Pearl Harbor: The Big Lessons Today’s Leaders Need to Learn From History

Brian Slattery, Jacob Jordan

History,

America today may not face the same imminent danger it faced in 1941, but our leaders should still take lessons from the events that preceded Pearl Harbor.

At sunrise on this day in 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the American Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, having sailed across the Pacific Ocean unnoticed. In addition to the 19 ships destroyed, 2,403 American soldiers were killed and 1,178 wounded in the attack.

While this attack was 75 years ago, there are pertinent lessons for today’s leaders to learn from how America handled it.

The Japanese were motivated by many factors in striking the U.S., among them deterring America from intervening in their imperial conquests in the Pacific. Though the Japanese succeeded in temporarily crippling the U.S. Navy, their gamble backfired and inadvertently facilitated America’s rise as a global military power and the defeat of the axis powers.

America responded to the attack quickly and decisively. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed Congress on December 8, calling the attack “a date which will live infamy.” In that speech, he also declared that “all measures be taken for our defense.” The next day, the U.S. Senate voted 82-0 to declare war on Japan, while the House of Representatives approved the resolution 388-1, officially entering the United States into World War II.

Hundreds of American men volunteered upon learning this news. Women entered the labor force at unsurpassed levels, not merely to replace the jobs vacated by men at the time, but to do their part to support the war effort—immortalized by the image of “Rosie the Riveter.” In the ensuing months, the country rebuilt its navy, thousands of men enlisted, and America took its first steps in fighting back against the oppressive forces on both sides of the planet.

The war effort displayed the resolve, commitment, and patriotism of the American people, and in the ensuing campaigns of the Pacific our military did not falter amid enormous sacrifices and losses. Ultimately, in both Asia and Europe, America’s commitment and the dedication and heroism of its service members saved the world from tyranny and the destruction of free society.