As the year 2022 approaches a close, this Veterans Day is a good time to think back 80 years, to Japan’s devastating December 7, 1941, surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, which thrust the United States into World War II.
The first few months of the war were a disaster for the Americans, with victory seeming like a pipe dream. By the spring of 1942, the German Army had conquered almost all of Western Europe along with its resources. Thanks to the heroism of the Royal Air Force during the London Blitz and the Battle of Britain, the British had stymied a German invasion, but even they were precariously hanging on for survival. Japan had wiped out the colonial presence of the United States, Great Britain, and France in the Western Pacific and East Asia in only a few months, and was seriously threatening Australia and India.
Comments