A Century That Will Live In Infamy

By Dallas Darling.
World News Correspondent
Courtesy Of: WN

Each year on December 7, 1941 newspapers across America carry the headline: The Day That Lives In Infamy. Yet, I cannot help but think that too often we Americans have a short memory and quick tempers. I mean no disrespect to those who died at Pearl Harbor. In fact, a dear friend of mine, who passed away several years ago, was there when the Japanese attacked. I have also been honored and privileged to have known several WW II veterans, whom left lasting impressions with their stories of valor in the Pacific Theater of War and the liberation of Concentration Camps in Europe.

I still believe, however, that December 7, 1941 should instead be remembered as a century that will live in infamy, instead of a date that will live in infamy. Wars seldom, if at all, start in one day or on a certain date, let alone weeks and even months before. Most wars begin much earlier, years earlier, decades earlier, and even centuries earlier.

What bothers me the most about wars are the lost opportunities in averting them, and the unquestioning allegiance in, and total obedience for, misguided leaders and their imperialist policies . The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was no different.

It could be argued that the attack began in 1853, almost a century earlier, when the U.S. forced trade and ideals upon Japan. The Perry expedition opened Japanese markets to American goods by using warships. Many in Japanese society resented this and the Westernization of their society. Commodore Perry also landed U.S. Marines on Okinawa, Ryukyu, and the Bonin Islands as a show of force in order to demonstrate American naval and military power. Some believe the ruler of Okinawa was forced into signing a treaty securing American facilities for commerce and a refueling naval station for U.S. vessels.

In the 1890’s as America expanded westward by sending U.S. Marines into Hawaii and toppling Queen Liliuokalani in order to protect American sugar plantations, a severe economic recession occurred. Millions of U.S. workers became jobless and hundreds of banks and businesses failed.

Leading up to 1898, many monopolists and their media outlets sensationalized the suffering of Cubans and preached a message of aggressive nationalism. When the USS Maine accidentally exploded off the coast of Cuba, it was all too easy to blame and declare war on Spain. The wealthy elite and industrialists saw the Spanish-American War as an opportunity to gain new markets, cheap resources and labor, and unify a country that was experiencing labor strikes, riots and rebellions.

Cuba and Puerto Rico quickly became U.S. protectorates. The U.S. also acquired the Philippine Islands and Guam near Japan. As the U.S. flexed its imperial muscles and slaughtered almost 500,000 Filipinos while annexing the Philippines (their revolutionary leader Emilio Aguinaldo called it a violent and aggressive seizure), Japan, now Westernized and industrialized, also saw empire building as a way to protect its security and meet its economic needs.

In 1876, Japan forced Korea (sound familiar?) to open its ports to Japanese goods. When China invaded Korea, Japan sent troops and helped the Koreans drive-out the Chinese. By 1895, Japan had taken over Manchuria and was given Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands. Japan then launched a surprise attack in 1904 defeating the Russian Navy and eliminating any Russian threat. Japan also made Korea a protectorate (sound familiar?) in 1905 and would eventually annex it.

These events alarmed the United States. President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Secretary of State John Hay supported the Open Door Policy with China, in which all countries should be allowed to trade with China. The Chinese had a different view, though, and in 1900 the Boxers rose up to resist the foreign devils and Westernization of their culture.


Thousands of U.S. and European troops were sent to China to crush the Boxer Rebellion. China was forced to pay compensation for the damage. The U.S. retained access to China's lucrative trade in tea, spices, and silk and maintained an increasingly larger market for its goods, which Japan also sought.

The Great Depression occurred much earlier in Japan than in the U.S. During the 1920’s, difficult economic times helped undermine Japan's political system and its industries had to import nearly all of the resources needed to produce goods. While American farmers were experiencing deflation and burning crops, dumping milk and slaughtering cattle in the fields, Japan was struggling to feed a burgeoning population. In 1931, Japanese military officers invaded Manchuria and later assassinated the Japanese Prime Minister when he attempted to end the war. Japan's military now had a strong influence over the civilian government.

Four years later, a border incident caused a full-scale war between China and Japan. Japanese forces swept into northern China and crushed Beijing and Nanjing. Thousands of Chinese were killed or forced to retreat. To protect its own business interests against the Japanese invasion and to suppress a Communist Revolution, the U.S. armed and trained the Chinese forces under Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek) and other armed gangs that nearly wiped out the Chinese Communist Party in 1927.

As the Nationalists and Communists united to fight Japan, the U.S. would send more than $1.5 billion in military aid to China in 1937, ending President Franklin D. Roosevelt's promise of neutrality. 1937 also marked the year that Japanese warplanes accidentally bombed the USS Panay which was patrolling on the Yangtze River near Nanking. Japan would later apologize and pay the indemnity demanded by the U.S.

While sending weapons to China to fight Japan, Roosevelt applied economic pressure. Japan depended on the U.S. for its iron, steel, and especially oil. Eighty percent of oil that fueled Japan’s economy came from the U.S. In 1940, Roosevelt was given power to restrict the sale of ‘strategic materials’ (materials deemed important for fighting a war) to other nations.


Roosevelt immediately blocked the sale of fuel and steel to Japan. The Japanese considered this embargo as an act of war and signed an alliance with the Axis Powers: Germany and Italy.


Japan also swept into Indochina in search of oil and resources. Roosevelt froze all Japanese assets in the U.S. and built-up American military forces in the Philippines which alarmed Japan.


Japan, with its oil and steel resources depleted, decided to attack the resource-rich Philippines, British and Dutch colonies of Southeast Asia, and deliver a knock-out blow to the American Naval forces in Hawaii.

The reason I believe December 7, 1941 should be remembered as a century that will live in infamy, is because both Japan, the U.S. and its citizens had numerous opportunities to prevent a major war.

What if the U.S. would have understood Japan's Bushido Code and approached the country in a more cautious and reverent manner in the 1850’s? What if the U.S. would have allowed the Filipinos their independence after the Spanish-American War, instead of using the islands as a naval and military base in the Pacific Ocean threatening Japan? In the 1920’s, what if the U.S. would have sent Japan its surplus food to help feed its growing population?

Instead of using billions of dollars in armaments, what if the U.S. would have used envoys to establish a more peaceful approach with Japan? If Japan desperately needed oil and steel, why would Roosevelt declare an embargo, knowing that it would most likely lead to war? Whether a nation dreams of a Military Empire, as Japan did, or a Democratic Empire in which the majority are persuaded by the industrialists and monopolists that their way of life must always be secured through the use of war and aggression, as the U.S. did (and still is?); the result is always the same: A Century That Will Live In Infamy.

Tragically, with the current crisis and military conflicts in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, if we do not change and start to hold our political leaders and their foreign policies accountable, it may be a millennium that will live in infamy.

Dallas Darling