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Pearl Harbor attack remembered 68 years later

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Funnily enough, not a lot of discussion on this anniversary in Japanese media. Doesn't go down well with the LovePeaceJapan image, I guess.

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Funnily enough, not a lot of discussion on this anniversary in Japanese media. Doesn't go down well with the LovePeaceJapan image, I guess.

Yeah tt's a pity to think there was a time Japan didn't resign in shikataganai to US pressure. It's almost depressing to think how Japan could've Japan turned out had Imperial politics wasn't in grasp of Tojo and the Army. Maybe in the aftermath that Isoroku Yamamoto and his Navy Staff thought that attempting a coup in Chiyoda would've produced a more favourable outcome than attacking the infinitely industrious Yanks.

Also consider that almost every Japanese leader connected to the decision to attack Pearl Harbor were tried convicted and executed as Class-A war criminals (Charges with Crimes Against Peace), compared that to today when the most allied nations including the US that tried and convicted these men eagerly wanted Japan's support to commit aggression against Iraq without absolving Japan from its previous transgressions. For this reason this commemoration ceremony does have a hollow ring to most of the reasonable Japanese.

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and how about the factual historical data proving the US indeed knew beforehand about the impending attack in Pearl Harbor? and the war in VN that tore apart my generation, the fact that the Gulf of Tonkin incident was fabricated?

Moderator: Stay on topic please.

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True Story:

My father was in WWII in the pacific. Got a medal for shooting down a zero. Had many friends killed while standing right next to him. When he finally had the courage to visit pearl harbor and face his demons, he was disgusted with all the Japanese tourists taking pictures of themselves at the memorial as if they were at Disneyland.

A few years later, I visited Japan for the first time. I wanted to snap a photo of myself in front of The Dome at the peace park, with the stereotypical Japanese photo-peace sign,to give to my dad. I was worried that people would be angry if they saw me doing that. Until I saw Japanese tourists standing in front of the dome taking pictures of each other as if they were at Disneyland.

Go figure.

...But it seems like we just never solve anything...

I believe it was Plato who said it best:

Only the dead know the end of war.

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It seems that America never learns anything from wars in the past. Why is America still fighting? More soldiers are still dying everyday than deaths in 911. What for?

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Two interesting documentaries on Pearl Harbor on NHK, last night and the night before. Those who assume NHK is only made up of right wingers might be surprised to know the content. Last night's one was asking why the Imperial Navy started this unwinnable war.

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@cliffwork im with you on that, they knew before hand and there is masses of evidence to that effect. But with out pearl harbor the US wouldnt have entered the war, and maybe we would have lost. Necessary sacrifice?

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one more reason end of WWII

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Heres a tost to all those who fought for there country in WW2.

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I can't understand why anyone would want to remember Pearl Harbor every year. Bury it in a high-school text-book where it belongs.

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to cliff & digger,

nonsense! If the US knew they were coming they cud have simply prepared for battle & done just that BATTLE the Japanese, they wud have had no choice & there still wud have been many killed many ships sunk/damaged etc.

WHICH WUD HAVE BEEN PLENTY OF AMMUNITION NEEDED TO JUSTIFY WAR AGAINST JAPAN duh double duh!!

Thinking caps people they are there for a reason we shud use them!

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Funnily enough, not a lot of discussion on this anniversary in Japanese media. Doesn't go down well with the LovePeaceJapan image, I guess.

No, you won't find any mention of anything the Japanese from around 1900 to, oh say, Aug 10th and 15th 1945. And neither do the kids growing up here today, it's unfortunate.

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I can't understand why anyone would want to remember Pearl Harbor every year.

Those who forget will repeat the same mistakes.

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But it seems like we just never solve anything.

Welcome to reality. The have been wars since the beginnings of mankind and there will be wars until the end. Unfortuantely.

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I can't understand why anyone would want to remember Pearl Harbor every year. Bury it in a high-school text-book where it belongs.

This is the reason the US joined the war. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the history of the world changed. I'm not a fan of Americans but I think it is very important for people to remember this day and never forget. Especially American people.

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Eyeblack

I can't understand why anyone would want to remember Pearl Harbor every year. Bury it in a high-school text-book where it belongs.

