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Eight Lessons from Pearl Harbor
Ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura (second from the left) and Ambassador Saburo Kurusu (center) after meeting with the U.S. President at the White House. Photographed on November 27, 1941, at the White House.
From the US-Japan War talks site.
1. Nothing starts a war faster than someone having the stray idea that you really dont want to fight.
2. Just because your enemy has its ambassadors in your capital speaking to you about peace doesn’t preclude the fact that they don’t also have a fleet of aircraft carriers on their way to strike your fleet.
3. Talks about peace are almost always diplomatic cover for the military to do what it does at a time of their choosing. A wise man once said that “war is diplomacy by other means” but the truth is that diplomacy is often war by other means.
4. Do not mistake the absence of war as being the same as peace. The history of mankind can be written as the transition of civilizations in one of the two states of preparing for war or recovering from war. Peace only comes with capitulation.
5. Your enemy doesn’t work to your schedule. Things will happen at the worst time of day on the worst day of the week at a time when you will be least capable of responding.
6. Your estimates about what the enemy is up to and what it is that motivates them are biased by what it is you most want your enemy to do, but your enemy doesn’t labor within those biases. They will do what they do for their own reasons because they think that it will benefit them and not you.
7. Smart people often do really stupid things. Don’t depend on a persons resume to save you from harsh reality. On December 6th, Admiral Kimmel and General Short were considered the best in their business. 24 hours later, facts would interfere with that assessment.
8. Your big bad battleship is tommorows sunken target. Don’t get lulled into believing that you can’t be beat, because just as sure as some man made that big bad battleship, some other man made the aerial torpedo to sink it.
My favorite rememberance of the attack on Pearl Harbor is an account of the actions of the people of San Francisco on the day of the attack:
...As word spread in San Francisco, thousands gathered at the Ocean Beach to gaze into the Pacific in disbelief. Minelaying in the Bay began at 11 a.m., less than one hour after the attack. (From The San Francisco War Chronology.)
Yes boys and girls, adult men and women of 1941 went to the edge of the Pacific as if to look out across the ocean towards Hawaii, so as to see if they could themselves witness the rising smoke from a far off place called "Pearl Harbor". It must’ve been a sight to see all those people staring out with dread, all not knowing what would come over the horizon the next day. It's a nice visual metaphor for all of us as we make our way through life.
(Yes, as a matter of fact I do find it ironic that this was the week in the calendar that the increasingly anti-American State Department decided to release its National Intelligence Estimate that says that "Iran is not a threat". I hold it and the people who wrote it in total contempt.)
Posted @ December 07, 2007 07:18 PM
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The State Department has been at war with this administration since Bush was first sworn in. The CIA has also worked hard to undermine this administration.
After reading the above points what really strikes me is the difference between San Franciscans of that era and today. Today's San Franciscans would have probably gone to the beach to rally in support of Japan.
Posted by: Tim P at December 8, 2007 08:09 AM
This is the best commemoration of Pearl Harbor that I have read, even if I did not read it until December 29!
Posted by: Bob Agard at December 29, 2007 05:32 PM
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