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Balkinization Symposiums: A Continuing List                                                                E-mail: Jack Balkin: jackbalkin at yahoo.com Bruce Ackerman bruce.ackerman at yale.edu Ian Ayres ian.ayres at yale.edu Corey Brettschneider corey_brettschneider at brown.edu Mary Dudziak mary.l.dudziak at emory.edu Joey Fishkin joey.fishkin at gmail.com Heather Gerken heather.gerken at yale.edu Abbe Gluck abbe.gluck at yale.edu Mark Graber mgraber at law.umaryland.edu Stephen Griffin sgriffin at tulane.edu Jonathan Hafetz jonathan.hafetz at shu.edu Jeremy Kessler jkessler at law.columbia.edu Andrew Koppelman akoppelman at law.northwestern.edu Marty Lederman msl46 at law.georgetown.edu Sanford Levinson slevinson at law.utexas.edu David Luban david.luban at gmail.com Gerard Magliocca gmaglioc at iupui.edu Jason Mazzone mazzonej at illinois.edu Linda McClain lmcclain at bu.edu John Mikhail mikhail at law.georgetown.edu Frank Pasquale pasquale.frank at gmail.com Nate Persily npersily at gmail.com Michael Stokes Paulsen michaelstokespaulsen at gmail.com Deborah Pearlstein dpearlst at yu.edu Rick Pildes rick.pildes at nyu.edu David Pozen dpozen at law.columbia.edu Richard Primus raprimus at umich.edu K. Sabeel Rahmansabeel.rahman at brooklaw.edu Alice Ristroph alice.ristroph at shu.edu Neil Siegel siegel at law.duke.edu David Super david.super at law.georgetown.edu Brian Tamanaha btamanaha at wulaw.wustl.edu Nelson Tebbe nelson.tebbe at brooklaw.edu Mark Tushnet mtushnet at law.harvard.edu Adam Winkler winkler at ucla.edu Compendium of posts on Hobby Lobby and related cases The Anti-Torture Memos: Balkinization Posts on Torture, Interrogation, Detention, War Powers, and OLC The Anti-Torture Memos (arranged by topic) Recent Posts How to Remember Pearl Harbor
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Monday, December 06, 2010
How to Remember Pearl Harbor
Mary L. Dudziak
On December 7, the nation will remember the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as the beginning of World War II. What happened in the U.S. territory of Hawaii that day was not the beginning of American involvement in World War II, however. And Japan, on her own, did not bomb Pearl Harbor into American memory. Instead, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his dramatic address the next day, honed the nation’s attention on the Hawaii attack, and away from simultaneous Japanese military strikes throughout the Pacific. Pearl Harbor would come to be remembered as a decontextualized attack on America, as the nation was thrown, by the acts of another, quickly into the war.
Comments:
I was only 11 years old on that Sunday listening to a radio comedy program (Jack Benny?). So what did I know about this:
"Stimson testified at a Pearl Harbor inquiry: 'From some of the comments quoted in the public press, one would get the impression that the imminent threat of war in October and November 1941 was a deep secret, known only to the authorities in Washington who kept it mysteriously to themselves.' The president did not keep knowledge of World War II’s longer beginning from the American people, but he did hope to avoid scrutiny of the fact that, long before war was declared, he was fighting what Edward Corwin called 'the war before the war,' acting as Commander in Chief, amassing an Army, deploying weaponry, supplying American allies." But what did America's "Greatest Generation" know and when did it know it? I don't think it was just an 11 year old who did not know. I was aware that my family was doing better financially, attributable to my mother's job in the garment industry, making clothing for the armed services. There was no WikiLeaks around at the time. Had there been, I don't know how that might have affected the populace as we were coming out of the Great Depression. Switch ahead to the Great Recession of 2008 and the recent WikiLeaks dumps. Is a war necessary to pull America - and much of the rest of the world - into a recovery? Hopefully not. As for nostalgia, I can still hear the words "Let's remember Pearl Harbor as we did the Alamo ... " sung to a lilting, patriotic melody. At age 11, I knew about the Alamo in Hollywood history terms; but it was years later that I learned what the Alamo was really about. History has a way of correcting perceptions for which we may be nostalgic. Hopefully history will provide lessons for the current troubles alluded to by Mary.
