At 06:27 AM 12/7/2001, Yoshi wrote:
> > Remember Pearl Harbor----
>
>////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
>
>Terry,
>
>What does this mean? I hope for your explanation.
>
>Yosh@from Japan
>            Yosh@87'Westy

Yoshi, just before 0800 on 7 December 1941 the Imperial Japanese Navy
attacked the US naval facility in Hawaii with bombers, torpedo bombers and
strafing aircraft.  The attack was intended to cripple the US Navy in the
Pacific Ocean, and it nearly succeeded.  All our battleships were sunk
along with much other damage.  This opened the state of war between US and
Japan in the second World War.

The attack did not completely succeed because 1) our aircraft carriers were
not in the harbor at the time of the attack and 2) it made the US extremely
angry and determined to succeed.

Japan intended the attack to be in the samurai tradition of awakening a
sleeping enemy immediately before killing him -- they had arranged for a
diplomatic note to be delivered to the US President one half hour before
the attack.  However the Japanese embassy were not able to decode and
deliver the note until over one hour after the attack, so that the attack
was truly a surprise, although it was not a surprise that there would be an
attack somewhere and some time because Japan and US were already very angry
with each other and diplomatic negotiations were failing.

This is a tiny description of a very big story but I hope it is some help
to you.

best regards
david

David Beierl - Providence, RI
  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"