December 7th - AGAIN

Greetings:

Well, December 7th has rolled around again and, once again, little mentionhas been made on the news in relation to Pearl Harbor 77 years ago.  For those who have forgotten, may I remind you that the Japanese Empire, which felt threatened by the USA, bombed and strafed all the ships and air planes in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, at 7:55 a.m. (HST) on Dec 7, 1941 in two waves of dive bombers, torpedo planes and fighter planes for almost three hours.  2,335 American service men were killed while 1,143 were injured. 

Americans called it a "Sneak Attack" because the Japanese had not declared an official war.  However, that was the fault of the diplomats in Washington, D.C., because of their problems translation from Japanes to English so that it could be presented to the Secretary of State Hull.  Most of this is covered in the movie "Tora! Tora! Tora!".  Admiral Yamamoto wanted the attack begin no more than 30 minutes (preferably one hour) after the declaration of war that morning just to "keep his skirts clean."  Didn't happen...

Anyway, I just wanted to recall this date to most of you that this is what brought the USA into war with Germany, not something that happened in France or England.  Japan and Italy were in an alliance so when we declared war with Japan, Germany declared war with us.  Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan) against the Allied powers; basically, everyone else, but mostly the USA and England - OK, and the Russians.  :)

Shalom
jco