On December 7th, the whole world changed. It was, of course, the day that Star Trek: The Motion Picture premiered at the theater. It was also, coincidently, the same day that the United States Pacific Fleet was sent to the bottom of Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack by Japanese aircraft, only half a human lifespan earlier. Most Americans have heard of those events, but few know just how one inspired the other. It all began a long time ago...
Once upon a time, a bunch of people lived on a large island in the Pacific where they mostly kept to themselves, developing a rich culture of brush painting, martial arts and trying to figure out how to make trees smaller, presumably because there isn't a lot of space on an island. They were pretty happy until, one day, an American ship parked offshore and introduced them to the wonders of modern technology. Since the fate of most islands full of technologically backward people is to either become overrun with tourists or the future home of the Coca-Cola bottling plant, depending upon how many beaches they have, the Japanese decided they should industrialize. But industrialization required lots of resources that their island lacked, so they decided to obtain them in the time-honored way, by killing or enslaving people even more technologically backwards than themselves and taking their land. These people were the Chinese.China was not so much a nation as it was a collection of feuding warlords, and they suffered badly at the hands of the Japanese, who bombed, raped and pillaged them with abandon. The US was sympathetic to the Chinese, and attempted to discourage Japanese aggression with a trade embargo. Japan's war machine was thirsty for oil, and the USA was their largest supplier, so the embargo threw a wrench in Japanese war planning. The Japanese decided that they needed their own supply of oil, and started eyeballing the oil-rich islands of the South Pacific. But the USA had an inconveniently located military base in the Philippines which might make trouble for the Japanese if they decided to plunder the south. They decided that the only way to be free of interference from the pesky Americans would be to neutralize the US fleet in the Pacific. The British had recently launched a stunningly successful aerial attack on the Italian Fleet while it was 'safely' anchored in the port of Taranto, sinking several battleships with just a handful of biplanes, and the Japanese admirals decided to imitate it. Which they did, on December 7th, 1941.
A week later, a young man named Eugene Roddenberry enlisted in the US Army Air Corps and became a B-17 pilot, fighting in the Pacific against the Japanese, and later serving in the United States as an air crash investigator. He served with distinction, receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal.
After the war, he became a pilot for Pan American World Airways. One fateful night, on a return flight from Karachi to Istanbul, the Lockheed Constellation he was flying developed engine trouble. He shut down the engine and throttled up the others to compensate. Roddenberry turned over the plane to the assigned flight crew (he had been deadheading and simply flying as a relief pilot)and moved to comfort the nervous passengers. The added stress of operating at high power soon caused the other engines to overheat, and the number two engine caught fire. Unable to extinguish the flames, the crew was forced to prepare for a crash landing in the Syrian desert. The burning engine fell away moments before impact, causing the port wing to drop and dig into the desert sand. The plane ground looped and broke in half. 15 passengers and crew were killed, and a dozen more were injured. Roddenberry himself suffered two broken ribs. He and other members of the surviving flight crew worked frantically to rescue the remaining passengers from the burning aircraft.
As the sole surviving flight officer, Roddenberry took command and, at daybreak, dispatched two search teams to follow some nearby telegraph lines in hope of finding civilization. In the meanwhile, he and the other passengers had their few remaining supplies looted by native tribesmen. Eventually, one of the teams reported back that they had found a nearby town, and Roddenberry was able to lead the survivors to safety.
Less than a year later, following another close call with an icing aircraft, he (and his expectant wife) decided it might be better if he pursued a slightly safer occupation closer to home. He joined the LAPD, where he eventually became head of their Public Information Division, writing speeches for the police chief and serving as technical advisor and screenwriter on a number of police shows. Soon the money he was making writing TV scripts eclipsed what he was making as a cop, so he retired from the police to write full time.
Gene Roddenberry ultimately became a TV producer, developing a TV show about a future where men and women of all races lived in harmony and explored the frontiers of space together on a neverending Star Trek. And then he made a movie about it, which was released on December 7th, 1979.
It is safe to say that Gene Roddenberry never forgot Pearl Harbor. But he was able to move past it and look to a future when our old adversaries would become our friends, united in a common enterprise, and I think THAT is something we should never forget about December 7th. Weary of war, and always looking to the sky, Roddenberry believed in a future when we would find limitless possibilities together as pioneers exploring the final frontier. His work has inspired a whole new generation of spacefarers and scientists, who work today for the tomorrow that Roddenberry envisioned. His life rose from adversity to the stars, and in doing so, showed us all the way.
