Truth To Late

In school we are given a basic overview of history. Names, dates, places, battles, wars and nations all fall into the scope of our learning. Certain parts of history were extremely interesting to me because of my relationship to them. For instance, I was always fascinated with information about Pearl Harbor and WWII because my birthday is on December 7th. When I was old enough to understand, my mother told me that while she was in the hospital waiting to give birth to me she was listening to a radio broadcast about the 21st anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In college I was even given the nickname of “Pearl” by some of my friends. Whenever I found information about that event in history I would always read it with special interest. It became the doorway through which I began to study history for myself, not just in school as an assignment.

One thing about Pearl Harbor and World War II that always puzzled me was how people who were ordinarily good and benevolent could be transformed into an enemy of such monstrous proportions that the rest of humanity would be forced to unite in destroying them. My mind could not grasp the idea of it. What happened, I would ask myself, to cause such seeming madness among so many? For years I searched in vain for a satisfying answer. Then just a month or so ago as I was reading yet another article about Pearl Harbor I discovered part of the answer to my question. The article was written as a result of the release of certain classified documents which had been recently unclassified. In other words, they were not dangerous any more. My curiosity was piqued as I began to read the familiar story of thousands killed in the surprise Sunday attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

The similarities between the story I knew and the one I was reading became fewer with each passing minute. In short, those classified documents revealed a startling picture of deceit that I hardly expected. Remember, these were not guesses but actual documents released through the freedom of information act. They tell the bald truth about this terrible event, but that truth is nothing like the one I had studied or heard. Then I understood. This country was the victim of propaganda. The people were made to think that Japan had attacked our borders unprovoked and with no warning. Those were the important facts to know in order to persuade people to accept another war. Now both of them had been proven false, but sixty-five years too late!

You can look at it this way: If you thought that your child had been attacked by your neighbor's dog and that your neighbor had deliberately allowed his dog to go into your yard while your child was at play, knowing that the dog was going to bite the child, you would feel justified in demanding retribution. No one would argue with you if you decided to take him to court to demand damages and have the dog put down. But suppose the child's older brother was angry at the child for breaking something of great value belonging to the older brother. Suppose you as his parent had shrugged it off as just something children do. The older brother, in a fit of rage decides to take revenge on both you and the child. He thinks of your neighbor with the guard dog. He decides to release the dog but tells you that your neighbor has done it. You believe his lie because he is your son. You do not even ask the neighbor because you never liked him anyway. The neighbor is sent to prison, the dog is killed and life goes on as before. Many years later the older brother is dying of cancer and on his death bed confesses to you that he was the one who released the dog. Pity has replaced anger and you forgive your son.

Is the truth so hard to come by or the lies so easy to believe that we would allow people to suffer and die for it? According to the newly released documents about Pearl Harbor that was exactly the case in 1941. Now it's 2010. War is constant. People demand it. People are angry. “Get them before they get us!” they say. And, by the way, our neighbor is still in prison.