Remember Pearl Harbor
December 17, 1941
[verse]
History in ev'ry century
records an act that lives forever more.
We'll recall, as into line we fall,
the thing that happened on Hawaii's shore.
[chorus]
Let's REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR
As we go to meet the foe.
Let's REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR
As we did the Alamo,
We will always remember
how they died for Liberty.
Let's REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR
And go on to victory.
Notice that this song was recorded only ten days after the attack. In my opinion the Japanese grossly misunderstood just how the Americans would react to the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was one of their worst mistakes of the entire war. Notice also that the song compares the attack to the one on the Alamo which, to that time, was probably the standard for remembering something vicious that another country did to our country. That attack, of course, was not a surprise attack. The attack on Pearl Harbor was not supposed to be a surprise attack, either, since the Japanese notification of war was supposed to reach the American government before the actual attack but, due to various circumstances, the notification came in after the actual attack. Even if it had been received in time, though, it would have only given Pearl Harbor maybe fifteen or twenty minutes to prepare for the attack.
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