Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69)(Ike) reflect on the significance of Pearl Harbor Day and the impacts of the attack on our Navy and country.

Seventy-five years ago today, as dawn broke over the island of Oahu, Hawaii, paradise became tragedy when bombs broke through the sky and explosions rocked the ground as the Republic of the United States was, to quote President Delano Roosevelt "suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."

The attack itself was a truly shocking moment for 1941 America.

Not since the firing on Fort Sumter, S.C. 80 years earlier had an enemy conducted a surprise attack on a U.S. installation on American soil. Between Sumter and Pearl Harbor, America had built up the belief of inviolability and safety of its territory, only to have that wiped out in a matter of a few hours on December 7, 1941. A modern equivalent to this feeling would be the shock and awe that struck the country upon the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon as modern symbols of a strong America were destroyed, much like the battleships sunk in 1941.

The story and events leading up to the attack have roots since before either World War when an imperial Japan, fresh from the Meiji Restoration and modernization, first showed its potential as a military power, crushing the Russian Imperial fleet in the Russo-Japanese War.

When The Great War broke out, they came in as an ally only to be snubbed at the Peace Conference. Leaving a tad insulted and later embracing nationalism, the Empire expanded into the Pacific with dreams of a Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, but in reality only replacing European imperialism with Japanese. A people once seen as easily gobbled up by Cossacks had transformed into a superpower bent on conquest. Indeed most would say World War II began in Poland in 1939, but it can be argued it began with the Japanese in Asia. As interests collided and tensions rose and sanctions were put in place, it is not unreasonable (in hindsight) to say that it was only a matter of time before America and Japan went to war.

While more than 2,400 lives were lost and much of the Pacific Fleet destroyed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. embarked on a conflicted path to restore reason, peace and tolerance to a world gripped in oppression, terror and violence. However, if Japan's attack achieved anything, it wasn't the weakening of America's resolve. Instead, it is safe to say it was the move by which they sealed their fate. Indeed, by involving the United States, they put this nation on a path to carry forward the inextinguishable torch of liberty, tolerance and justice to the world-a mission the men and women who volunteer to defend this country are continuing today.

Sharing in that Roman tradition to never give up, Americans came together against a force that dared to threaten their pax. All around the nation, men rushed to join the Armed Forces. Industry was rapidly retooled for war-production, women entered into the work force and the whole nation was galvanized for victory in memory of Pearl Harbor. Unlike the Axis powers, the U.S. could put itself onto a true total war footing, siphoning mass resources and energy to produce war fighters, weapons and supplies needed to win the war, so much so that weapons were delivered to fronts as far as Burma, Russia and China.

When manpower in the domestic work force became scarce, the nation broke with social restrictions and brought women into war production and minorities into combat. These social experiments put the country on a road to modern civil rights and equality. In some ways, the Japanese not only unintentionally woke a sleeping giant, but laid the groundwork for modern American society, acting as a brutal catalyst for radical social change. Japan, with its ill-considered attack on Pearl Harbor, did not just break peace and take lives, but made the social past disappear for the United States while opening up a more egalitarian future. Strangely enough, too, as positive as the social effects of the attack were, its impact on the Navy was revolutionary.

As traditional battleships were either sunk or rendered inoperable, naval operations turned to units such as aircraft carriers and cruisers. With men like Admirals Ernest King, Chester Nimitz and Vice Admiral William Halsey at the helm, the Navy would not wait for more battleships to begin the fight, but instead utilize what was immediately available. Though this new operational concept of fighting with fast carrier groups took some getting used to, the Navy was committed, and within six months of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. conducted several raids and fought two major battles with carrier groups. It would be at the Battle of Coral Sea that it truly became obvious just how Japan had revolutionized war fighting, as two carriers fought each other entirely by aircraft without ever really seeing each other. The future of naval warfare had changed and the age of the carriers had arrived.

Committed to restoring order in the face of Pearl Harbor, the Navy managed to blunt two major Japanese invasions and take back the initiative in the Pacific and Europe and eventually close the book on Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and their dreams of conquest. In light of this, the Japanese had forged the very instrument of their defeat and the end of the Axis dream by provoking the United States. Despite these hostilities, the U.S. victories did not lead to continued animosity, but future friendship and alliance, as Axis enemies transformed into regional partners and economic superpowers committed to security and prosperity. Indeed, America showed the superiority of arms and then showed, and continue to show, the superiority of the justice, tolerance and decency for which the Armed Forces of America fight to this day.

Pearl Harbor put America on a path of change and a road this great nation continues to travel. It is a path dedicated to a higher dignity, which benefits the sacred purpose so many honorable men and women fought for and gave their lives. It remains America's hope, and indeed the hope of those who fought in World War II, that from the blood, carnage and death of the past will emerge a better world built upon man's most cherished wish for freedom, tolerance, and justice.

In the example of those who came forth in the months and years following Pearl Harbor, a truth emerges that no challenge is too great to overcome and the crew of USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) (Ike) is living proof of that. Today the guns of World War II are silent as even though the modern world is still gripped in fear and on the defensive against extremism, terror and violence, Americans must show the same courage and unity to mold victory shown in the wake of Pearl Harbor. As that tragic day in December 1941 showed, the price of doing nothing is too great and the enemy is always ready to challenge American values and the American way of life. Today's Sailors must always be ready and remember the end goals of peace and freedom are more than worth the struggle. Every man and woman in uniform today are inheritors of a proud legacy, a mission born in the wake of Pearl Harbor. Do not to look upon December 7, 1941, with sadness. Look upon it with hope. The attack was tragic, but that loss gave us a chance to end tyranny, stop oppression and create lasting peace for all mankind. The road is hard, but this crew, this Navy, and this nation will prevail.




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