December 7th came and went with little fanfare this year, but in my judgment that is a bit of history we cannot afford to forget. The Japanese had been watching the anti-war politics in the United States in 1941, and were convinced America would not fight. So, they carried out a carefully planned sneak attack that crippled our fleet at Pearl Harbor, and took out our Navy and airpower in the Philippines. Once thrown into World War II, we committed first to stop Hitler in Europe, so for two years we fought with our backs to the wall in the Pacific.<br />
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Today as we view history, there seems to be an attitude that after Pearl Harbor, America jumped in and won that war, but that was not the case. We came very close to losing it in the Pacific, and the trip to victory was long, costly and bloody. All this was especially on my mind this December 7 because this year we published a book about a local man who was a Prisoner of War of the Japanese. Entitled Richard Kidder: World War II SURVIVOR â
