On this day, in 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked the United States.
We reacted by kicking the shit out of them.
It wasn’t all a Frank Capra film. We made some little mistakes along the way, internment camps for Japanese and Italians, for example. But, for the most part, we went through the War with our ideals intact. In fact, WWII spurred us to be even better. We didn’t change who we were because some pussy-assed “Emperor” okayed an attack on us.
When we rolled into a place, they called us “liberators.”
That was when this country had courage and conviction. That was when “land of the free, and home of the brave” was the goddamned truth.
Never forget, right?
Today, we react to even imaginary enemies and threats with hang-wringing, the elimination of civil liberties, and we let abject flunkies do it to us. We invade countries for money and influence, with liberty be damned. Our “enemy” is ourselves, not some goat-fuckers in some shit-hole of a country thousands of miles away. Monsanto and the Department of Homeland Security have done more damage to us than every Mitsubishi Zero combined.
Happy Pearl Harbor day, land of the mewling cowards.
Go check your Facebook page or your Twitter feed – I’m sure that it is smeared with “NEVER FORGET.” I don’t care if we forget that the Japanese bombed us. In fact, fuck it, lets forget. Japan is our buddy now. They’re really sorry about all that shit, the same way we’re sorry that we nuked them. I don’t need to remember that Japan was a bunch of warmongering assholes a half a century ago.
What I want to “never forget” is that a half a century ago, we were a nation of bad asses that stood for something. What I want to “never forget” is not just that my grandfather went to war, wondering if he would ever come back, but that while he was at war, everyone back here pitched in too.
Taxes went up to pay for the war. We rationed to support the effort. Everyone pitched in, rich and poor. Everyone went to war, privileged or not.
If George W. Bush had said on September 12, 2001 that he was going to raise taxes to pay for the war he was about to launch, his best friends would have had him assassinated. If we instituted a draft, so that everyone in the country had to be part of these idiotic adventures in the Middle East, there would be riots. If any one of us, not already in the military, had to sacrifice one bit, you can bet we’d cut and run from Iraq and Afghanistan faster than you can say “Mitt Romney.” Our reaction to our last attack was to turn in on ourselves, and rip out our own guts and hearts.
So, never forget that on December 7, 1941, we all pulled together – militarily, financially, socially, to defeat the enemy, and we didn’t sell out our ideals to do it. We were Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.
What a difference a half a century makes.
Any one of you who posts “never forget” or some other jingoism should remember that this is what we are now:
Those members of the “greatest generation” who are still alive should spit in our faces and kick our asses for what we’ve let America become, because we might remember the day, but we forgot who we are.
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The Legal Satyricon 
“That was when this country had courage and conviction. That was when “land of the free, and home of the brave” was the goddamned truth. ”
Not for those with darker skins.
I can’t deny that. And, things didn’t get better for a while thereafter. Nevertheless, the Civil Rights Movement wouldn’t have been able to get out of its womb had we reacted to 12/7 like we did to 9/11.
But …..much of what you wrote makes a lot of sense. Thank you.
“What I want to ‘never forget’ is that a half a century ago, we were a nation of bad asses that stood for something.”
Well said.
I think that ruining the lives and disrupting the families of Japanese-American citizens by putting them in camps was more than a “little mistake.” It violated the Constitution and those people’s most basic rights, via an executive order by FDR, the same guy who cut off supplies of vital resouces to Japan to encourage them to fight for their survival–so that FDR would have justification to violate his solemn promise and take the US into WW2. Since we are still seeing similar behavior by the executive branch, perhaps we can agree that the political interest in having wars and violating rights has not changed much.
As for fighting, the guys who go out there and get killed or injured still seem pretty damned tough to me. Tougher than I am, for sure.
So who are you angry with, Marc? Perhaps you are angry with people like me who want to reduce the military budget. But I’d be in favor of _increasing_ it, if I felt it was really being used to uphold the Constitution and defend the homeland. Foreign entanglements in a series of Moslem nations don’t fulfill that purpose, from my perspective.
Find a war worth fighting, and I think you’d see people willing to make sacrifices and toughen up. But defending the Constitution may be a domestic problem. In the remote area where I live, the war which many people are expecting, and seem to be preparing for, is with the Federal Government.
I don’t mean to make light of the Japanese or Italians who suffered under internment. My own great-grandfather was branded an “enemy alien,” (although not relocated). The point I was trying to make with that aside is that I’m not delusional and speaking from the perspective of a Frank Capra film. I know we had warts in 1941, but they are not relevant to the main point. If I discussed every single side issue, this piece would be way TL;DR.
Agree with you but I have one question: what is wrong with Monsanto? We’re talking about the ag company?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1286537/
[What’s wrong with Monsanto?]
Well, let’s start with roundup-resistant soybeans. What could be wrong with them? They reproduce. They cross-polinate. Bees that service them cross the road and polinate non-RR soybeans.
The farmer across the road, then, tries to plant next year’s crop based on seeds saved from this year. Monsanto sues, because the non-RR farmer’s beans contain Monsanto’s patented genes. It’s an unwanted contamination, and Monsanto sues — and prevails!
Citation please? I have heard this story so many times, but I have yet to find a reliable source. If you have one, it would be interesting.
Here you go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto_Canada_Inc._v._Schmeiser
According to the citation that you sent (Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto_Canada_Inc._v._Schmeiser) the farmer had intentionally used some GM seed, and had experienced accidental contamination with other seed. A suit regarding the latter was dropped. “The case … is widely misunderstood to concern what happens when farmers’ fields are accidentally contaminated with patented seed. However by the time the case went to trial, all claims had been dropped that related to patented seed in the field that was contaminated in 1997; the court only considered the GM canola in Schmeiser’s 1998 fields, which Schmeiser had intentionally concentrated and planted from his 1997 harvest. Regarding his 1998 crop, Schmeiser did not put forward any defence of accidental contamination.[2]”
We interred the Italians too? Godda… son of… arrrrrg. Suddenly McCarthy makes sense. And I point to the House Un-American Activities Committee as an example of mewling cowardice and jingoism in the era. Also Cracked made a decent case this week for how we’ve been fucking with the Japanese for the last Century and a half. We got Kaiju out of it, so I can’t complain too much, but, yaknow. Oh, and if you haven’t played L.A. Noire yet, give it a try, the main character was a Marine in the war, and he’s pretty cool. Steam should have another sale soon enough.
At least the Soviet Union was worth being scared of…
…or so everybody (including the Russkies) thought!