It's Pearl Harbor Day

[sirhugs]

Why do I care when I'm Canadian?
Dunno but see it as something that should be remembered.
What better way than a Lit story?
how about random couple (not a couple together) travel to Honolulu to take in the day in honour of relatives killed that day. They end up having sex before they realize that they are relatives several generations removed...

 

[CuriousJInLA]

Why do I care when I'm Canadian?
Dunno but see it as something that should be remembered.
What better way than a Lit story?
how about random couplw travel to Honolulu to take in the day in honour of relatives killed that day. They end up having sex before they realize that they are relatives several generations removed...

It sex related but I’ve been to PH. Not to diminish the human toll but the Japanese decision to attack changed the world. Winston Churchill’s secret joy because it pulled US fully into the war

 

[NotUnperson]

It sex related but I’ve been to PH. Not to diminish the human toll but the Japanese decision to attack changed the world. Winston Churchill’s secret joy because it pulled US fully into the war

Yes, Frank Miller said something similar in The Dark Knight Returns.

 

[ByteMe13]

Chinese, Japanese, same thing

 

[Husky_Embrace]

Pearl Harbour was a tragedy. A senseless loss of life. It is good to give respects to it.

However, Hollywood and other (American) media blow it out of proportion in my view. More than 2400 American souls lost their lives that day. The reason was the reluctance and thus inaction of the American people (politics).

At the same time they fought the Nazis a lot longer in the trenches of Europe. They lost several times that number on average every day. Why do we take this smaller tragedy in the fullness of the war, and forget about the many tragedies unfolding during the war.

It wasn't just in Europe. The fights moved throughout much of the world, leaving scars and instability in some regions that are still raging today.

Whether you're Allied or Axis, who wants their friend, partner, sibling or child to be sent to the front, where thousands are killed just to move a line on an otherwise insignificant piece of land a few metres forwards? Where disease and the weather plague you if the enemy bullets aren't? Where even in the air you knew that every sortie could be your last?

Pearl Harbour is a tragedy, but blown up beyond proportion. To me it would be better to write a story around a lesser known battle. Give some deserved attention to it. Pearl Harbour has been done.

 

[MikeXIrons]

Pearl Harbour was a tragedy. A senseless loss of life. It is good to give respects to it.

However, Hollywood and other (American) media blow it out of proportion in my view. More than 2400 American souls lost their lives that day. The reason was the reluctance and thus inaction of the American people (politics).

At the same time they fought the Nazis a lot longer in the trenches of Europe. They lost several times that number on average every day. Why do we take this smaller tragedy in the fullness of the war, and forget about the many tragedies unfolding during the war.

It wasn't just in Europe. The fights moved throughout much of the world, leaving scars and instability in some regions that are still raging today.

Whether you're Allied or Axis, who wants their friend, partner, sibling or child to be sent to the front, where thousands are killed just to move a line on an otherwise insignificant piece of land a few metres forwards? Where disease and the weather plague you if the enemy bullets aren't? Where even in the air you knew that every sortie could be your last?

Pearl Harbour is a tragedy, but blown up beyond proportion. To me it would be better to write a story around a lesser known battle. Give some deserved attention to it. Pearl Harbour has been done.

It is interesting… the lasting impact of historical events are not always relative to the raw number of lives lost. You could make the same argument about 9/11. Or any number of battles big and small.

 

[MikeXIrons]

It’s been a LONG time, but, the one time I visited the momunent at Pearl Harbor, I was struck by the solemnness in the air… how everyone walked slowly and quietly… and the unspoken awkwardness that most tourists were Americans from the mainland, but a large portion were Japanese visiting from Japan. I remember trying to imagine what the experience might be like if I were Japanese visiting this monument.

Because this is lit, I imagine walking through the monument, reading the plaques, etc… and noticing a beautiful Japanese girl… and making eye contact a few times. In any other setting, I’d think maybe there was a spark I should follow up on, but, in this setting, maybe it’s just her awkwardly wondering what I’m thinking about seeing Japanese people at this location. At one particularly moving display, I wipe my eyes… and then feel a delicate comforting touch on my elbow. I turn to see her looking up with a mix of care and sympathy in her beautiful eyes. Through broken English we comment on how we feel about the display… me… sadness… wishing I could go back and make history better especially for a relative of mine who was at Pearl Harbor.

She says she also feels sadness… and guilt. I assure her there’s no need to feel guilt. She explains that her great grandfather was a high ranking military officer that fateful day and she’s not proud of her family stories. She says that she also wishes there was something she could do to make history right and make people hurt by it feel better. Both her hands are gripping my bicep now. I motion towards her hands and say, “Well, you’re making ME feel better today if nothing else”. She smiles shyly, says, “Good" and lets one of her delicate hands slide down my arm and into my hand, interleaving her fingers between mine.

I wouldn’t learn until much later that the women in her family have been making a trip to Pearl Harbor each year on December 7th, finding a (ideally attractive, young) man who had lost a relative… and giving themselves to him as their family duty to help heal the world and move toward long-lasting peace.

 

[Husky_Embrace]

It is interesting… the lasting impact of historical events are not always relative to the raw number of lives lost. You could make the same argument about 9/11. Or any number of battles big and small.

I'm not arguing the impact though. Just that it gets an unreasonable amount of attention than many other events in the war. It is no doubt an important event, finally pushing the USA into the fight to do the right thing.

The fact it gets so much attention detracts from the other events. They are forgotten, which is a tragedy in it's own right. That is why I ask to write about one of those instead. It should not be okay that this one event is enlarged until it blocks out other events.