You're right that the colonial status of Hawaii doesn't affect the "just war" nature of an international attack against a nation's armed forces. But you're wrong that "Pearl Harbor" made WW II in the Pacific anything but an imperialist slaughter on both sides. "Pearl Harbor" was the result of a deliberate, long-planned provocation: the Japanese Empire was directly told that responding to the US oil embargo by invading the Dutch colonies would be met with a US attack, and the Pearl Harbor base was deliberately left open to attack. It was a "preemptive" attack in the most precise and "justified" sense. But it was a deadly trap because you're also wrong that it didn't come close to "destroy the US Pacific fleet" there. The only important part of the US Pacific Fleet, the Aircraft Carriers, were carefully sent away from Pearl Harbor. Only obsolete battleships were lost and a priceless atmosphere of national racialist hysteria was gained.
Shane Mage
"Thunderbolt steers all things."
Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 64
>Hawaii wasn't a state then, but I don't grasp your point. That made
>it OK for the Japanese to attack and destroy the US Pacific fleet
>there? I laos dpon't get the "only 43 years" rule. How long does a
>natioon have to administer a territory to have a claim on it for
>just war purposes in your book? Do new nations have no such claims
>for J.W. purposes? The fact is, attacking somebody's fleet on their
>territory (or indeed, off it) is universally acknowledged to be an
>act of war. jks
>
>LouPaulsen <LouPaulsen at attbi.com> wrote:
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "andie nachgeborenen"
>> The war against Japan was an imperialist war plain and simple, between two
>imperiali powers; although the US was justified in defending itself on the
>usual just war grounds, [...]
>
>What, because of Pearl Harbor? That wasn't an attack on 'the US itself'.
>It was an attack on a US base in occupied Hawaii, which the US had conquered
>only 43 years earlier.
>
>lp
>
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