So This Is "Infamy"?

December 7, 1941.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed it to be "a day that will live in infamy."

As I write this it is December 7, 2010.  Today marks the 69^th Anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  One could argue that this was the day the world changed forever.  One could easily build a case that this was the single most significant day of the 20^th Century.  Consider some of the results of that tragic day.

·        The Japanese virtually eliminated the United States Naval fleet within a few hours.

·        In turn, the United States accepted the Japanese invitation to join the Grand Ball known as World War Two.

·        The entire nation is put on "Red Alert".  Factories begin operating at full capacity, churning out the goods required of a massive war effort.

·        As men go off to war the women are forced to become the new work force in this nation.

·        Through the ever-increasingly popular medium of the movie reels, Government propaganda spins tales that are intended to cast the war effort in a positive light while igniting a growing suspicion toward the Japanese and the Germans.

·        In the name of Patriotism and security human rights are trampled upon here in the United States as the Federal Government rounded up over 100,000 persons, most of whom were U.S. citizens, and forced them to live in "Internment Camps".  These detainees were never charged with or tried for any crimes other than the fact that they were of Japanese descent.  For this reason only they were forced to live in sub-standard conditions in poorly constructed shacks surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards for the duration of the war.  Oddly enough, no such imprisonment was ever organized against persons of German or Italian descent even though we were equally engaged in war with those nations, too.

·        Many historians believe that the concentrated war effort ultimately brought us out from under the Great Depression and restored the American economy.

·        Perhaps the most lasting mark of the Second World War was the global entrance into the atomic/nuclear age.  To this day the United States remains the only nation in history to deploy atomic/nuclear weapons. 

Infamy?  Well, I suppose in many ways it is.

INFAMY REVISTED?

Isn't it interesting to compare the conditions of that era with our contemporary world?  Consider a few striking similarities.

1.      The surprise attack on December 7, 1941 is mirrored in September 11, 2001.  Both events took place on American soil (though Hawaii was not a State, it was a U.S. Territory in 1941) and led us into war.

2.      The nation was put on "Red Alert".

3.      Our Government spins the events in such a way as to stir patriotic emotions and build support for the war effort.

4.      In the name of Patriotism and security a new enemy is identified: people of Arabian  descent or the Muslim tradition are looked upon suspiciously and in many cases find their rights are denied.  Perhaps the 21^st Century equivalent of the Internment Camps is embodied in Guantanamo Bay.  While "Gitmo" only received 775 detainees the conditions appear to have been worse there than in the Japanese Internment Camps some 60 years earlier.  As of last month (November 2010) 174 detainees are still being held at Guantanamo.

5.      Support for the invasion of Iraq was inspired by reports of the infamous "Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)" that were being built and hidden inside Iraq, or so we were told repeatedly by the Bush Administration.  We now know this charge was completely false and we, the American public, were duped!  Ironically WWII ended, for all intents and purposes, with the actual deployment of two devastating and horribly destructive "weapons of mass destruction" by the United States at the expense of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

6.      Ironically, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are driving us further and further into an economic crisis the likes of which the world has not seen since the days of the Great Depression.

"Infamy": 1)  evil reputation brought about by something grossly criminal, shocking, or brutal;  2)an extreme and publicly known criminal or evil act" (source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

Yes, FDR was likely justified for bestowing this title upon December 7, 1941.     But as we decry the actions of the Japanese on that date we also incriminate our own Government and nation for the actions we have undertaken since September 11, 2001.  As we look in the mirror of the former we see the reflection of the latter.  And it is equally horrific.