House of Eratosthenes

Well…I must say, this is a little embarrassing. The anniversary ends with a zero, you would expect an unusually high level of solemnity and punctuality in observing the occasion. As it is, things are so quiet it seems there’s an expectation that the last survivor has expired, and we can move on. As is often the case with unhelpful messages, it isn’t stated syllable-for-syllable or word-for-word, it’s more of a perceptible stench. An absence of something. No movie promos. Hard to see any speeches or ceremonies taking place. Google’s page just has a search box and nothing else.

I can understand the desire to bury the past. There may even be good intentions behind it; Japan is not our enemy. Some people are more dovish than they were ten years ago, they’ve got their reasons and I can respect that.

But it just seems to me, there’s something wrong with your argument if the best shot it has of looking like the right one, arrives as a consequence of people not talking about something.

One of the lessons we have learned from Pearl Harbor, is that when a nation declares war on another, it’s at least possible for it to be unambiguously and incontestably in the right in doing so. If there is a political agenda in motion today that finds this message to be inconvenient, I don’t think it’s asking too much for said agenda to take a break for one day while a grateful nation remembers.

An absence of something.

Not completely. From the Air Force Association’s Daily Report:

Remembering Pearl Harbor: A missing-man formation of Hawaii Air National Guard F-22s will overfly Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Wednesday, saluting those Americans slain 70 years ago to the day in the Imperial Japanese Navy’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The leadership of Pacific Air Forces and Hickam’s 15th Wing also will join Pearl Harbor veterans in laying a wreath in honor of the dead to mark the anniversary. “Our enemies thought that by this sudden and deliberate raid, they could weaken America. Instead, they only strengthened it,” said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in a message Tuesday to Pearl Harbor survivors. He continued, “I know you take great pride, as I do, that your legacy lives on in today’s men and women in uniform, who have borne the burden of a decade of war, and who are truly this nation’s next greatest generation.” (Pearl Harbor-Hickam report by SrA. Lauren Main) (See also Obama proclamation.)
- bpenni | 12/07/2011 @ 11:52
Also, something going on at Alameda. But all in all, much quieter and more subdued than in years past. I suppose I shouldn’t read too much into it, but I don’t mind telling you it makes me uncomfortable to see it this way.
- mkfreeberg | 12/07/2011 @ 12:08
What Buck said. Thanks for posting that.

Additionally, I read today on Yahoo that over 100 Pearl survivors are not only still alive, but managed to make it to the ceremony. That’s saying something, considering that all of them are well into their 80s now, and even older.

There was an interesting marathon of documentaries on The Military Channel yesterday and today. One drew numerous comparisons between 12/7/41 and 09/11/01. Another explored the theory that there was a 5th Japanese mini sub which actually made it into the harbor during the air raid and may have been responsible for some of the damage done. We will never know for sure.

That said, it is interesting that it wasn’t headline news even on foxnews.com, or that Google finds time to alter its logo to commemorate every anniversary that’s important to the Left or every pet cause that it thinks needs promoting.

70 is a big number. This should have been bigger news – not just on remembering what happened and the lives lost, but some mention of the military and other doctrines put in place to be sure our country isn’t continually being caught with its pants down.

My position is that if our enemies were being reminded often enough that the US can and will strike pre-emptively and decisively, such attacks would never happen in the first place. But that would require competent and confident leadership, wouldn’t it?
- cylarz | 12/07/2011 @ 20:24

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Seventy Years After PearlWednesday, December 7th, 2011

Seventy Years After Pearl
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011