Pearl Harbor Attack Footage, Dec. 7, 1941

20 Replies to “Pearl Harbor Attack Footage, Dec. 7, 1941”

1. What did the President know and when did he know it?

2. How much did FDR know in advance of Pearl Harbor before it happened? why were all the carreirs that was the japs main targets out to sea at the time. Well at least six months later we would avenge Pearl Harbor in the Battle of Midway where four of the six jap carreirs that luanched on Pearl Harbor was sunk ending their threat to the west coast

3. Like 9/11 – Lest We Forget! Or Guantanamo, or Benghazi.

4. And like 9/11 demanded a response. Which was the Dolittle raid on
   Japan
   My favourite haiku
   Cold December morn
   American sailors shiver
   A nip in the air

5. Hillary Clinton Dec 05 2014:
   “This approach means ‘showing respect, even for one’s enemies; trying to understand and, insofar as psychologically possible, empathize with their perspective and point of view,'”
   “http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2863183/Hillary-Clinton-fire-saying-America-empathize-respect-enemies.html”
   Could you imagine?

6. This is the day,every year,I once again view “Tora!Tora!Tora!”
   Admiral H.E. Kimmel was cut out out of the information chain,for reasons still unknown to this day.
   I’ve always wondered if he was a Republican.

7. I ask myself how much our politicians now know of the Islamic insurgency & infiltration of the West?
   Why the endless immigration of a culture of death? It can’t all be PC garbage

8. Conspirationalist! He didn’t know in advance. That the American carriers were away should have been pointed out the Jap high command by their intelligence agencies and they would then have waited.

9. FDR wanted to get into the war and had been backing the Japanese into a corner for quite a while. I suspect that an attack was not unexpected but the efficacy of the Japanese Naval Air Force was grossly underestimated. I did a study on the Pearl Harbour attack back at Staff School many years ago. It was brilliantly planned and executed and the only real error was not following through with a second wave attack.
   In the days before political correctness, a young RCAF officer of oriental persuasion invited the U.S. Navy exchange officer over to his house on 7 December. The American expected a Christmas party but was instead greeted by the host wearing a hachimaki and bowing him in with “Happy Pearl Harbor Day”.

10. As Aviator said, the attack was extremely well planned and executed. In addition the Japanese attacked simultaneously across East Asia on that day, resulting in the loss of Singapore and the Philipines to the Japanese, and forcing a long brutal slog on the primarily American forces involved in the war on Japan. In the end, Mac Arthur, who was America’s heaven sent general in the Pacific, said the whole debacle resulted from an almost willful failure to appraise Japanese intentions, and, more importantly, prepare to counter and defeat them. In that respect, history is repeating itself with the west’s refusal to view Iran as an existential threat.

11. Admiral Yamamoto told his emperor he could only guarantee six months of victories. He was right. IMHO it’s a good thing the Americans didn’t know about the attack, once it was imminent. If they had sent their two aircraft carriers and obsolete battleships out to meet the Japanese task force, with its six largest aircraft carriers and battle hardened aircrews, it could have been even uglier than it was. American airpower at Pearl Harbour was also vastly outclassed by the more effective and numerous Japanese forces on that day. They ended up losing many aircraft but would have lost their pilots too.
    But there were there were two raids, one on the dockyard and another on the airfield, and a third attack was scrubbed, because the US aircraft carriers couldn’t be located. Japanese naval commanders tended to be very aggressive, even reckless, yet at other times fatally conservative, always fearing a counter-attack, as happened as described in Pearl Harbour and another time, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where the Japanese commander withdrew from his double back attack on the landing force, again fearing a trap. Had he carried through he would have done great damage to the landing forces, minimally protected with only escort carriers, after Bull Halsey fell for a Japanese carrier feint which left his landing task force dangerously exposed, compounded by another US commander who chased a simultaneous Japanese force attacking from the south.
    The fog and fortunes of war.

12. Aviator nailed it. No conspiracy was required. The approaching attack fleet was detected, but the information wasn’t considered real or important at the time.

13. Glenn has posted an insightful comment found over at Ace’s place. Funny, but right on the mark.
    http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/199344/

14. The infamous William(Bill the Rapists)Clinton tried to scrap the MISSORI the battleship where thejaps signsed the terms of surrender And know he was a vietnam draft dodger who burned old glory while in Moscow with some of his reptile buddies

15. Excellent observation, and a most valid comparison of both the leaders and the times.
    The USSA no longer has the spirit that won ww2 for America. It’s become more like the Soviet Union, and Russia is like the wild west of the late 1800s.

16. Fog of war….luck and stupidity….
    The USN was too confident that the Pearl Harbour shallow anchorage prevented aerial torpedo attacks…..
    The sheer distances involved made such an attack unfeasible…..a lesson the Doolittle Raiders exploited.
    Nagumo’s premature withdraw was astute as proved later at Midway…..
    I concur with Shamrock….the USN would have incurred fatal losses at sea against the IJN Armada….note Yamamoto brought the Yamata to Midway….

17. Thankfully Hitler declared war on the U.S.A.
    This allowed F.D.R. to move beyond covertly arming Britain’s fight against the Axis forces. The Pearl Harbour Attack was one of two attacks. The second attack occurred simultaneously at the Asian Continent however the International Date Line places it in history as a day later.
    The declaration of war by Hitler allowed the U.S.A. production capability to build the greatest military capability possible with the then current capabilities. This steady approach, coupled by another Hitler gross mistake of attacking The Soviet Union two months later in the calendar year than planned, prevented the German War Machine from developing the necessary production capabilities to completely dominate Europe. e.g. only occupying part of France.
    The Japanese supply lines were and remained extremely stretched across the vast stretch of the Pacific Ocean.
    This is the reason for the initial under supply of war materials on the U.S.A western war. The careful research and wisdom, militarily and politically as FDR’s political base included many voters of German extraction, far exceeds the capability of the present U.S.A. Administration.

18. “Russia is like the wild west of the late 1800s.”
    No. Russia is like the Germany of the late 1930s.

19. I’m reminded of Kate’s comment:
    “Pleasing your enemies doesn’t make them your friends”

20. If PEARL HARBOR happened today Obama would be going to japan with a white flag and surrendering and negotating the terms of surrender