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Remember December 7?

Posted on 05 December 2019 by LeslieM

By “Cinema” Dave

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” Translated quote attributed to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (though not factually verified)

This Saturday, Dec. 7 marks the 78th Anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Does this sentence hold any significance for you? For some of my readers, the bombing of Pearl Horror was a horror story that they first heard about on Broadcast Radio or that their parents lived through. It was a life changing day for millions of people.

The Japanese Imperial Navy waged a surprise attack on the territory of Hawaii, which was the most western naval base of the United States of America. (On Dec. 8, 1941, Congress declared war on Japan.) A shocked nation responded months later with a bombing mission over Tokyo, which lead to the Battle of Midway, Iwo Jima, Bataan and the eventual dropping of two Atomic Bombs on Japan. Thus, in one compound sentence, explains the Pacific Campaign of World War II.

As a child and teen growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, World War II was very much a topic of conversation, since many relatives and neighbors served in the conflict. Television shows like Hogan’s Heroes found humor about prisoners of war. Afternoon movies featuring John Wayne, Cary Grant and Errol Flynn presented patriotic stories with stock war footage filmed by legendary movie directors like John Huston, John Ford and Italian Immigrant Frank Capra. 

When war concludes, a soldier returns home in the hopes of finding peace. The highest ranking actor in military history, a Brigadier General in the United States Air Force Reserve, James Stewart made a movie with Frank Capra that bombed — It’s a Wonderful Life. It wasn’t until the early 1980s with contemporary, hot film director Steven Spielberg that The Searchers and It’s a Wonderful Life were two of the most influential movies. 

As Greek philosopher Socrates proclaimed over 5,000 years ago, “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”  As Sept. 11, 2001 has revealed, each generation faces the challenge of evil and how one responds to that challenge defines a generation.

This Monday, Dec. 9, Broward County Library Director Kelvin Watson will be visiting Deerfield Beach Percy White Library to do a book talk on Thank You For Your Service by David Finkel.  As a follow up to his book, The Good Soldiers, Finkel focuses on the returning soldiers from the “War on Terror” and how they are trying to adjust to civilian life.

This Saturday, Dec. 7, at 2 p.m., Deerfield Beach Percy White Library will present a John Wayne movie released in January 1944. (Title cannot be revealed due to licensing agreements.) While young people might scoff at how dated this film will look, this film is a time capsule about the culture of world war. One will cringe at the cigarettes being smoked in this movie, yet one will appreciate the sincerity of domestic sacrifice. While John Wayne did not serve in World War II, his movies where respected by the American soldier. I should know. My Dad served in World War II at the time of this movie’s release.

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