The day that will live in infamy is becoming forgotten in the parts of the world that knew of it to begin with. The 2400 killed in the attack and the 400,000 Americans who died after the U.S. entered World War II, did not perish so others can live in oblivion.
While we’re good at commemorating things we’re also good at forgetting the impact those things had on the people who lived through them and why they took the positions they did. The service men and women who died on December 7, 1941 didn’t know they were putting their lives in jeopardy when shortly after dawn 414 planes rained terror on the American fleet harbored 50 miles west of Honolulu.
There was no U.S. involvement in the war in August 1939 when many of the sailors and soldiers enlisted who then found themselves on Oahu twenty-eight months later. There were world issues but they weren’t entering the service knowing they would be destined for the front lines. They made a decision to serve knowing the country needed individuals willing to be ready on any day to go from “training” to “executing,” from active duty to actively doing, probably with no warning.
On December 8, Franklin Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress opening his remarks with the now famous, “Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.” Those words get quoted at least once a year, every year, a day shy of the anniversary of their first utterance as we remember the event that thrust thousands of so many of enlistees onto the front line.
Source: History.com
President Roosevelt’s words that came after the famous ones are often lost to history. “No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.”
That last phrase again was, “…make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.” Unfortunately it did. Almost 60 years later almost the same number of people were killed at 3 sites on September 11, 2001 when 4 planes took aim on America.
So if today you find yourself calling today’s date one that will live in infamy, remember to also say to yourself, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” and give today a little life.
If you are a little strapped either from the holiday excess or just because you’re a little strapped, I have some giving ideas that aren’t economically painful.
Business trips weren’t less painful. The last few years of work I traveled a lot to other hospitals to do operational reviews. These would take me one or two days each and I usually did 2 or 3 hospitals at a time so I was mostly gone for 4 or 5 days. Because these places could be located almost anywhere in the country and there are only 3 airports in the world that have direct flights between them, business travel meant more time in and between airports than at productive work. Somehow I managed to get a week’s worth of shirts and ties, laptop and files, and the requisite book, phone and flight snack crammed into one approved sized carry-on. Heavy, but within the limits of the underseat and overhead compartment areas.
I must have bought the last one of those 6 or 7 years ago because I haven’t seen one since. Yes, I’m the one who’s one aisle over pushing all the buttons and laughing like I’ve just seen A Charlie Brown Christmas for the first time. (That reminds me, It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown will be on ABC this Sunday at 8.) (In case you were wondering.)
you are reading this, sometime in the past, sometimes a quite distant past where you are isn’t what it used to be. Every nation on Earth at some time wasn’t. And a surprising number of when they became what they are happened in July.
Day. What did we know? We’re Americans. I later learned that it actually commemorated the combining of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Ontario into the Dominion of Canada, presenting a stronger unified border against the United States just in case the politicos in Washington having just reunited the states after the American Civil War might have designs on taking those Canadian provinces for their own. Our own. Somebody’s own. I found that out when the British Parliament declared Canada to be an independent nation 115 years later.
Whatever misconceptions I had of these days they were still momentous days in the formation of what nations share our terrestrial home today. But there are a lot more nations celebrating freedom this month. Twenty-one other nations from Algeria to Venezuela. (I was hoping when I did my research that I find Zimbabwe gained their independence from Great Britain in July but alas, it was actually on April 18. But it would have made such a great sentence!)
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