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thedrifter
12-09-05, 02:08 PM
That day of infamy will never be forgotten
By NICK SLOAN
Special to the Kansan
Dec. 7, 1941- a date which will live in infamy.

Those were the words spoken by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The United States would declare war on Japan, which in turn caused Nazi Germany and Italy to declare war on us.

With today being it's anniversary date, I think it would be fitting to remember it.

Dec. 7, 1941, has been replaced in most people's minds by Sept. 11, 2001. There's nothing wrong with that. Seeing the World Trade Center destroyed in a matter of hours. Seeing the Pentagon, the symbol of strength of our military around the world, attacked was horrible. We later learned that the first battle on the war on terrorism happened on Flight 93, when passengers overtook terrorists and crashed a plane in a field in Pennsylvania.

However, with all of that happening, don't forget about Pearl Harbor Day. While Sept. 11 and Pearl Harbor have a lot of similarities (the smoke coming off the U.S.S. Arizona was eerily similar to that of the World Trade Center), there are profound differences as well.

In my opinion, I think Pearl Harbor is still the worse attack this country has ever suffered. Please, don't think that I'm trying to lessen the date of Sept. 11; I'm not because it is my generation's Pearl Harbor as the John F. Kennedy assassination was my parents' generation's Pearl Harbor.

Many point out that those who died in the Sept. 11 attacks were "just at work and were innocent victims." They were, but so was our military that day. They were in port, possibly getting ready to eventually go into Nazi Germany and defeating Hitler. Exactly 2,388 were killed that day, most which were in the Navy or Marines.

The attack was a more powerful strategic attack on our military, which was different than terrorists seeking out symbolic dates or objects.

The attack also led us into World War II, which was the bloodiest and eventful war that the world has ever seen. The war was fought in almost every continent, including North America with the Pearl Harbor attack.

More than 16 million American troops participated at the war at some point, with 291,557 killed and 670,846 wounded. Luckily, and thankfully, we haven't entered into five digits with those who have lost their lives serving our country today.

One other major difference between Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11 is that the attack came from an established country, not from a terrorist organization.

However, one thing that is similar between the Japanese and the terrorists today is their mentality. Whenever I hear anyone talk about how we have never fought an enemy like al-Qaida, I have the urge to tell them to look in a history book.

The Japanese military invented the suicide bomber with their kamikaze style of fighting. It was "victory or death" as their mindset. Victory came out any means necessary.

I would even argue that Hitler's Germany was a more dangerous enemy than the terrorists today.

Going back to the Japanese, they used brutal tactics like our enemy does today. The Rape of Nanking saw thousands of Chinese beheaded, burned, bayoneted, buried alive or disemboweled. The Bataan Death March wasn't exactly pleasant either. Oh, and the Nazis murdered millions in the Holocaust as well.

The politicians in that time were different, too. Harry Truman's (as well as FDR's) leadership during that time saved civilization. Pearl Harbor, Japanese atrocities and the thought of ending the war led to Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb.

Truman made the right decision both times and the war was ended. It was the bravest and one of the toughest decisions a president had to make in the 20th Century and Truman nailed it. If he had stayed the course, thousands of troops would have been killed in the invasion of Japan.

In present day, whenever I talk to people have visited the Pearl Harbor site, all sorts of emotions come out. Whether or not they served in the military, emotions from all Americans come out when they see it.

The only other comparison that I can make is when people talk about the Vietnam Wall in Washington D.C.

While I think it is important to be focused on our enemy today, we have to remember history and the context of our current situation. We are lucky that events stemming from Sept. 11 haven't led to incidents similar like Pearl Harbor did. Operation Overload, which is better known as D-Day, had far more deaths than the Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom combined.

While living in the present, please never forget the past.

Everything that is happening today is no worse than what happened years ago. War is war. There's nothing anymore significant with this war. There's nothing different about Osama bin Laden and Adolf Hitler. There's nothing different between the Japanese military or the terrorists.

Please, remember the day of infamy and reflect on it.

Nick Sloan is a reporter for The Kansan. He can be reached at nicks@kansascitykansan.com

Ellie