel unpatriotic for lack of zeal for the war.
Some of all ages blindly follow, of course, but a few of us who have been through other real wars for the survival of our nation are still very stubborn about what we know and what we feel. Naturally there are those among us who have tried to exploit patriotism for political purposes.
It seems to this one old veteran that Pearl Harbor Day is a good time to remember these things.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
