Today marks the 72nd anniversary of the Japanese bombing of the US Navy's Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Although the USA had been supplying England, the Soviet Union and Chang Kai-Shek's China with materiel since May of 1941 under FDR's Lend-Lease, the Japanese attack on December 7th triggered America's direct involvement in WWII.
The surprise attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy was meant to completely knock out the Navy's Pacific fleet and although the battleships USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma were destroyed, three aircraft carriers were out at sea that fateful day- either delivering aircraft to US bases in the Pacific or out on maneuvers.
At the end of the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto- considered the architect of Japan's attack on Pearl harbor- is depicted telling his subordinates "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve" After receiving word of the successful attack on Pearl Harbor.
While his commanders believed an economically depressed USA with the horrors of the First World War still on the minds of many would mean an America reluctant to enter into armed conflict, Yamamoto knew better. A more accurate quote attributed to Yamamoto was made to a Japanese cabinet minister- In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.
His words proved prophetic- almost seven months to the day after the Pearl Harbor attack, US forces dealt a crippling blow to Imperial Japan's naval fleet at the Battle of Midway in June 1942.
US Senator and Medal of Honor recipient Daniel Inouye passed away from respiratory complications at George Washington University Hospital on Monday. The Hawaiian senator, who became the longest-serving US Senator after the 2010 death of West Virginia democrat Robert Byrd, had held the office since 1963 and has represented the Aloha State in the nation's capital for as long as Hawaii has been a state, having been elected to Hawaii's at-large Congressional district shortly after it was granted statehood in 1959.
Inouye was also a decorated US Army veteran who served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an Army unit made up of second generation Japanese immigrants from across the US mainland and Hawaii- many of whom had relatives in internment camps at the time.
In April of 1945, while fighting in German-occupied Italy, Inouye was shot multiple times and severely wounded while charging a trio of German machine-gun nests. Despite being shot in the stomach and leg as well as losing his right arm to a nazi rifle-grenade, a wounded Inouye was able to destroy the first two bunkers with grenades and clear out the third with a burst from his Thompson submachine gun. Inouye's actions would earn him the Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Distinguished Cross. In 2000, President Clinton awarded Inouye and 19 other members of the 442nd Regimental Combat team the Medal of Honor. By 1947, Inouye was honorably discharged with the rank of captain and was said to have been convalescing at the same Michigan Army hospital as future Senator and Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole.
On Thursday, Inouye lay in state at the Capitol building for his Senate and House colleagues before being moved to the National Cathedral for a memorial service on Friday. Inouye's body will then be flown to Hawaii for a memorial service in Honolulu before his burial at the Cemetery of the Pacific.
December 7th, 1941 marks the date of the US entry into World War II with the Imperial Japanese Navy's air attack on the US Navy's Pacific fleet. The aerial assault killed an estimated 2400 sailors and Marines, with approximately half of them on the USS Arizona when she was hit by a Japanese bomb.
In 1962, a little over 20 years after the Pearl Harbor attack, a memorial for the USS Arizona was dedicated- since 1980, the site has been jointly administered by the US Navy and National Parks. In 1990s, the battleship USS Missouri on which the formal Japanese surrender agreement was signed, was decommissioned and in 1999 moved to Pearl Harbor where she remains with her bow facing the Arizona and memorial.
At present, there are 13 known Arizona survivors. Within the last year, two survivors had passed away- 93 year old Glenn Lane of Oak Harbor, WA and 86 year old Frank Carbiness of Lewisville, TX- had requested that their ashes be interred on the USS Arizona so they could be reunited with friends they lost on Dec 7th.
I reported for work immediately on Sunday morning when the first news — Oahu is being attacked — crackled over the radio, sandwiched in a church program.
Like the rest of Hawaii, I refused to believe it. All along the sunny road to town were people just coming out of church, dogs lazy in the driveways, mynas in noisy convention.
Then, from the neighborhood called Punchbowl, I saw a formation of black planes diving straight into the ocean off Pearl Harbor. The blue sky was punctured with anti-aircraft smoke puffs. Suddenly, there was a sharp whistling sound, almost over my shoulder, and below, down on School Street. I saw a rooftop fly into the air like a pasteboard movie set.
