Pearl Harbor, oil and Iraq?

Today is the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. In remembering what happened so many years ago, don't bother renting the Ben Affleck shlocky movie by the same name. Please. Check out the real thing. You can go check out things at National Geographic's website: http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/pearlharbor/or read up about it at the Naval Historical Center. You can see some photos taken by Japanese an Americans at http://www.navsource.org/Naval/arph.htm. To say it was all about oil is prehaps a little simplistic, I am sure. However, it is one of the main reasons the Japanese attacked. We had sanctions placed against Japan so they couldn't expand into other countries and get more oil. Today, we are in Iraq. They have oil. We want oil. Our government says was to free the people of Iraq and end terrorism. But is it not also about oil as well? Just remember what happens to governments who get too greedy. It didn't work out so well for the Romans, British, Germans or Japanese. Who's to say how long we can stay on top of the world in power? As we are taught in basic science, what comes up must come down. Oh, by the way, Iran has lots of oil too.

I digressed. Back to remembering Pearl Harbor....I have been doing research on female pilots of WWII for a story I am working on. One of the interesting stories I read was about a flight school pilot who was training one of her students up in the air in the harbor when she saw a series of Japanese planes fly by her. She thought it was extremely odd and just before she turned back, they had begun bombing. She was able to get her plane and student safely to the ground. But I can't even imagine what was going through her head when she saw the Japanese bombers fly by and then carry out their mission. Woah.


Though I am not that familiar with that many good movies about the battle in the Pacific, there are two great prisoner of war camp movies that are really great. Stalag 17 and The Great Escape are two of my favorites. Stalag 17 stars William Holden and is deffinately one of my favorite war films. I think Harrison Ford must have modeled his sarcastic, suave heros after William Holden. The Great Escape has an all star cast featuring Steve McQueen and it is based on a true story. Years ago, I saw a documentary on the real story behind The Great Escape. It was amazing. The men who engineered their escape from a Nazi prison camp were men of desparation, dedication and intelligence. They wrote out "official" papers by hand, meticulously replicating the type style of a typewriter down to a off-center key. You can read up on it by checking out a book I found about it at Amazon.com. It is a truly amazing story. Though the movie is good and entertaining, it doesn't hold a candle to the real story of these courageous men.