Would that be buried in a Japanese high school text book as a mere footnote?

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As an American, I'm ashame for what the US did to Japan. The US had no reason to have a war with Japan and it amazes me why our country is so blind to the truth and why we have never appologized to Japanese for all the death we caused in Japan and the way we treated the Japanese-Americans here during the war.

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fabevaldez

As an American, I'm ashame for what the US did to Japan.

As an American, I'm not. Try reading non-Japanese history books.

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Isn't world war two the last war we won?

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GW:nonsense! If the US knew they were coming they cud have simply prepared for battle

A regular Machiavelli we got here! And he calls for thinking caps? The theory goes that since the people of the U.S. wanted nothing to do with the wars in Asia and Europe, only a successful sneak attack on U.S. soil could get Americans riled up enough to fight. And it did. Japan had been running amok in Asia for near two decades by that time and we left our ally France to rot under German occupation for a year and half while sitting on our hands. Americans really did not want to get involved. Had we whupped the Japanese at Pearl, we would have fought a defensive war at most.

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When I visited the Arizona Memorial in 1995, some of the Japanese tourists were laughing inside the memorial. I can't say for sure what they were laughing at, but poor taste nonetheless. I sure wouldn't laugh at Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

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The US intelligence bureau knew the Japanese navy fleet, aircraft carrier were approaching to Hawaii and notified to navy general/commander in Hawaii, however they did not take it seriously. so Japanese attack succeeded unfortunately.

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Japan sneak attacked America on this day and got everything it had coming to them, because they were evil. Blame the Japanese government for writing a check they couldn't cash!

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Yeinats: "Isn't world war two the last war we won?"

No.

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fabevaldez: Most if not all of the ethnic Japanese that were incarcerated in the internment camps were American, and not Japanese citizens, so there would be no logical reason for the U.S. to apologize to Japan for the way the U.S. treated it's own citizens. And the U.S. di apologize to the Japanese that were put in the camps in the form of reparations, and a formal apology, so what more are you looking for with that regard? And you say that the U.S. had no reason to have a war with Japan? If someone came up from behind you, and all of a sudden just started busting you in the face with fists, elbows and the whole works, would you feel that you have no reason to fight that attacker? The U.S. had every reason to go to war with Japan. The U.S. was attacked. I don't feel that the U.S. has any more reason to apologize than Japan does. It was war, and war is hell.

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Yesterday and today I asked my Japanese students about this date....BLANK stares! Pearl Harbor?? Hawaii? Something is wrong with Japanese education!!

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Commemorating Pearl Harbor annually is an important aspect of ensuring the mistakes of the past don't come back to haunt us. It's also a way of paying our respect to those that lost their lives there. But this insistence upon turning every anniversary into another "Blame Fest" is an utter waste of time and energy.

Want to make Pearl Harbor mean something? If you're American, go out and make yourself a new Japanese friend. If you're Japanese, go out and make yourself an American friend. While you're at it, leave any (in many cases borrowed) baggage at the door.

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Overwhelmin'ly and generally speakin', I don't think we human beans learn from the past at all.

There are two events that do come to mind though, one occurin' on 6 August 1945 and one occurin' on 9 August 1945.

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Pearl Harbor was released in theaters in 2001. That's only 7 years...

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I feel sorry for those Asian countries suffered from Japanese empire, but about Pearl Harbor, it was about one colonialist attacking another... it is overrated.

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As an American, I'm ashame for what the US did to Japan. The US had no reason to have a war with Japan and it amazes me why our country is so blind to the truth and why we have never appologized to Japanese for all the death we caused in Japan and the way we treated the Japanese-Americans here during the war.

And I'm ashamed that you are an American. You obviously have no concept of what it means to be one, nor any grasp of factual history. I hope that you don't have a grandfather that fought for the U.S. in the Second World War becuase he just rolled over in his grave.

As for the comment 'I don't like Americans' - well, what nationality are you my friend because I just bet we can find a great deal that your wonderful country has done that is not so great over the span of its history. An ignorant comment to make - why would you dislike a people becuase you don't like the policies of their government. That's the whole reason that conflicts happen in the first place.

