December 7: A Date Which Will Live in Infamy

By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host
For our generation, September 11, 2001 is the day that changed America.  For the Greatest Generation, December 7, 1941 changed America.  President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called it, "A date which will live in infamy." An armed force of another country attacked America's shores. It was a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by Japan that would bring the United States into World War II.  It served as a uniting event, bringing Americans together for a single cause: To defeat the monsters that attacked America.

The Japanese Empire killed over 2,400 Americans in and around Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 1,177 of those deaths were those that died aboard the USS Arizona battleship.

For many who lived through World War II, everyday during the war, in their heart, was December 8th. Men of all ages swarmed the military recruiting offices to join the war, and fight for America.

Women joined the factories to work as builders of aircraft and other war machines. They planted "Victory Gardens" to grow their own vegetables, as many items were in short supply partly due to the war effort, and partly due to the Great Depression.

Through it, after the New Deal failed so spectacularly to end the depression, America worked together to win the war in Europe and the Pacific Theater.

As with the terror attacks on 9/11, no one should forget the stunning attack on American soil at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Though the memories are fading, and the people who remember that day are few, the importance of that day must be forever remembered.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary