To mark the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the columnist tweeted:
Growing up, I remember my parents never letting us have Asian food on December 7th. They were children of WWII.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) December 7, 2015From this tweet, one can only conclude that Erickson’s parents had a profound misunderstanding of the Pacific Ocean Theater of the Second World War. The United States was not attacked by Asian food; there was no dim sum bombardment on Pearl Harbor. Nor did the United States fight “Asia” as a whole in the war.
America was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy. America’s entry to the war came late in the day, since Imperial Japan had already invaded and occupied many other nations, notably China, which was already fighting a fierce war of national liberation with American aid. Far from fighting a war against Asians in general, the United States won the war in Asia with the aid of tens of millions of allies in China, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, and elsewhere. If the Erickson clan really wanted honor the sacrifices made during the Second World War, “Asian food” is exactly what they should have been eating.