A Perspective on Pearl Harbor

I am a long time political and military historian. I have studied World War Two particularly because it's outcome set the geopolitical stage for all subsequent political, economic and ideological instances throughout the 20th Century and even up until today. World War Two still resonates when people discuss nuclear proliferation, genocide, balances of power and styles of leadership.

There are only a few dates which cause me to give pause and reflect on where we have been and where we are going. December 7th is one of those dates. I think it is important, especially in this era, to contemplate this anniversary and what it means.

First, consider that in 1941, the rest of the world was fully two years into World War Two. Europe had been overrun by the German war machine. Had Hitler not turned his sights on Russia, it is likely that England would have been invaded and conquered.

Second, in the East, Japan had taken Korea, China, Manchuria and Southeast Asia. Japan had actually invaded China in 1937 while Hitler was busy ignoring the Treaty of Versailles. Even further back, in 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria. The United States maintained a cautious distance, supplying England and Russia. We ignored the initial reports of the Holocaust, determining that our national security was not at stake. We had also leveraged some economic power against the Japanese for their Pacific aggression by refusing to sell them the raw material they needed to continue resourcing the Imperial Army and Navy. Our very presence in the Phillipines, various Pacific Islands and of course, Hawaii, was taken as a threat to expanding Japanese interests and aggressive acts. The Japanese used these reasons to justify an attack on Pearl Harbor. That's right, they blamed us for provoking them into attacking Pearl Harbor and the Phillipines. Sound familiar? Keep reading.

Third, during the 1930s, Europe and the United States turned a blind eye to the increasingly belligerent rhetoric and actions of Japan, Italy and Germany's leaders. The thought process was that diplomacy, negotiation and talking would smooth things over. When Germany began ignoring the Versailles Treaty, including not-so-secret rearming process and remilitarizing the Rhineland, Europe and the US ignored it. Hitler rightly interpreted this as weakness and it further emboldened him. It is ironic that some of Hitler's biggest victories were scored without a shot being fired: Annexing Austria and the Sudetenland; rearming the German war machine and moving back into the Rhineland. We ignored Japanese militarism as being remote and not impacting us.

Are there parallels to today? You better believe it. And once again, people are only too willing to blame America for all of the evils in the world. We either do too much or we dont do enough. In the meantime, this is all a smokescreen and an excuse for killing other people, undermining legitimate governments and threatening to nuke Israel and anyone else who gets in their way.

Is the United States perfect? Of course not. We have a blemished and bloodstained history. But, we have been open and honest about it. We have tried to make reparations and amends for our sins. And guess what, the actions of almost every other country out there, including our fiercest critics, do not stand up to moral or ethical scrutiny.

It is ironic that Islamic leaders have said that the West has declared war on Islam. It is the other way around. We need to take people like Ahmadinejad at his word. We also need to stand up to him. The West failed to do so in the 1930s. Failure to do so now will result in the same thing happening as happened on 7 December 1941. It is heartbreaking to think that on the day a mushroom cloud appears over a major American city, there will be people who say we deserved it.