Pearl Harbor and China's possible attack

Today, on the solemnity of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, we recall the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan.

It was December 8 in the Philippines. Immediately thereafter, the Japanese bombed our country, targeting American war assets in Philippine territory. Many Filipinos today, including my late father, an 18-year old guerilla then, still bear the trauma. It was really a treachery having been collateral in the conflict between the US and Japan.

Incidentally, the Lapu-Lapu City mayor unwittingly disclosed the alleged presence of U.S. missiles right next door to the Mactan International Airport. And China is listening very closely. That makes us a very inviting target of an attack by China, Russia, North Korea, or all of the above. I hope there shall be no reenactment of Pearl Harbor.

Japan committed a very serious crime against humanity. What Japan did to the Philippines was worse than what Russia is doing to Ukraine now. From 1941 to 1944, more than one million Filipinos died.

Until today, Japan has a huge debt to the Filipinos, especially the thousands of women they used as sex slaves. The greed of Japan and the insatiable ambitions of its leaders to dominate Asia and the Pacific became the proximate causes of the deaths of thousands and the destruction of billions worth of properties. Above all, it was an unforgivable injury to our national dignity. No amount of JICA aid can erase the stigma, and anguish that still linger in the hearts and minds of men and women of our age and older.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed the U.S. Congress in a joint session and said:" Yesterday, December 7, a date which will live in infamy, the USA was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." He then asked that America declare war against Japan. Congress approved it immediately. The U.S. was at peace with that nation, and at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its emperor, looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Roosevelt lamented: "Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing the American island of Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the US and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack." Japan's attack therefore was the most treacherous act for which some years later, they paid heavily with the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Pearl Harbor attack began at 7:55 A.M. when the Hawaiians were still cooking breakfast. The Japanese attack forces came from all directions consisting of 353 aircrafts of which 40 were torpedo planes, 103 level bombers, 131 dive bombers, and 79 fighter planes. There 65 ships consisting of four heavy aircraft carriers, two heavy cruisers, 35 submarines, two light cruisers, nine oilers, two battleships, and 11 destroyers. The surprise blitzkrieg attack damaged the 7th battle fleet of the USA, destroying the battleships Arizona and Oklahoma.

In less than two hours, 2,026 American sailors and marines were killed, a good number of them of Filipino descent. Of those killed, 1,606 were aboard the sunken battleships. A number of civilians and unarmed combatants were killed, including children and elderly. The naval forces of the U.S. suffered incalculable damage.

The revenge was on August 6 and 9, 1945 when America used the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing no less than 246,000 people. Japan, begging on its knees not to bomb Tokyo and Osaka, surrendered on August 15, 1945. Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945.

Until now, Japan has never apologized to the Filipino comfort women. Japan can never pay for all the damage and insults they inflicted on our nation and people. The hundreds of thousands of Japanese who died by the atomic bombs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima weren’t enough to repair all the wounded feelings, pains, and sufferings suffered by our people.

Today, in the solemnity of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, I’m still praying to the Lord to remove the anger and the anguish that I still carry in my heart. I pray that the soul of my father is now resting in peace. And also, that China, Russia and North Korea shall refrain from repeating the worst infamy in world history.