This morning I, along with the New Generation Seminar participants, had the great fortune to visit Pearl Harbor and the United States Pacific Command. Those of you with an interest in history would recall that the US was very reluctant to enter the 2nd World War. At the same time, Japan, the sole imperial power in Asia at that time, felt that unless the US Navy in the Pacific Ocean was destroyed, it would not allow the Japanese to have a free run of the Pacific Ocean. Therefore on Sunday 7 December 1941, as a preemptive strike, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the main US naval base in Hawaii, and destroyed most of the Pacific Fleet. This made the US declare war on Japan, and immediately the tide of the war turned. Ever since I saw the movie Pearl Harbor (https://youtube/watch?v=06QuyDEKFNo), there was a great desire to visit this historical site. That dream got fulfilled today. As I entered the memorial to USS Arizona (nps.gov/valr/historyculture/index.htm), built on top of the sunken ship, I tried to imagine what events might have looked like on Dec 7, 1941. Thereafter we went for a briefing to the headquarters of the US Militarys Pacific Command. I dream of a day when all the branches of the Indian military--the army, the navy, and the air force--gets organised into joint commands like the US military. For, when you fight a war, it is rarely a pure land war, or air war, or sea war. A military commander needs all possible options. Therefore it is a good idea to have theater commanders with all branches of the military reporting to him/her.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 04:46:42 +0000
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