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the problem with Pearl Harbor was the timing of the declaration of war. If they had done it on the 6th of December (EST) the outcome would of been the same. The reaction of the Americans would of been the same. Remember Japans Airmen and Seamen were would they were already at war. Faulting the fighting troops of Japan is thus pure nonsense. The attack was done within all of the rules of war. They have no reason to apologize to anyone epically the slack American Hawaii command. The attack was successful due to mistakes made by the American command, not Japanese deception. Oh a fact, Japan did not bomb Honolulu, the Americans in their haste did not fuse the rounds correctly so they fell back to earth and exploded. I like how you expect all Americans to share your demented world view and America is suppose to be the land of the "free"? Again I do not dislike the people of America. They are a mixed group spanning the spectrum. What I dislike is the remember Pearl Harbor crowd. I dislike the remembrance of this date and how people use it to bash Japanese. Remember Pearl Harbor was used as a justification for killing surrendering Japanese (with surrender passes) to the attack with atomic weapons (only America has used these). Japan should never apologize for a nice attack, America punched out Iraq's lights twice without a declaration of war, why is this different? We came, we saw, we kicked your ass!

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We came, we saw, we kicked your ass!

And made the biggest mistake your country's history.

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because they were evil

No, they gambled that, by crippling the American fleet, America wouldn't be able to join the war. It didn't work.

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The attack itself was a brilliant move by the Japanese but what they did not count on, besides how long it would take to decode and translate the war declaration (yes they did plan to inform before the attack occurred) was that the Japanese did not realize the industrial might of the USA. They saw the US as a different version of Russia, whose fleet was attacked in a similar manner and due to long logistical issues was not able to bring war on Japan.

That and the power of the aircraft. By WWII the US had sufficient aviation technology to not need to occupy every atoll and island in the pacific on a march to the main island. Instead the US was able to mobilize a two front war and use strategic islands to get within range of the main islands and then rain fire and death from above! Destroy the transport capabilities and lay siege to the main islands. The only thing that saved the majority of the Japanese population from starving to death was unconditional surrender.

Yuri, you really make me laugh, you end your comment with "we came and kicked your asses" yet feel justified in moaning on about A-bombings while calling Americans arrogant.

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"And made the biggest mistake ( in ) your country's history"

Actually, it turned out to be quite beneficial. If Japan had simply continued on the path it was on without attacking Pearl, without drawing America into a war with Japan, there would would have been no re-birth of Japan as a democratic nation with unfettered access to U.S. markets to help it become the world's #2 economy.

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"I dislike the remembrance of this date and how people use it to bash Japanese. Remember Pearl Harbor was used as a justification for killing surrendering Japanese (with surrender passes) to the attack with atomic weapons (only America has used these). Japan should never apologize for a nice attack, America punched out Iraq's lights twice without a declaration of war, why is this different? We came, we saw, we kicked your ass!"

Oh, I see - so killing American troops in an undeclared war is okay?? And we aren't allowed to remember our dead which your fellow countrymen murdered? You casually imply all's fair in war, then cry because we bombed the bejeesus out of your citys and incinerated a few - all's fair, remember? Only works one way - the Japanese way I suppose. A 'nice attack'??? What?

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If anyone is wondering about the behaviour of Japanese laughing at memorials etc, I think you need only read YuriOtani`s post to get an explanation.

I am neither American nor Japanese, but even I find the description of the attack on Pearl Harbour as "nice" pretty offensive.

I don`t care who was right or wrong, but an attack where so many people lost their lives - anywhere in the world - can hardly be described as "nice".

Disneyland can be described as "nice" - maybe therein lies the explanation. Do you see Pearl Harbour as some kind of historical theme park? How about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where my kids great-grandfather lost his life and set in motion a chain of events that affect my husbands family to this day?

Nothing is fair in love and war. There is good and bad on both sides. This should be remembered with dignity so that, as many people pointed out, it may never happen again. Jibing at each other is not dignified.

On a related note I also feel ashamed about the other news report that a town in the UK is objecting to twinning with a Japanese town because of war memories (I am British). Move on people.

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both did bad, pearl harbour and a-bomb. and I salute the citizens of the rest of Asia who won independence from the both sides. That was something good came out of that terrible thing.

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