RIP those murdered that day (not only by the Japanese but also by the US government who had knowledge of the attack but did nothing to prevent it)

Well, We knew something was going to eventually happen. I will buy that far into the conspiracy, but for this specific attack where and when and the scope of it, I do not.

Our policy up till this time was to let the world manage its own affairs and keep away from us. What this ended up doing was to drag us into it, and we still drag ourselves into things to this day.

honestly we had little knowledge even though we were breaking the japanese codes so easilly hte technology at the time wasn't even 1/10000th of what it is today. I mean aerial radar scope technology was in it's infancy and only a handfull of people knew how to work and understand the danm thing. Pluse the 'codes' the japanese military sent to their consulate in D.C. theyhad the US putting warning dots all up around hte pacific theater cause the japanese were passing along fake targets along with real ones all at the same time.

Something we did in reverse to figure out that Midway was a target nearly a year later and that Attu and Kiska, while targetted for invasion, were intended as a diversion from the real target.

We knew an attack was coming, but not where.

I feel so much like the current generation in regard to 9/11 when I look at this. I don't understand. I don't know the details. I just know it's sad. I will never understand the magnitude of, rage, or terror the nation felt because of this attack.

It's amazing that you have these. I can not begin to comprehend what it was like that day. It seems all I can do is acknowledge those who were there.

Think 9-11-01.

And theeeeeen....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic.....a_and_Nagasaki

I was told once that the Shadows seared into the cement sidewalks and walls was the Fascism being burned out of their bodies by the blinding light of Freedom.

Now, I know this isn't true, but god damn I live that explanation.

A lot of people also blame all the latent radiation for weird anime and the Japanese culture in general. Having read some Japanese mythology and history, I can say that if it had any effect it wasn't very noticeable.

Oh, hell, my own Dad makes that joke! Haha! You're exactly right too, they have had a weird culture for thousands of years.

actually that was very true. in the hiroshima peace museum they have hte steps from the hiroshima bank where you can still see the burn shadow from where a person had been sitting waiting for the bank to open.

Not debating if that was true or not. Was re-telling an old joke as to WHY it happened.

ah sorry when I resonded I was sleep deprived @_@ gotta love the corps

the most messed up thing was that since the ambassadors to the united states were such poor typists they were half an hour late delivering hte message to the consulate in D.C. warning htem of the attack. Many japanese were ashamed when they found out their enemy didn't know the attack was coming. if anyone has watched the movie 'TORA! TORA! TORA!" they know htis fact. but yes it was the greatests generations 9/11 to use such loose terms. I feel for my fallen brothers in arms of a time long past. Rest in peace my brothers in arms.

My Dad, and both his brother's (one now deceased) were born in the Philippines (outskirts of Manilla specifically) in the 30's.

One month prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor, my grandparents had seen the signs of possible war, and grandfather sent my grandmother, Dad and my two uncles back to Richmond, California.

They arrived in Hawaii on November 7th, via an ocean liner, and continued onto San Francisco. Dad was just about to turn 8 years old (Dec. 13th) when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Grandfather was trapped in Manilla, and as a civilian, was put into a prison camp. Specifically, it was the old Santa Thomas University, that was converted into a concentration camp by the Japanese Army.

He did survive, and as eventually liberated by MacArthur's troops. He didn't pass on until the very early 1990's.

I could go on, but I have so many family connections with this event, it's too large to continue here. Even though I was born 19 years after the attack, I do NOT forget.

I think all of us have some family connection to World War Two.

Whelp, started Pearl Harbor last night, and now working my way through The Pacific.
Amazing Photos good sir.

An interesting day at that. I have many thoughts on it; some that follow traditional thoughts on the attack and some that lean more conspiracy based. Either way a lot of people lost their lives in one of the greatest "surprise" attacks ever executed. May they rest in peace.

Ask if ya want to know my views

I personally would like to know.

Theres been much discussion what Roosevelt knew on the attack beforehand, even allegedly Churchill even knew something and kept quiet, knowing it would finally drag the US into the war to help England survive.

Yes, the US had cracked the Purple code, but it even took time to decode the messages,. The US was still cracking the coded by the time of Midway. But paranoia ruled the day, the US knew the Japanese were planning an attack, but the US suspected the Philippines were the most likely target, just really never suspected Pearl as the main target.

Then theres talk why were the carriers sent out a day or two prior to the attack? Why not the battleships as well? The fighters lined up like ducks ( to keep a better eye on them to prevent sabotage as explained.) The B-17s arriving that were ment for Clark Field in Manilla, the US subs being told to patrol more to the west than north.

Who knows? Those that may, may not have the answers are long dead. Deep down I'm sure Roosevelt knew something would have happened, but just not where or when.

In regards to the code breaking thing, it doesn't help that the code that would've given direct warning of the attack, JN-25 (25th Japanese Navy code broken), was a more difficult code to crack at that point, as prior to late '41 it wasn't used enough to give sufficient samples for American, British, and Dutch cryptanalysts (who were cooperating on the subject) to analyze, and was regularly changed enough that each change required pretty much starting from scratch in cryptanalysis.

Sure, Purple was pretty much fully cracked, but it didn't have anything even remotely suggesting targeting for attacks, or even that there were to actually be attacks (though the latter wasn't an unwarranted assumption on the part of its intended audience).

That holds a pretty good summary of what my opinions are except with a few changes and some more added to it.

