by Michael Connelly
December 7, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy” was the date of the Japanese surprise attack on the American Naval Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Over 3,000 Americans died that day, most of them members of the military, and many of our finest warships were destroyed, including the battleship USS Arizona. The Japanese were initially elated over the damage caused to the American navy, but they soon realized that their ultimate goal had not been realized. They had not demoralized the American people and destroyed our will to fight.
Instead, they had only succeeded in uniting the American people who did not cower in fear, but prepared to go to war on two fronts. Millions of American soldiers, sailors, and marines, went to war in Europe and the Pacific not only to defend the freedom of the American people, but to free the millions who were being oppressed by the Japanese, the German Nazis, and the Italian Fascists.
American casualties during WW II totaled over one million with over 405,000 deaths. The entire country mobilized to support the war effort. There were no anti-war demonstrations, none of our soldiers were spit on for wearing the uniform of their country, and anyone who had burned an American flag would have suffered severe consequences at the hands of their fellow Americans.
Can you imagine what the outcome of WW II would have been if instead of young Americans going into the military in mass, or working in defense industries, or otherwise supporting our troops by consenting to rationing of gasoline, tires, food etc. they would have grabbed their teddy bears and coloring books and gone to hide in their “safe spaces” so they could be protected from reality.
Unfortunately, most of the millennials in our country today don’t remember Pearl Harbor or even World War II. I recently looked at a common core lesson plan for teaching our children about WW II and it was unbelievable. The heroism of our military was not mentioned and none of the military leaders such as Eisenhower, Patton, or Nimitz were named. None of the major battles were discussed including the invasion of Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge or Iwo Jima.
The discussions that students were to engage in were about things like the detention of Japanese Americans, racism within the military etc. all politically correct subjects for the left people who are supposedly educating our children. However, this type of misinformation is not something new. A few years ago I was doing some part time work scoring essays on student SAT exams. Most of the topics were mundane, but when the topic dealt with American history I saw some very disturbing things.
For example, some high school students thought that in WW II we fought Mexico, Spain, or even England. Some also stated the WW II was started by the United States dropping atomic bombs on Japan and that led to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. These are just some examples of the fact that our children are not learning anything about American history and certainly not about our Constitutional form of government.
At a time when we should be remembering and honoring the Americans who died 75 years ago at Pearl Harbor, the concentration of the media and our education system is on excluding Christmas from public schools, rewriting our history, eliminating patriotism, and destroying our Constitutional rights. It is time we reverse this.
Michael Connelly is the Executive Director of the United States Justice Foundation