For the first time, I felt that numb terror that all of London has known for months. It is the terror of not being able to do anything but fall on your stomach and hope the bomb won't land on you. It's the helplessness and terror of sudden visions of a ripping sensation in your back, shrapnel coursing through your chest, total blackness, maybe death.
The vision of death became reality when I was assigned to cover the emergency room of the hospital.
The first victims of the Japanese-American war were brought there on that bright Sunday morning.
Concerned that her accounts of dead and maimed sailors and civilians in Honolulu would undermine morale as the US entred World War II, Elizabeth McIntosh's editors declined to publish her piece. Within weeks, McIntosh- who was fluent in Japanese- would move to the nation's capital and be assigned to cover First Lady Elanor Roosevelt by the Scripps-Howard News Service before being recruited by the Office of Strategic Services- the precursor to the CIA.
Washington Post Photo
While with the OSS, McIntosh was stationed in Burma and India where she was one of the relatively few women assigned to Morale operations, where she would produce phony postcards, news reports and radio messages to undermine Japanese morale. After World War II, McIntosh would leave the intelligence field briefly before joining up with the CIA from 1958 to 1973.
McIntosh would chronicle her own OSS experience as well as those of others when she authored a book called Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the OSS in 1998. McIntosh, 97, currently resides in Lake Ridge, VA and was able to get the Washington Post to publish the piece her editors in Hawaii rejected more than 70 years ago.
NHL: The 2012 NHL All-Star Game from Place in Ottawa is in the books, and the winner is Team Chara.
For those of you unfamiliar with the format, for the past couple of years the NHL has shied away from the Eastern Conference vs Western Conference or North America vs the World Format and instead, named two captains ahead of the All Star Break and then had those Captains draft other players selected to the All Star game. This year, the two captains were hometown favorite Daniel Alfredsson of the Senators and defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara.
So for both the skills competition and Sunday's All-Star game, Team Chara consisted of the following:
[Forwards] Joffrey Lupul, RW, Toronto; Pavel Datsyuk, C Detroit; Evgeni Malkin, C, Pittsburgh; Tyler Seguin, C, Boston; Marian Hossa, RW, Chicago; Corey Perry, RW, Anaheim; Phil Kessel, RW, Toronto; Patrick Kane, RW, Chicago; Jarome Iginla, RW, Calgary; Marian Gaborik, RW, NY Rangers; Jordan Eberle, RW, Edmonton
[Defense] Kimmo Timonen, D, Philadelphia; Ryan Suter, D, Nashville; Brian Campbell, D, Florida; Dion Phaneuf, D, Toronto; Dennis Wideman, D, Washington
[Goalies] Tim Thomas, G, Boston; Carey Price, G, Montreal; Jimmy Howard, G, Detroit
[Rookies] Luke Adam, C, Buffalo; Raphael Diaz, D, Montreal; Colin Greening, LW, Ottawa; Cody Hodgson, C, Vancouver; Ryan Johansen, C, Columbus; Gabriel Landeskog, LW, Colorado
The 'Hometown' [and Alfredsson did exhibit a bias in favor of the Senators when making his picks- NANESB!] Team Alfredsson consisted of:
[Forwards] Jason Spezza, C, Ottawa; Claude Giroux, C, Philadelhpia; Steven Stamkos, C, Tampa Bay; Daniel Sedin, LW, Vancouver; Henrik Sedin, C, Vancouver; Milan Michalek, LW, Ottawa; James Neal, LW, Pittsburgh; John Tavares, C, NY Islanders; Scott Hartnell, LW, Philadelphia; Logan Coutre, C, San Jose; Jason Pominville, RW, Buffalo.
[Defense] Erik Karlson, D, Ottawa; Kris Letang, D, Pittsburgh; Shea Weber, D, Nashville; Dan Girardi, D, NY Rangers; Keith Yandle, D, Phoenix; Alexander Edler, D, Vancouver
[Goalies] Henrki Lundqvist, G, NY Rangers; Jonathan Quick, G, Los Angeles; Brian Elliot, G, St Louis.
[Rookies] Sean Couturier, C, Philadelphia; Justin Faulk, D, Carolina; Carl Hagelin, LW, NY Rangers; Nick Johnson, RW, Minnestoa; Matt Read, RW, Philadelhia; Craig Smith, C, Nashville.
Sunday's all-star game came one day after Zdeno Chara broke his own record in the skills competition for hardest slapshot, notching a scalding 108.8 MPH. This is the 5th consecutive All Star Skill Competition where Chara has won the hardest shot portion of the Skills competition.
