Remembering Pearl Harbor

Two of the battleships lost at Pearl Harbor that never returned to service were named after the states Southern Man loves best.

One might expect more on the seventieth anniversary of the attack that finally pulled our nation into the cauldron of WWII but Southern Man has seen or heard little. And perhaps it is time. The Pacific War always had a nasty racist overtone; cartoons of the era made it clear that our war in Europe was against Hitler and Mussolini but in the Pacific the enemy was almost always depicted as a generic yellow monkey-man rather than Emperor Hirohito or (more appropriately) Prime Minister Tojo. The Japanese paid dearly with the loss of a generation of young men and the incineration of dozens of cities, the final two by atomic hellfire. But in her wisdom the United States transformed her shattered enemy into a valued partner and staunch ally. Japanese tourists shower the waters of the Arizona memorial with flowers; Japanese navy ships were quick to adopt the custom of "manning the rails" when passing her hallowed grave. War was followed not just by peace, but by civility and even friendship. And Pearl Harbor is slowly but surely receding into history.

But one lesson of Pearl Harbor should never have been forgotten: when the United States rises in righteous wrath her enemies should tremble. Too bad we have.