Day of Infamy

December 7 this year marks the sixty-eighth anniversary of the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor. If you go there you can see models and mementos of the ships lost that day, photographs of the wreckage, the hulk of the U.S.S. Arizona and on its memorial inscribed the names of the fallen. You can also see a moving film of the attack and its aftermath, made more moving yet because it is introduced by one of the survivors of that fateful Sunday morning. If you want to see the site yourself, I would urge you to go soon. The time is approaching when those who lived it will no longer stand as testament to the reality of that day's shock and loss, for even the youngest sailors of late 1941 are now entering their upper eighties.

That famous "day of infamy" was an event that profoundly changed the United States in a seemingly permanent way. Up to that time the United States basically hewed to George Washington's farewell injunction to avoid "foreign wars and entangling alliances." Even after being drawn into the Great War of 1914-1918 its conclusion saw the U.S. return to its shores, demobilize practically its entire army, sever its alliances and resume its customary stance of "isolationism."

It wasn't that America shut itself off from the world. American business and commerce remained heavily engaged around the globe. Americans travelled to foreign countries in growing numbers. U.S diplomats eagerly sought to open up opportunities for the American economy and often stood ready to use their good offices to help ameliorate tensions between countries. But in terms of alliances and military power politics outside its traditional head-cracking zone in the Caribbean, the U.S. stayed aloof.

The "Lessons of Pearl Harbor" changed all that. After involvement in a Second World War, and this time sparked by a surprise attack, a new internationalism became the consensus. "Never again" would the United States be caught unaware, unprepared and without alliances firmly in place. The developing Cold War with Soviet Russia amplified the Lessons tremendously.

Ever since, America has sought bases, intelligence and allies everywhere. No threat was too small to notice and act upon. The thinking was that if the United States did not mould the world to its liking then others would. The former tiny peacetime military is now a permanent mighty force costing hundreds of billions with outposts in over 100 nations. The former Great Isolationist has been directly involved in at least 16 conflicts in the past 60 years and attempts to be the guide and police force for the rest of the world. December 7, 1941 was the catalyst for this new perspective. The world and America have never been the same.