Shag -- thanks for your comment. I just wanted to add that you would really enjoy reading Emily Rosenberg's book "A Day that Will Live: Pearl Harbor in American Memory" linked to in my post. She has a section on comparisons between Pearl Harbor and the Alamo.
Regarding when the "Greatest Generation" knew that war was afoot -- some of them knew when they got drafted in the fall of 1940.
Mary, I was at my library yesterday and picked up Emily Rosenberg's book. The index revealed the Alamo comparisons, which included a stanza from the song I had recalled in my earlier comment.
Nostalgia may be tempered by humor. I recall a skit in the early days of TV with Red Skelton in the role of a doofus soda jerk who said he lost his job because he forgot the Alamo. A customer had ordered apple pie and Red forgot the "Alamo" [a la mode to hard of hearing gourmets]. Perhaps only Red Skelton could have drawn laughs with the Alamo. Sometime in the 1970s, long before Tom Brokaw popularized the "Greatest Generation," a Las Vegas comedian (Shecky Greene? Don Rickles?) had a nasty joke about a fellow who was half Jewish and half Japanese and what he would do every December 7th. The punch line was nasty and funny but this is a family blog so I shall omit it. A lot of wars have taken place in my lifetime which began in 1930. We have wars today - with several potentials on the horizon - all this during the American Century (which some say is fading like all empires eventually do). I recall a Seinfeld episode where Jerry told Elaine (who worked for a book publisher) that the original title proposed for Tolstoy's "War and Peace" was "War, What is it Good For?" which Elaine mentioned to a Russian author her firm represented who of course became upset, especially when Elaine answered with the words from a song: "Absolutely Nothing." I served in the Army as a draftee after law school. I describe myself as a "Post-Korea, Pre-Vietnam Veteran." Peace time military service can be boring with its inefficiencies, although we got a tad nervous with potential problems along the Nile in the mid-1950s. Ike knew well what war was like. Perhaps Elaine had the right answer. Brokaw created a patriotic profit center with the "Greatest Generation." Call this neo-nostalgia. Perhaps in years to come other neo-nostalgians will address Korea, Vietnam, Grenada [?], Gulf I, Afghanistan, Iraq, in similar fashion. For Korea, we had the benefit of "M*A*S*H" with its humor to overcome the tragedy. Personally, I think the humor portion survives. Now if only our C-I-Cs had senses of humor, perhaps they might not get in a snit with WikiLeaks. Mary, I plan to read Ms. Rosenberg's book and revisit my years of innocence. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. For now, let's see if I can download "War, What is it Good For?".
Dammit! Back to reality of war with Tom Englehardt's 12/7/10 TomDispatch.com sobering essay "One November's Dead - The American War Dead Disappear into the Darkness." The number of American military who died in WW II, the "good war", was enormous compared to Vietnam, the "bad war." With the Afghan war in its 10th year, American military dead is much lower than in Vietnam. WW II involved shared sacrifices by many in America, Vietnam less so, and Afghanistan even less. Is there a correlation? Can there be another "Hundred Years" war so long as the number of American dead is low although the financial costs may be high? Where is the shared sacrifice, e.g., with the extension of the Bush tax cuts? We still "Remember Pearl Harbor" after 69 years. We haven't forgotten what happened on 9/11/01 but we don't remember that tragedy in similar fashion today. Both the Iraq and Afghan wars are low on the list of Americans' concerns. Neocons (aka Republicans) who pushed America into these wars seem more concerned with the sacrifices of the top 2% of earners if their portion of the Bush tax cuts were not extended. Perhaps this is what voters should remember as 2012 approaches.
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So back to the question: "War, What is it Good For?"
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