Introduction

On December 8, 1941, America straightened up after Japan’s blow below the belt, full of the anger a fighter feels when he has been badly hurt and knows that his own overconfidence was partly to blame. Out of those bitter early days of the war, ending in the surrender of Corregidor, came one lesson that millions of Americans will not have to learn a second time. We know now that wars do not begin all at once on a quiet Sunday—that it takes years to make a war and that we had ample opportunity to watch this one in the making.