ARLINGTON, Va. – We acknowledge Dec. 7 because the anniversary of the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the start, for the United States, of a protracted and onerous army battle towards the Axis powers.
More than 3,400 army personnel and civilians have been killed and wounded that day, with important injury inflicted upon the Pacific Fleet and to the Army Air Corps squadrons stationed in Hawaii. At this unsure time, Americans got here collectively in a standard trigger to prevail in an undesirable warfare.
In phrases of readiness for a warfare, the National Guard in December, 1941, was a bellwether of the nation and its residents. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt had declared a state of nationwide emergency to start making ready for American involvement in what was more and more changing into a world warfare. As a part of this peacetime emergency measure, your entire National Guard, over 300,000 Soldiers, was ordered into federal service, with some models mobilized as early as September, 1940.
So when the Japanese assault got here and warfare was immediately inevitable, Guardsmen have been coaching in floor and air models all throughout the nation. Moreover, as a result of United States territories abroad have been in determined want of reinforcement, National Guard models had been deployed to reinforce the defenses of each the Hawaiian and Philippine Islands properly earlier than December 7. Guardsman have been consequently within the thick of the fray throughout each assaults, claiming each the primary Japanese prisoner of warfare at Pearl Harbor, by the 298th Infantry from Hawaii, and the primary Japanese aircraft shot down within the Philippines, by the two hundredth Coast Artillery from New Mexico.
By advantage of the peacetime mobilization, the National Guard elevated the dimensions of the Army, offering the War Department with educated, organized, and thus deployable models. It additionally enabled the United States to nearly instantly reassure beleaguered allies in each the Far East and in Europe with extra than simply phrases, however with precise American preventing males. A portent of the longer term, this token American army readiness, demonstrated by educated and prepared models, impressed hope, each at dwelling and overseas.
On today, we keep in mind. The nice lack of life within the line of responsibility on Dec. 7, 1941, compels the nation right this moment, because it did then, to recollect and to honor the sacrifice of these misplaced then, and to reaffirm its dedication to the women and men who defend the United States right this moment.