Did Belushi get it right?

June 7, a day that will live in infamy. The day the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor

Secretary of the Navy John Phelan told the U.S. Senate he was deeply moved during a visit to Hawaii, “to pay my respects to the service members and civilians we lost at Pearl Harbor on the fateful day of June 7, 1941.”

Columnist and historian Heather Cox Richardson shares this anecdote with us in a recent post noting the obvious:

The Japanese sneak attack on the naval base that propelled the United States into World War II took place on December 7, not June 7.

It’s the kind of thing that a guy in charge of the Navy ought to know, but then, as she points out, he never served in the Navy or any other branch of the service. Check out her Substack report here.

But was there another attack that has received far too little attention?

Did the commander of our Navy merely conflate the two events?

What did happen on June 7, 1941? The only record we have is from the important documentary exposing the unseemly underbelly of college life known as “Animal House.”

Here’s what future historian and social philosopher John Belushi revealed to us. Let’s set the scene: Belushi and his fellow fraternity members have been expelled from Faber College by Dean Wormer on the flimsy grounds that their grades were failing. What to do? Fight back or go home in shame?

D-Day (Bruce McGill): War's over, man. Wormer dropped the big one.

Bluto (Belushi): What? Over? Did you say 'over'? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!...

It ain't over now, 'cause when the goin' gets tough, the tough get goin'. Who's with me? Let's go! Come on! (He runs to the front door but no one follows him).

Bluto (returning): What the f--k happened to the Delta I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you're gonna let it be the worst. 'Ooh, we're afraid to go with you, Bluto, we might get in trouble.' Well, just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Wormer, he's a dead man! Marmalard, dead! Niedermeyer...

Otter (Tim Matheson): Dead! Bluto's right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now, we could fight 'em with conventional weapons. That could take years and cost millions of lives. No, in this case, I think we have to go all out. I think this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.

We're just the guys to do it...LET'S DO IT!

Could that have been the moment our esteemed naval secretary was referring to? Hitler’s under reported attack on Pearl Harbor?

We may never know. Belushi, sadly, is no longer with us to share his insight on this question.

Sure, Heather Cox Richardson points to Phelan’s utter lack of qualifications and how he only got his job leading our million-person-strong Navy because of his campaign donations to the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Was it ignorance? Or a slip of the tongue? Or something else entirely, something Belushi knew that’s been covered up all these decades?

You be the judge.

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J.C. Bruce is a journalist and author of The Strange Files series of mysterious novels (available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, other online booksellers, and at selected libraries). He holds dual citizenship in the United States of America and Florida. His latest novel, Strange Timing, was recently named Book of the Year in the Royal Palm Literary Awards where it also won Gold Medals in the Sci-Fi and Thriller categories. He was recently awarded a doctorate from Miami’s Lightgate Institute for Extranormal Studies, a think tank he totally invented for Strange Timing.

Sponsored by TROPIC PRESS, publisher of The Strange Files Series of Mysterious Adventures.