Ignoring U.S. Pacific World War II legacy called 'strategic mistake'
Following the major celebration of the invasion of Normandy, a U.S. naval strategist warns that the United States is failing to maintain its memory of World War II victories in the Pacific.
U.S. Navy crewmen watch as a B-25 bomber takes off from the USS Hornet to participate in the initial air raid on Tokyo, on April 18, 1942.
AP
Craig Hooper, a naval strategist and lecturer at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., said in the Los Angeles Times last week that too much attention was being focused on the European theater of World War II and could undermine America’s strategic interests in the Pacific. Hooper said the “good war magic” is a European phenomenon, whether D-day or other wartime commemorations.
“Far from the old Cold War frontiers, our nation's South Pacific battlefields sit on the sidelines of great-power geopolitics,” he said.
“Failure to tend the Pacific World War II legacy — which would be a strong foundation for future engagement — is a strategic mistake. As the Pacific Basin evolves from a safe American 'lake' into a dangerous geopolitical playing field, appreciation of our World War II sacrifices there might, in the future, tip the scales in favor of peace over conflict,” he said.
U.S. victories and security support to peace in the Pacific “goes uncelebrated” in the region, he added. Militarily, the unprecedented development of a Pacific-wide logistical support network during the war has almost entirely vanished.
Instead, Pacific island nations are losing their connection to the United States as the U.S. diplomatic presence is dwindling, Cooper said.
“Over the next five years, as the U.S. struggles to fund a dwindling and over-tasked navy, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea and other Asian countries are preparing to invest more than $60 billion in a region-wide naval arms race,” he said.
