RSVP - VOLUSIA GOP CHRISTMAS PARTY

*NOTE: The next official RECVC meeting is 1/11/2022

The estimable historian Victor Davis Hanson reflects,

Most Americans once were mostly in agreement about what happened on December 7, 1941, 80 years ago this year. But not so much now, given either the neglect of America's past in the schools or woke revisionism at odds with the truth.

The Pacific war that followed Pearl Harbor was not a result of America egging on the Japanese, not about starting a race war, and not about much other than a confident and cruel Japanese empire falsely assuming that its stronger American rival either would not or could not stop its transoceanic ambitions. . .

. . . In sum, it was largely Yamamoto's enormous ego, his tactical genius, and his strategic ineptitude, along with Japanese hubris, that explain the strategic idiocy of a brilliant but short-lived victory at Pearl Harbor. But to be fair, no student of military preparedness, economic resources, or social organization could have ever believed that a relatively vulnerable and isolationist United States, still reeling from recurring cycles of depression, in less than four years would have fought simultaneously across the Pacific and Europe with a 12 million person military, the largest economy in history, and the world's most formidable weapons such Essex class fleet carriers, Balao submarines, B-29 long-range bombers, Hellcat and Mustang fighters and the world's first atomic bombs.

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'Day of Infamy' and a devastating defeat. The United States suffered 3,435 casualties and loss of or severe damage to 188 planes, 8 battleships, 3 light cruisers, and 4 miscellaneous vessels. The U.S. Pacific fleet was in shambles.

RARE IMAGES

 FDR: "No matter how long it may take us"

Almost 4 years after the deadly attack on Pearl Harbor, America had had enough. Because Japan had not surrendered already, despite numerous crushing defeats, the U.S. called upon a weapon that would end all fighting in the Pacific Theater. 

This weapon was the atomic bomb. More specifically two atomic bombs, named "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" .. the most deadly weapons ever used.

On August 6, 1945, "Little Boy" was dropped from a B-29 bomber. The bomb detonated 2000 feet above Hiroshima and destroyed five square miles of the city. There was no response from Japan. The second bomb, "Fat Man" was dropped onto the city of Nagasaki on August 9. The destruction was again terrible.

For President Truman, the decision was a clear-cut one. America was weary of war against a hated enemy. The nation also realized the massive cost in lives of invading the Japanese mainland. More

.Truman: "It is an Atomic Bomb"

Six days after the attack on Nagasaki, on August 15, 1945 (Aug. 14^thin the U.S.) Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender over the radio. World War II was over.

Hanukkah 2021 begins at sundown on Sunday, November 28.

Hanukkah, or the Festival of Rededication, celebrates the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem. In 167 BCE, the Jews of Judea rose up in revolt against the oppression of King Antiochus IV Epiphanes. 

Antiochus went so far as to desecrate the Temple in Jerusalem by installing images of Zeus on its holy platforms and altars. This was meant to be more than a defilement of Israel’s religious ethos, but a pulverizing of its very national identity as well, since the Temple was the religious and civic symbol of Jewish nationhood.

The military leader of the first phase of the revolt was Judah the Maccabee. In the autumn of 164, Judah and his followers were able to capture the Temple in Jerusalem. They cleansed it and rededicated it to Israel’s God. 

This event was observed in an eight-day celebration. 

Like Passover, Hanukkah is a holiday that celebrates the liberation from oppression. It also provides a strong argument in favor of freedom of worship and religion.

In spite of the human action that is commemorated, never far from the surface is the theology that the liberation was possible only thanks to the miraculous support of the Divine. Read More

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