It being an All-Star game, keeping track of the scoring is a pretty tall order. Rangers RW Marion Gaborik had himself a hat trick thanks to an early goal in the second period to break a tie and put Team Chara up 4-3, ironically besting Rangers teammate Henrik Lunqvist to put Team Chara up on top.
In net, Tim Thomas stopped 18 of 21 shots faced- including denying hometown favorite and Team Alfredsson captain Daniel Alfredsson the hat trick late in the 2nd, with the game tied at 6-6.
After Claude Grioux would get a tally for Team Alfredsson to tie the game at 8-8, Team Chara would start to pull away thanks to goals by Marian Hossa, Corey Perrey and the captain himself, Zdeno Chara.
Team Chara goes on to win by a final of 12-9 with Chara's fellow Slovak Gaborik earning the MVP honors for his 3 goals and 1 assist for the afternoon.
The Bruins resume play on Tuesday night with a home game against All-Star host Ottawa. The puck drops at 7:00 ET and the game will be televised on NESN.
Columbus, OH has been announced as the host city for next year's NHL All-Star game.
NFL: Miami Dolphins WR Brandon Marshall accounted for 4 of the AFC's 8 TD's at the Pro Bowl in Honolulu's Aloha Stadium as the AFC trounced the NFC by a 59-41 final on Sunday evening.
Marshall had 6 catches for 176 yards and the 4 TDs on Sunday while Arizona's Larry Fitzgerald had 6 receptions for 111 yards and 3 TDs in the losing effort. Although eight Patriots were selected to the Pro-Bowl, none of them were in attendence in Honolulu on Sunday. For the Giants, QB Eli Manning and DE Jason Pierre-Paul were also named to the Pro Bowl, but not in attendence as both teams arrived in Indianpolis to prepare for Super Bowl XLVI
NBA: The Celtics let one get away from them late on Sunday night as they were edged by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavs scored 12 unanswered points to finish up the 4th and snap the C's 4-game win streak (including sweeping the Orlando Magic on home-and-away game). Cavs Point Guard Kyrie Irving made the go-ahead layup with all of 2.6 seconds ramaining in regulation to give Cleveland the win.
The 9-10 Celtics will get a chance for some retribution when they hit the road for a rematch of Sunday's game at Quicken Loans arena in Cleveland. That game gets underway at 7:00 ET and will be televised on CSNE Tuesday night.
The USS Arizona is the final resting place for more than 1100 American sailors and officers killed in the December 7th, 1941 Imperial Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Since 1962, theUSS Arizona memorial has straddled the battleship's sunken hull.
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the devastating Japanese attack on the US Navy's Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The attack killed nearly 2400 American servicemen, nearly half of the casualties that day coming from the battleship USS Arizona.
Although tensions across the Pacific were rising due to Imperial Japan's invasion and occupation of Manchuria and the US cutting off oil exports to Japan, the aerial attack on Pearl Harbor was carried on without any formal declaration of war.
At the time, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt would declare before a joint session of Congress December 7th "A date which will live in infamy".
The magnitude 8.9 quake- even more powerful than last year's Chilean earthquake- struck at around 2:45 PM local time on Friday in Japan. According to the USGS, the epicenter was some 80 miles to the east off the coast of Sendai and 230 miles from Tokyo. Te prefecture of Sendai was hardest hit.
Japanese oficials say that the death toll from the quake and tsunami is at 32 and expected to rise. Although no derailments were reported, Shinkansen (high speed rail) lines across the country were shut down as a precautionary measure. The expressways in and around Tokyo were shut down Friday afternoon as well.
A tsunami warning was issued at 9:30 p.m. for Hawaii as a result of a 8.9-magnitude earthquake near the east coast of Honshu, Japan. The earthquake and resulting tsunami killed at least 32 people in Japan.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami watch at 7:56 p.m. after the quake struck 231 miles northeast of Tokyo.
Chip McCreary, director of the warning center, said the latest forecast models show "wave amplitudes of up to 2 meters (6 feet) beyond normal sea levels in Hawaii.
"What these waves look like is an elevation of sea level, where the sea level will rise above its normal level and stay high for 10 or 15 minutes before they recede," McCreary said, explaining the difference between tsunami and regular waves.
