'A Date Which Will Live in Infamy' - December 7, 1941

From Andrew Malcolm post this morning, "How Pearl Harbor changed the U.S. 68 years ago today and what the president told a shocked nation":

Last week we had President Obama's less-than-rousing Afghanistan war speech, trying to have it both ways by dispatching more troops while promising a scheduled departure. And not once using the word "victory."

Today, coincidentally, is the 68th anniversary of the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, where shortly the 44th president will fly with his family and White House entourage for a holiday vacation. Few Ticket readers will remember the shock that swept the country that quiet Sunday, not unlike 9/11 would do 60 years later. And the millions of lives affected by those events.

So here as a political refresher are two historic videos -- one about the actual attack itself by 350 planes from Imperial Japanese aircraft carriers more than 200 miles away.

Check the post for the videos.

I'm including the video that's strongest in my memory. I was nine years old when I say Tora! Tora! Tora! at the movies. It left an incredibly strong impression on me, still with me today. I'll never forget the end of the film, where Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto laments, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." Whether a historically authentic statement or not, it certainly captures the trepidation of the Japanese when striking at the American nation, a people who are invincible when united in common purpose.

Wikipedia's enry for FDR's "Infamy Speech" is here.