Was this America's worst military humiliation ever?

Sad attempt at trolling. First of all, you're asking for an opinion as if it could be fact. Next, you're asking for historical information on a movie fan site. Go do some research and make your own conclusions.

Derp.

How's that Empire going? Oh yeah, the sun set on it ages ago.


MrsPrimitiveBoomstick's bit of stuff

Obviously a deliberate wind up question, but in an attempt at a serious answer: IMHO Pearl Harbor was not a humiliation for the US. Sure, there were various warnings of Japanese intent but the USA were not ready for WW2, in the same way that most of the allied combatants weren't, and it is possible to view the loss of The Philippines, the defeat at Kasserine Pass, and the first week of the second Ardennes offensive as more serious and humiliating setbacks than Pearl Harbor in terms of the loss of men, materiel and morale. All the allies suffered serious setbacks in their first years of participation. Most of the countries in western Europe actually lost their independence and were occupied, which was very much more humiliating and traumatic than anything suffered by the USA during the war. The British had to evacuate at Dunkirk and Narvik and Crete, while their defeat at Tobruk was a serious blow to morale. Their surrender of Singapore and Hong Kong against much smaller Japanese forces were serious humiliations on a scale much more serious than Pearl Harbor. Surrendering 100,000 men and a vital strategic element against a Japanese force of 20,000 or so remains the biggest British military disaster to this day, and yet it has been largely ignored as a subject for film makers.

Oh, and I'm British BTW. Just hate all this xenophobic points scoring between what seem to be equally ignorant Limeys and Yanks on this board.

IMO, the worst humiliation of WWII for the US was probably the surface battle between US/Australian and Japanese cruisers at the beginning of the Guadalcanal campaign. Unlike Pearl Harbor, we did know we were at war, we knew the enemy would respond to the invasion eventually, so we should have been ready. Instead the Japanese wiped the floor with us in the most one sided surface engagment for the US Navy since the HMS Leopard dismantled the USS Chesapeake in the early 1800's.

Humiliation yes, but.... Most people today regard the attack on Pearl Harbor as a huge mistake on the part of the Japanese. True, it was a stinging blow for America on a momentary, localized basis, but from a big-picture perspective, the attack on Pearl Harbor proved to be a colossal strategic blunder for Japan.

Not only did the attack fail to sink any American carriers at Pearl Harbor (the intended target(s), btw), but the attack mobilized the American public - which up to then had been largely opposed to entering the ongoing global conflicts of early WWII - into a passionate, Japan-hating war-fighting juggernaut.

Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.

It was not nearly as bad as the IJN's mopping of Prince of Wales & Repulse and Hermes....

And it's not even in the same league as the Loss of Singapore....

It might come near the fall of Tobruk....