Yesterday was of course December 7, President Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy”, the anniversary of the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbour which finally brought US military forces into the Second World War.
It was a defining moment in that conflict and as the Japanese commander in the Pacific theatre noted, it awoke the “sleeping giant” and began the US dominance of the western world.
Many “revionist” historians will tell you today that it was the Soviet Union that won WW2 for the Allies and there is no doubt that the Red Army played the major role on the ground in defeating the Nazis. But could they have done it without US finance and equipment that flooded into Eastern Europe when the Soviets were on the mat in 1941?
Even in the later years of the war the Red Army came west on trucks and trains almost wholly supplied by the USA. That’s before you talk about the massive air campaign out of Britain that crippled German industry and was a decisive factor in the downfall of Herr Hitler.
The campaign in the Pacific against imperial Japan was one of massive logistics and hard fighting as inhospitable and as merciless as anything on the Eastern Front.
Sure, the USA wasn’t alone on the democratic side of the alliance against Hitler. Britain and her Dominions had stood alone against the Austrian madman for some time before the US entered the war and plenty of them died in Europe alongside Yankee soldiers and airmen.
But the war couldn’t have been won without the United States. And let’s not forget that GI’s held the borders of democratic Europe for sixty years against the Communist threat, until at last Europe seemed at peace.
So it’s a significant day in history, even just for those with a passing interest on what has gone before.
The attack on Pearl Harbour happened on December 7 but across the international dateline it was already December 8 and Japanese forces simultaneously invaded British Malaya, drawing thousands of Australians into a disastrous campaign that ended in an ignomonous defeat in Singapore and a brutal internment for those who were captured. It also brought the Japanese juggernaught to the very shores of Australia and again, only the US Navy at the Battle of the Coral Sea and our own men’s ridiculous bravery on the Kokoda Track turned the situation around. Lest we forget.
It was also a “Day of Infamy” at the Canberra Mail Centre yesterday with fraying tempers being on display and some choice words being used by those who were upset by the actions of others.
I too lost my temper with a couple of people and used language which is distasteful to me most of the time but it made a point and I don’t feel sorry at all except for the fact that a number of people heard my tirade and things like that don’t paint you in a great light.
A Vietnamese lady I was working with at the time told me she was watching and learning from me as she wanted to be able to swear like that when she needed to! I love being a lightning rod for cross cultural learning!
The manager was rude to a couple of ladies when a misunderstanding saw them try to enter a briefing that was being held with my shift that they had been told to attend.
They were from another shift that was actually to be spoken to later in the day and they took exception to being shooed out the door and having it closed on them by the manager and they took him to task for it. The union rep also had a go at him but it all seems to be water off a duck’s back to him.
So the fun and games continue at CMC and another round awaits me today. Hope everyone gets through in one piece and has a good time. Bye for now.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 