In 1941, early on Sunday morning, December 7, the aircraft of the Empire of Japan bombed Hickam Field, the naval base at Pearl Harbor, and those elements of the Pacific Fleet which were in harbor. Today we remember what Roosevelt called this "date which will live in infamy."
Attacking with no declaration of war, the Japanese sunk many large ships, destroyed planes of the Army Air Corps mostly on the ground, and killed and wounded thousands of men. A cowardly attack - the equivalent of a sucker punch - it was a tactical success but an enormous strategic blunder.
During the war that followed the Japanese went out of their way to be brutal when it served no military purpose, examples include the Bataan death march, enslaved "comfort women" and the Nanjing massacre.
After being lauded as "Japan, Inc." in the 1980s, Japan slipped into economic doldrums from which it seemingly cannot extricate itself. Its population experiences negative growth and its young people avoid interpersonal sexual relations - very bizarre stuff.
