A carefully planned attack on Dec. 7, 1941, against an unprepared United States removed for a while the United States Navy's battleship force as a possible threat or deterrent to Japan's southward expansion. It also brought America into World War II.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the United States fleet to Pearl Harbor as a deterrent to Japan's aggression. Japan responded by removing the threat.

How Roosevelt must have looked because he moved the fleet there and then was blind-sided was apparently missed by a population intent on paying Japan back for its terrible deed.

The memory of that "sneak attack" on Pearl Harbor fueled a dogged determination for America to fight. After the Battle of Midway in 1942, the United States eliminated much of Japan's striking power.

The memory of the Pearl Harbor attack now fueled the determination to reverse Japan's conquests and remove not only Japan but also Germany and its allies as future threats to world peace.

A few years ago I got to visit Pearl Harbor. I do not know that I can describe the feeling I felt as I walked around the "attraction." A word that comes to mind is respect -- a respect for the men and women who lost their lives there, but also a respect for the determination of a nation, following the attack, to put an end to America's enemy.

A carefully planned attack on Sept. 11, 2001, against an unprepared United States claimed the lives of around 3,000 unsuspecting American civilians.

Nineteen terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners and attacked the United States.

How different the aftermath of that attack appears compared to the aftermath of the attack at Pearl Harbor.

We dare not forget either attack. We should always remember that, while most of us awaken each day in our own little "innocent" world, there are those who are as determined to defeat us as we were to defeat Japan after her attack on Pearl Harbor.

Jack Rollins is the managing editor of the Daily Dunklin Democrat.