Researchers Find 1941 Japanese Mini Submarine at Pearl Harbor
All well and good, kind of like finding the Hunley. But how exactly did Fox let this quote slip in?
“The sub is significance historically. This was the first shot fired between the Americans and the Japanese, leading the United States into World War II,” he said. “The captain of this submarine was the first person to die. So the first casualty in the attack of Pearl Harbor was Japanese.”
Which of course justifies the entire sneak attack, and three and a half years of war that followed. Right?
Moron. Who cares who was first to die? A damn sight more Americans died that day than Japanese. I have the utmost respect for the Japanese people today (something my father never really understood, but his brother in law spent time in a Japanese prison camp) but I will never forgive them for Pearl Harbor. And I’ve spent enough time researching the antecedents of WWII in the Pacific (it was going to be my historical specialty, had I gone on to get my Ph.D.) to know that it wasn’t the Japanese “people” but rather their “leaders” who dragged them into that conflict. Still, don’t whine to me about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. You allowed yourselves to be led to the slaughter.
As Uncle Billy Sherman wrote to the mayor of Atlanta, as he was burning the city prior to his March to the Sea, “War is cruelty. You cannot refine it.”
Damn shame more of our generals aren’t of that opinion. And it’s even more of a damn shame that our people aren’t of that opinion. “Return either with your shield, or on it!” As Robert Heinlein observed, “This custom later declined. So did Rome.”