Flags all over the U.S. and its territories are at half staff today as we commemmorate the 75th anniversary.

One of the first international events to go round the world live thanks to radio news. In "Stalag 17" the prisoner spy is unmasked because he inadvertently reveals he was having dinner (in Berlin) when he heard the news. Everyone in America heard about it around lunchtime.

It was a brilliant plan by a brilliant general who didn't believe Japan should start a war with the United States. He'd been to the United States and seen its industrial capacity.
My father was in New York, but the news meant many things at once. It meant war with Japan which meant war with Germany which was okay with him. He ended up being sent to the Pacific islands, and later he was in the occupation of Japan and got a tour of Kyoto, the only city in Japan that was not bombed. He harbored no prejudice and his favorite cousin, who saw action in Europe, married a Japanese girl who could remember the Emperor's surrender speech on the radio. And he had no doubt that the U.S. would win.

I personally do not believe that the Japanese attack was known ahead of time to the Americans. It makes for a nice conspiracy theory but I don't think it happened that way. 75 years ago the Japanese were seizing American and British camps and colonies with great success. MacArthur was chased out of the Philippines and Americans, Brits, Aussies and Kiwis were imprisoned.

So much American attitude has come from the event. Firesign Theatre staged a fake radio interruption to "Nick Danger, Third Eye" where Roosevelt suggests the United States surrender and listen to the end of the radio show. I've met older vets who do not like the Japanese. I personally love Japanese culture and films.

The movie world has not been the same. "From Here to Eternity" ends with the attack, an excellent movie made while the war was still being waged covered Doolittle's retaliatory raid "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" screenwritten by Dalton Trumbo, and a buttress to the idea that there was no conspiracy. The Japanese had been warned by radio of the presence of an enemy fleet but the B-25s were unopposed as they bombed the Japanese home country.

Such is the Fog of War.

Japanese Prime Minister Abe is supposed to pay a visit to the Arizona Memorial towards the end of the month.