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Honolulu - Pearl Harbor

"Tora! Tora! Tora!"

Those were the orders shouted over the skies of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 to launch the aerial attack of the Japanese navy and air force on the American Pacific Fleet.

"Yesterday, December 7,1941-a date which will live in infamy-the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan" were the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The phrase "December 7, 1941 - a date that will live in infamy" has entered into the annals of "Great Moments in Presidential History".

The words are so simple and yet so profound.

In one audacious surprise attack, the might of the Japanese Empire was thrown at the unsuspecting Pacific fleet of the American navy which was neatly assembled at Pearl Harbor.

The attack was a success from a military viewpoint but it did not have the desired effect. Instead of forcing the United States of America into submission, it awakened a sleeping giant.

It was a sleeping giant, who in the end, tipped the scales towards victory against Japan and Germany .

Pearl Harbor was the first step towards the inevitable flight of the "Enola Gay". That was the name of the B-29 aircraft which on August 6, 1945 dropped the world's first nuclear on Hiroshima, Japan resulting in the loss of 80,000 lives.

Ironically, the mental images of Pearl Harbor live on and on as the main approach to Honolulu International Airport passes near Pearl Harbor.

We flew near the site twice and each time I imagined the Japanese aircraft swooping in on the American Pacific fleet on December 7, 1941. Neatly assembled like so many sitting ducks, the fleet was easy pickings for a surprise attack.

The white memorial, completed in 1980, on top of the sunken USS Arizona, can be clearly seen from the air in the sparkling blue waters of Pearl Harbor as evidence of this fateful day.

I will refrain from going into more details about Pearl Harbor as these are well documented in the photos of this blog .

From Waikiki Beach, it is about a 70 minute bus ride to get to Pearl Harbor which is also part of Honolulu.

Over all, Pearl Harbor is a somber place considering the number of lives which were lost here.

However, the passage of time (66 years) creates insensitivity to the actual loss of human lives. The empathy that one should feel for the 1,177 victims of the USS Arizona is replaced by a fascination with an audacious "made in Hollywood" plot that grips the imagination.

This draconian strategy, to go for the jugular of the American Pacific military apparatus in one fell swoop, was either a stroke of military genius or madness. But then as they say, everything is fair in love and war. (what a strange comparison)

The final tally at Pearl Harbor, for the American side, was 2390 killed and 1178 injured . Materal losses were tallied at 12 ships sunk, 9 ships damaged and 320 aircraft destroyed or damaged.

The Pearl Harbor surprise attack is a gripping plot not without its ironies.

The misreading of the radar signals, when radar was still in its naissance stage, not to mention the fatigue of the persons on duty at the time, resulted in lack of an appropriate response by the Americans

The presence of Franklin D. Roosevelt, as Undersecretary of the Navy, when the USS Arizona was launched in 1914 had an element of foreshadowing.

The misgivings of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, who was opposed to war with the United States, must have led to second-guessing and nagging doubts.

The alignment of the Pacific Fleet, along Battleship Row, on this day, borders on negligence.

Ultimately, the story of Pearl Harbor succumbs to the realization that war is war and war is not without its victims.

No matter how tragic events of a particular day may be, one thing is for sure; the sun sets in the evening and rises again the next morning to provide renewed hope of better things to come.

At the end of our somber day at Pearl Harbor, we did return to Waikiki Beach in time to catch one of the renowned Waikiki sunsets . Waikiki Beach faces west and thereby lends itself to legendary sunsets in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

That after all, when you think about it, is the most amazing thing about Hawaii, its location in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean far from any other land.

Coming Soon: Diamond Head and Hanauma Bay