Because of the long length of tsunami waves, "they wrap around our islands very efficiently" so there is no point of impact that may see higher waves than other areas.
The waves are expected to impact in Hawaii at 3 AM Hawaian time (8AM Easter). A Tsunami warning has also been issued for Taiwan, Russia, the Philippines, southern Alaska, British Columbia, the entire West Coast of the USA, Mexico as well as Central and South America and New Zealand.
3/11 UPDATE #2: Japanese authorities have issued an official emergency for the Tokyo Electric Power Co's [Nikkei: 9501]Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the town of Okuma after problems were reported with the plant's cooing systems. The plant had automatically shut down after the earthquake and authorities have ordered the evacuation of more than 2000 in a 3km radius from the plant.
The tsunami impacted the California coast at 10 AM Pacific Time, sweeping at least one man out to sea and damaging boats and docks in coastal cities like Santa Cruz and Crescent City.
Today marks the 69th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor which destroyed 4 battleships, 4 cruisers, nearly 200 aircraft (most of them on the ground) and killed over 2400 men.
The quote 'I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve' has been widely attributed to Admiral Yamamoto, Commander of the Combined Imperial Japanese Fleet, immediately after the attack. Although the Japanese commander was depicted as uttering those lines in films such as Tora! Tora! Tora! or Pearl Harbor there are no official documents or communications in which he uses that phrase.
Another more timely and prophetic quote from Yamamoto I can run wild for six months … after that, I have no expectation of success. As it turned out, the decisive Battle of Midway that would severely limit Japan's Naval power for the rest of World War II took place exactly 6 months after Pearl Harbor.
Hmmm.....must be those dangerous Tea Party activists, healthcare opponents or the various and sundry right-wingers that the Department of Homeland Security and Mayor Bloomberg warned us about.
Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Ashburn, conspired with people he believed to be al-Qaeda operatives to attack the stations at Arlington National Cemetery, Pentagon City, Crystal City and Court House, the indictment said.
An administration official said Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Pakistan, first drew the attention of law enforcement officials by seeking to obtain unspecified materials. He later became the target of an undercover sting operation, officials said.
According to the indictment, in April Ahmed began to meet in hotels in Northern Virginia with people he believed to be affiliated with a terrorist organization. He agreed to conduct video surveillance of the stations, suggested the best time to attack and the best place to place explosives to maximize casualties, the indictment alleges.
The 21-year-old [Abdel HameedShehadeh] born and raised in New York created websites and posted threats of radical Islamic violence, including one from another American expatriate, AnwaralAwlaki. Then Shehadeh flew to Hawaii and allegedly started taking target practice.
FBI agents said he wanted to join a jihadist group to learn “guerrilla warfare and bomb-making.” Had he been welcomed into the U.S. army, they said, his plan was to defect in Iraq and turn against his comrades.
Shehadeh’s journeys ended last Friday. He was arrested in Honolulu and accused in a federal criminal complaint, unsealed Monday, of making false statements in an international terrorism case
Wait....what? They're not with the Tea Parties? That can't be right....I mean it's not like the SPLC or NAACP would lie about or exaggerate such things.
Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djouwas declared the winner of a special election Mail-In vote in Hawaii's 1st Congressional District on Sunday. Djou resigned from his position on the City Council earlier today and is expected to be sworn in as early as tomorrow. The win comes less than a week after former Murtha aide Mark Critz defeated Republican Tim Burns in a special election in Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District to fill the seat left vacant by Murtha's death.
The election was called for when Democrat Congressman Neil Abercrombie resigned to campaign for governor of Hawaii full time back in January. Initially the underdog, Djou managed to garner just under 40% of the vote on the ballot. Djou's campaign was helped by infighting between Democrats Ed Case and Colleen Hanabusa, with each demanding the other drop out of the race. Hanabusa got just over 30% of the vote while Case got roughly 27% of the vote, with the remainder of the votes going towards unaffiliated or independent candidates.
It's safe to say that Hawaii's first Congressional district is perhaps one of the bluest districts in the country, and although the vote was split between two democrats, it's still a little surprising that a democrat didn't win by a 40% margin instead of Djou. This district- which encompasses most of metropolitan Honolulu- has also occasionally been described as President Obama's 'backyard' [as opposed to Jakarta, Chicago or Nairobi- NANESB!].
