The History of Pearl Harbor

Join Historian and author John Cilio for a presentation about the history and significance of Pearl Harbor.

The attack on Pearl Harbor happened on December 7th, 1941. The Japanese attackers traveled 3,400 miles across the Pacific to execute a 110-minute decimating attack. It was a total surprise, or was it? The next day, December 8th, 1941, the US declared war on Japan. Three days later, Germany and Italy, Japan’s allies, declared war on the United States. The war would last 1,365 days. Shortly after the war, Congress held hearings, for the first-time bringing US Army, US Navy, and US government organizations together, along with surviving Japanese planners, to uncover how the event unfolded. The investigations helped to understand how having broken the Japanese codes we were still surprised and uncovered what we knew collectively. Their bipartisan goal was to prevent another surprise – their findings were noteworthy and beg the question of surprise.  Regardless, America’s involvement in the war led to the ultimate defeat of the Axis powers, ushered in a new world order, and quite literally saved the free world from destruction.  We provide a thought-provoking presentation based upon the Congressional Record of 1946.

John Cilio has been telling the stories of history for over a decade. He is a skilled historian having published seven historical books ranging from women working in WWII and their impact on today’s business world to vintage helicopters. Nickolai Sikorsky wrote the foreword to his Helicopter Evolution book and Prince William was kind enough to write a letter about his copy of the book. He is an honorary member of the Danbury, Connecticut WWII Lost Squadron Veterans organization.  John hails from a career in IBM corporate marketing and has spoken to large and small audiences in over 60 countries around the world. He lives in Sherman, Connecticut.  

• Event Start: 2022-12-01 18:30:00