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matt819

(10,749 posts)
Thu Sep 11, 2014, 02:00 PM Sep 2014

Question: Pearl Harbor vs 9/11

Been thinking about 9/11. We're now 13 years later. More or less the same amount of time between Pearl Harbor and my own humble birth. I grew up watching movies and TV shows about WWII. Combat, Hogan's Heroes, Guadalcanal Diary, From Here to Eternity, etc. As my father observed when we had to go somewhere when I was watching TV, "I'll tell you how it ended. We won." Despite the horrors of that war, some would argue that it was the last "good" war, at least one that had a definite beginning and a definite end. Although I suppose you could argue that with troops still in Europe and Japan, we're still in something of a war footing in these regions 70 years later.

Well, despite the relatively short time between Pearl Harbor and my birth in the midst of the baby boom, and notwithstanding the TV shows and movies, WWII really wasn't a part of my history. Sure, it was part of US and world history, but my personal connection to it was a mere shadow of a thread. My father was drafted after he graduated high school and managed to avoid any service overseas then or during the Korean War, so there's not even that connection between me and the war.

So here's my questions.
I saw on the front page of the NYT online today a photo of a moment of silence at a NYC firehouse. Were there such "moments of silence" or comparable events in the mid-1950s, 15 years or so after Pearl Harbor and 7+ years after the end of the war? I have no memory of such events, but I really don't remember much of anything before I was ten anyway.
My guess is that kids born today will have the same tenuous connection to the events of 9/11, but they are, sadly, going to grow up in a state of perpetual war in a place and for reasons that will be effectively meaningless to them. What does this portend (I always look for ways to use the word portend) for this country? Not well, certainly, but I think it will be an interesting sociological phenomenon.

9 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Question: Pearl Harbor vs 9/11 (Original Post) matt819 Sep 2014 OP
When I was a kid in the 50's, born in 1946, upaloopa Sep 2014 #1
That was back when Hawaii was part of the US jberryhill Sep 2014 #3
I am not aware of that upaloopa Sep 2014 #5
Yes... jberryhill Sep 2014 #6
right, that was when it was briefly a part of kenya? i think the donald said that. unblock Sep 2014 #7
Correct jberryhill Sep 2014 #8
Part of the difference... jberryhill Sep 2014 #2
Pearl Harbor made sense. It was a sneak attack, but it was by a state with whom war had been geek tragedy Sep 2014 #4
That generation prefered movies Motown_Johnny Sep 2014 #9

upaloopa

(11,417 posts)
1. When I was a kid in the 50's, born in 1946,
Thu Sep 11, 2014, 02:12 PM
Sep 2014

they use to play a loud siren on 12/07/**.
It was called Pearl Harbor day. Flags were at half mast.
"Remember Pearl Harbor" was a rallying cry during WWII so maybe it continued. There was still animosity toward Japan when I was growing up. Also lots of tin toys and things we called junk had a made in Japan label.
The first small Japanese auto imports where called junk by a lot of people. We were used to driving big pieces of Detroit iron.

 

jberryhill

(62,444 posts)
3. That was back when Hawaii was part of the US
Thu Sep 11, 2014, 02:14 PM
Sep 2014

During the Pearl Harbor attack, Hawaii was a US territory.

However, there is that brief period around August 1961 when Hawaii was not actually part of the United States to consider.
 

jberryhill

(62,444 posts)
6. Yes...
Thu Sep 11, 2014, 02:23 PM
Sep 2014

From July 31 to August 2 of 1961, Hawaii was not part of the United States.

Coincidentally Barack Obama was born on August 1.
 

jberryhill

(62,444 posts)
8. Correct
Thu Sep 11, 2014, 03:15 PM
Sep 2014

Our taking back Hawaii from Kenya on August 2 is known in Kenya as Kenya's Pearl Harbor.
 

jberryhill

(62,444 posts)
2. Part of the difference...
Thu Sep 11, 2014, 02:13 PM
Sep 2014

Is that Pearl Harbor was an attack by a national military force against a national military installation for a strategic military purpose. So, there is a "we won" at the end of the story.

People who think there is "victory" to be had over ill-defined alignments of people pissed off about one thing or another, or that there is "victory" to be had over ideas, are fooling themselves.
 

geek tragedy

(68,868 posts)
4. Pearl Harbor made sense. It was a sneak attack, but it was by a state with whom war had been
Thu Sep 11, 2014, 02:18 PM
Sep 2014

anticipated if not properly planned. It had a purpose, a motive, a goal, and similarly there was a clear way to respond, with a declaration of war.

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