D-Day

June 6 seems to have become enshrined as the National Day to Remember World War II. With the utmost respect to those who fought and died on the beaches of France 60 years ago, I do not understand the logic by which we have collectively glommed on to June 6 and the landing at Normandy when so much more of immediate consequence to America's interests happened in the Pacific Theater. America entered the war because an Axis attack decimated our Pacific Fleet. The only civilian casualties on American soil, aside from the territory of Hawaii, were a group of picnickers in Oregon killed by a balloon weapon launched off the Pacific coast. When a Japanese submarine fired on the northern Oregon coast, Axis ordinance made landfall on the American Mainland (fortunately, it killed only a tree).

Given the focus of the narrative on the American liberation of France, our being part of an alliance of many nations to beat back the bad guys isn't the draw of D-Day. The logic behind the collective obsession cannot possibly be the dramatic narrative of our boys storming a beach, facing hostile enemy fire, either, because that happened in the Pacific Theater numerous times. Each island required an amphibious assault against an enemy that finally had its last soldier surrender in 1974.

But D-Day is tidier than the Pacific Theater, and more convenient. The Nazis were bad, and liberating France from the Nazis was good. More to the point, the Nazis were the Nazis. We can separate them from the modern German citizen with just one word, and Nazis are still worldwide pariahs who do not supply us with stereo systems and DVD players. With the Japanese, we have no similar way to avoid combining the military of 60-odd years ago with the citizen of today, and in the intervening years, Japan has become an important ally and trading partner. Celebrating our victory over Japan every year would strain international relations and bring up a few questions about the methods America used to achieve that final victory--questions that are, at best inconvenient, and spark a debate I do not intend to get into here.

D-Day was a fight to liberate our allies; the Pacific Theater was a war to defend our country. This fetish with D-Day is a major disservice to our original first line of defense in Homeland Security.