I personally think that the US brought it upon themselves and should have known that the Japanese would eventually attack home soil what with all their sanctions and backing China. in fact I'm kinda with the consiracy theorists in believeing that they did know and thats the cause for moving the carriers out of Pearl Harbour. As you said, "why were the carriers sent out a day or two prior to the attack?"

There is actually slightly more to that thought as not only the carrier were sent out but as well as a relatively small protection fleet made up of a few battleships and destroyers. Not enough to make the Japanese notice something, but enough to provide the needed protection early on until the navy's strength could be rebuilt.

On a side note, it was B-25 Mitchells that were sent as they were used on the carrier based raid on Japan. It would have been impossible for a Flying Fortress to have taken off of any of the carriers in that day and age.

Otherwise, I believe it was an extremely eventful and of course sad day for the US. It gave the US a very jaded and hateful opinion on the Japanese but of course that wasn't helped any by the further maddening which the Japanese induced through their odd style of combat and what they did to prisoners.

All in all though, you have summed up my thoughts rather well on the Pearl Harbour attacks.

I lost some family in that one.

Sighs. Like with any important historic event such as pearl harbor, there will always be a conspiracy, and the more these conspiracies form around these events, the further out the truth becomes. However true or false these conspiracies are concerning what exactly happened leading up to and beyond the attack on pearl harbor we will never know. All I know is pearl harbor was the most tragic event to happen in this nations history and my heart goes out to all the remaining family of all those fallen soldiers that perished in that attack. my they rest in peace.

The other day on the military channel one of the aids for the Japanese leader who signed the treaty made this comment. "When I looked around at the thousands of sailors from all over the world here for this, I thought. "Why did we believe would could defeat all these nations."

The war was hell and each side paid for it in the blood of their people, never forgot those who gave their lives for freedom.

The sad thing is, this now seems quaint. The Japanese showed up in uniform and attacked a military base.

Today, we don't know exactly who working for we don't quite know hijacked four civilian airliners to attack civilian targets (and the Pentagon), for what we also don't exactly know.

Like the truck bombing of the Marine base in Lebanon. We have no idea who was behind that.

i believe some Japaneses officers were against the sneak attack an know that it would end badly with japan and helpless to change there leaders minds or plans i still remember the last line in tora tora tora "I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill it with a terrible resolve" 6 or 8 months later the Japaneses navy suffers a crippling defeat at midway

Indeed. Yamato was correct when he spoke of the sleeping giant.

These are two amazing photographs man. How did you come about them? I guess you bought them from the photographer's family?

Incredible images.

Almost poignant that today of all days, actor Harry Morgan (MASH's Col. Sherman T. Potter) died at 96.

Being a former Navy medic, the attack on Pearl was ingrained into me from Basic onwards. The loss of life was tragic, but the acts of heroism during the attack are stuff that endures. Taking that, and the fact of what happened afterwards with the Doolittle Raid and all afterwards, Adm. Yamato was correct.

The giant that was the US of A woke up and saw the end of the second World War to the bitter end.

God Bless all who remember the 7th of December, and Peace to all who survived, and merciful rest to those who didn't.


-- Stephen R. Sobotka, USNMC, Veteran.

I was thinking he had already passed on.

RIP Mr. Morgan

Harry Morgan also played Officer Gannon, Sargent Fridays partner on Dragnet.

Thanks for posting this.

It reminds me that I still need to restore my Grandfathers albums of photos he took on the Arizona before it sank in this attack. He did some cool surreal* double exposures in particular I like some with close ups of a snake and soldiers shown small in the frame. Looking at the radio equipment is fascinating to me too.

*When I was a kid we would play a surrealist game, the Exquisite Corpse, too. In it a hybrid body is developed without either player seeing the work of the other until it's finished. There's a wacky hyena painting and a pic of what he called a "monster" that he made in my gallery here by the way.

Thank you for posting this. Not many alive today remember what happened today 70 years ago.

"The Sneak attack shocked the nation to its very core"

Which unfortunately was also the reason it was most effective. When you believe yourself to be invaulnerable you often make the exact opposite true.

Like 9/11, I will not forget

[salut]

60-plus years after WW2 ended, the scars remain. They're still finding unexploded ordinance in some of the battlezones.

My own grandfather was in the Canadian Navy. The Battle of the Atlantic was no more pleasant than the American island-hopping campaign on the other side of the globe; if the German U-boats didn't get you, the North Atlantic itself would give it a hell of a try. Granddad survived it all and made it home to pass the tale along to me and anyone else who wanted to hear.

Those are an amazing piece of history!

I can't believe that there were no movies about Pearl harbor being played on tv yesterday. I looked through all the channels likely to play them. Nothing on TCM, AMC, FX, Stars, Cinemax, not even PBS. No Tora! Tora! Tora!, not even the Matt Damon pearl harbor. Nothing. I was sorely disappointed. Even the History channel didn't have anything about it until much later in the evening. have people nearly forgotten already? Ugh, even my wife had to ask. "What's the seventh of December?"

Japan has a lot of fence mending to do yet!
In '86 I finally came to realization about the brutality exhibited by japan's aggression.
I'd studied the war for years and was 'blinded by the light".
After reading a book by a renowned japanese scholar in '86 my whole attitude changed! I wound up more or less dumping a wonderful japanese girl I'd dated for 5 years over it and my opinion hasn't changed!

I was chatting with a good friend that lives in Germany the other day. He was in Holland recently and an elderly Dutch woman spat at him and called him a nazi. He long ago resigned himself to things like that, yet Germany bent over backwards to make amends.
Old feelings and values are hard to change.

Anybody that glorifies war is a fool!