Ignoring Lessons Learned at Pearl Harbor
Massive intelligence failures and a lack of "situational awareness" in Washington.
December 8, 2022 by Oliver North 10 Comments
Washington, D.C., Dec. 6, 2022 — Eighty-one years ago today, Commander Mitsuo Fuchida was preparing to lead an airborne strike force of 49 “Kate” bombers, 40 torpedo bombers, 51 “Val” dive-bombers and 43 “Zeke” fighters on the first wave of an assault on Pearl Harbor. At 0854 that terrible Sunday morning, a second wave of 167 aircraft added to the devastation. When the surprise attack was over, 3,581 Americans were dead or wounded; the largest naval anchorage in the Pacific was littered with sunken and burning U.S. warships; the best dry-dock and ship repair facilities west of California were in shambles, and less than 25% of U.S. military aircraft based in Hawaii were still operational.
The Japanese surprise attack was but the first blow in a cascade of disasters. The following day, as Imperial troops invaded the Philippines, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt proclaimed Dec. 7, 1941, to be “a date which will live in infamy,” and Congress declared war on Japan. Three days later, on Dec. 11, fascist Italy and Nazi Germany declared war on the U.S. in support of their Axis partner in Tokyo. By then, nearly half a million young Americans had already visited military recruiting stations volunteering to fight, and the phrase “Remember Pearl Harbor” was a watchword. When the conflagration finally ended in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945, more than 16 million men and women had served in the U.S. armed forces.
Each year we praise the courage and resolve of the Americans who were in Hawaii that terrible day. Yet, few now acknowledge massive intelligence failures and lack of “situational awareness” in Washington that allowed such a horrific surprise attack to occur. Nor do they mention that America’s poor preparations for war resulted in the loss of every engagement with the Japanese from Dec. 7, 1941, until the battle of Midway on June 4, 1942.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/ignoring-lessons-learned-at-pearl-harbor/
