invading Pearl Harbor

[Alison Murie]

On Apr 8, 2010, at 6:41 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

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> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: invading Pearl Harbor
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> This ex., the first of 37,000 that Google turns up for "invaded Pearl
> Harbor," suggests that for some people "invade" does include "attack
> solely
> by air":
>
> 2004 http://www.snappingturtle.net/jmc/tmblog/archives/003919.html  :
> The Germans Invaded Pearl Harbor?...
>
> Bluto' s inspirational speech [in the film "Animal House"]: "Over?
> Did you
> say, 'over?' Nothing is over until WE decide it is! Was [it] over
> when the
> Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!"
>
> Note that John Belushi's Bluto doesn't say "invaded": the blogger
> does.
>
> This one is from a social studies review book written by an educator
> and
> published by the prestigious Barron's. No child left behind!:
>
> 2007 Shannon M. Pugh _Barron's How to Prepare for the TAKS: Texas
> Assessment
> of Knowledge and Skills Social Studies Exit Exam_ (Hauppauge, N.Y.:
> Barron's
> Educational) 81: On December 7, 1949, the Japanese invaded Pearl
> Harbor,
> killing more than 2,400 Americans. President Franklin Roosevelt
> referred to
> the invasion as "a day that will live in infamy"....
>
> (Bonus blunder:  FDR very clearly said "a date which," not "a day
> that." But
> so what, right?)
>
> Do such writers/speakers also designate the aerial battle of Britain
> as an
> "invasion"?
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, Apr 8, 2010 at 3:52 PM, Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: invading Pearl Harbor
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Jonathan Lighter wrote
>>> Back in February I noted the academic who in 2006  mentioned the
>>> Japanese
>>> "invasion" of Pearl Harbor (though damned if I can find the
>>> discussion in
>>> the Archives).
>>
>> Here is a link to your earlier posting in the ADS archive:
>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1002A&L=ADS-L&P=R6923
>>
>> The following search query finds about 9 relevant hits in the archive
>> dated 2010 February 5.
>> Narrow Search: Subject Contains: Pearl Harbor
>>
>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?S2=ADS-L&q=&s=Pearl+Harbor&f=&a=&b=
>>
>> Google Books contains a few works that mention the invasion of Pearl
>> Harbor by Japan. This remarkably evanescent event escaped detection
>> by
>> most historians. However, an authoritative reference mentioning this
>> inexplicably overlooked pivotal occurrence was produced by
>> Merriam-Webster in 1997.
>>
>> Citation: 1997, Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, Page 1225,
>> Column 2, Merriam-Webster, Inc. (Google Books limited view)
>>
>> Dictionary entry for United States: ... entered WWII after Japanese
>> invasion of Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941 ...
>>
>>
>> http://books.google.com/books?id=Co_VIPIJerIC&q=%22invasion+of+Pearl%22#v
>> =snippet&
>>
>> The Japanese did invade the airspace of Pearl Harbor.
>>
>> (continuing  Jonathan Lighter's post)
>>>
>>> He wasn't alone:
>>>
>>> 1996 Clarice Swisher, ed. _Readings on John Steinbeck_ (San Diego:
>>> Greenhaven Press) 22: He finished the manuscript...just before the
>> Japanese
>>> invasion of Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
>>>
>>> Ignorance of semantics or of history?  A cynical s.o.b. might
>>> suggest
>> that
>>> these characterizations (and presumably a million others
>>> unrecorded) of
>> the
>>> attack as an "invasion" may mask a genuine ignorance of history.
>>> If the
>>> Japanese really "invaded," then the "invasion" was obviously
>>> repulsed. In
>>> that case the devastating air attack was secondary to the failed
>> invasion.
>>>
>>> So we won at Pearl Harbor. No biggie.
>>>
>>> JL
>>> --
>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>>>
~~~~~~~~~~~
Does Barron's also say "1949?" or is that a typo?
AM

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