Lunchbox Lecture: The Raid at Pearl Harbor

While US strategy in 1941 was largely focused on the war in Europe, the bold carrier raid seized the initiative against increasing US pressure over Japan’s ongoing war in China. Captain Rick Jacobs will discuss the events of that terrible, heroic day—from the opening of Japan by Commodore Mathew Perry in the 1850’s through the devastation at Pearl Harbor on December 7.

[georgegeller]

Eugene Burns, an AP reporter, filed the first report of the Pearl Harbor attack by calling AP in New York from a pay phone shortly before the authorities closed the phone lines.

[alancranford]

Pearl Harbor dominated my military career (from 1974 to 2010). The events of 9/11/2001 were a worse disaster with no nation-state to strike back against. The US has had multiple Pearl Harbor events since including the start of the Korean Conflict on 25 June 1950.

Military intelligence is based on rumor and gossip and outright lies (just like police work, news and history) and, as the lecturer said, there's usually too much of it. The Philippines was thought to have been the primary target and a raid on the Panama Canal would have crippled American war fighting in the Pacific--those places were on full alert. The Philippines was attacked a few hours after Pearl Harbor (and this would be a great lunchbox lecture in memory of Pearl Harbor Day) and the Panama Canal was not. A few days later, pinprick strikes on coastal installations by Imperial Japanese Navy submarines coupled with panic over non-existent Japanese bombers over Los Angeles proved FDR's "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

[MelBee]

This is such an interesting topic which is why it's a real shame that the man delivering the lecture is reading his paper the entire time instead of trying to make it interesting to the viewer. It's bad enough the man's voice is cracking all throughout the lecture making it an unpleasant listen. Is this really the best the museum has to offer?