EDITORIAL - The lessons of Pearl Harbor

Today marks 80 years since the sneak attack that brought the US into the most destructive war the world has seen thus far.

We all know what happened. Two waves of planes swooped down on Pearl Harbor, the US naval base in Hawaii that served as the home of the Pacific Fleet, in hopes of crippling the fleet enough to render it useless to stop Japanese expansion in the region.

In the immortal words of President Franklin Roosevelt “the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

Even almost a century later the lessons of Pearl Harbor still ring true.

And what is the greatest among these lessons? Some of the greatest incidents/disasters/attacks that we had to go through were actually preventable.

Read up on history. Way back in 1941 there was enough intelligence being fed to the US that an attack from Japan was imminent. They may not have had the “where” or the “when” figured out, but they definitely knew the “what” that was going to happen.

Despite all the red flags, there was not enough action taken to secure “The Pearl”.

While, there may not have been enough resources to prevent the actual attack from happening, preparation for it could have saved more lives, more ships, more war materiel, and drastically changed how the Pacific Campaign to reclaim territory seized by the Japanese unfolded.

Today, ignoring red flags still leads to regret.

Let’s take the case of the most recent school shooting in Oxford, Michigan. There were enough red flags to indicate that the 15-year-old suspect was not just a troubled soul, but someone who also harbored a likelihood to take lives. This is evidence by his getting into trouble with the school, his showing off of a gun he was not old enough to legally own, as well has his drawing showing people being shot.

Yet it seems little was done to dissuade the child from embarking on such a course of action.

We admit that there is really no way we can totally prevent some incidents from happening. Fate always takes its own course. There is also no way we can be aware of all circumstances leading up to an incident until after it has happened. As we say, hindsight is 20/20.

But if we would have paid enough attention to warning signs and red flags, who knows how many shootings, terror attacks, man-made disasters, and what else could have been prevented? In particular with school shootings, how many students would still be alive today and contributing to society?

Like we said, the lessons of Pearl Harbor still ring true.