Do any of you know about the day our country's water was on fire? If you are my age or older or just a history buff, this day will be in your mind forever. The day I'm talking about is the day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941.
This was also the day before we entered World War 2. On Dec.8, 1941 our President asked the joint branches of Congress to declare war on the Empire of Japan. We were pulled into this war that had been going on since Sept. 1 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. By the time we entered the war, our allies and us would be going up against not only Japan but also Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.
When Japan hit Pearl Harbor they caught us completely off guard. We didn't even know that the Japanese officials that were meeting with our officials about peace terms was just a front for their military to be in our waters to invade us. They thought that they had destroyed our naval forces, but in all reality all that they had done was to make us go after them and destroy them.
This was done by our broken naval forces exactly six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. This was called the Battle of Midway. It was called and regarded as the most important battle of the Pacific Campaign. It lasted from June 4 to 7, 1942. We decisively defeated an attack from the Japanese to Midway.
The main reason that Japan wanted Midway was to extend their defensive perimeter. They had planned to lure our remaining ships or carriers into a trap and sink them. What they didn't know was that we had broken their code and knew what they were planning on doing. This time we caught them off guard. They lost 4 carriers and one cruiser that we sank. They had 332 aircraft destroyed and lost at least 3,500 men.
This attack was the only one that was ever successfully carried out in our waters or against us.
We have made our armed forces stronger and made our Navy bigger so that they can keep a watchful eye over our coastal waters and our country. We have kept a close eye on the nations around us to make sure that this doesn't happen again. Our military is there to make sure that it doesn't happen again.
![[Valid RSS feed]](images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
