Sincerely Scotty 12-4
If I were to ask 20 people “What is significant about the date Dec. 7, 1941? I suspect less than half would really know the answer much less the impact of it. One of my goals is to help people remember that fateful date.
1941 – We didn’t have TV, computers, email, or smart phones – you get the idea, we lived in the stone age. Communications were not measured in seconds, hours would be more reasonable. It was Saturday, December 6, 1941,Washington D.C. – President Roosevelt is making an appeal to the Japanese Emperor for peace. However, his plea was ignored. Late Saturday night, the American code-breaking service (now the NSA) was successful in decoding some of the Japanese messages and passing them to the President and Cordell Hull, Secretary of State. The Americans believed an attack was imminent, but the exact target was not known.
Later, early Sunday morning, another message was decoded telling the Japanese ambassador to deliver the message to the White House at 1PM – early morning in Hawaii. By the time the message got to Hawaii, it was 4 hours after the attack. Pearl Harbor was not on high alert because the local commanders didn’t believe an attack was imminent. They were very wrong. A few minutes before 8 AM, the first wave of enemy planes attacked. There were high altitude bombers, torpedo bombers, and Zero fighters. It was interesting to note the high altitude bombers could fly and drop their bombs out of the range of the shore guns.
The second wave hit less than an hour later allowing no time for the Americans to prepare. Within two hours, six battleships had been sunk, another 112 vessels sunk or damaged, and 164 aircraft destroyed. Only chance saved three US aircraft carriers usually stationed at Pearl Harbor but assigned elsewhere on the day. The carriers Lexington, Enterprise, and Saratoga were not in port. The Japanese also missed the base fuel tanks and the dry dock repair facility across the bay.
The news of the “sneak attack” was broadcast on the radio with news bulletins being aired as they became available. I was five years old and remember my parents sitting by the radio listening to all the news. Famous newscasters like Walter Winchell and Gabriel Heater stayed on the air; the 6 o’clock news was a day of bulletins bringing the American people up to date on the Hawaii attack.
The attacks killed fewer than 100 Japanese but more than 2,400 Americans died – 1,000 of those were on the battleship Arizona which was destroyed at her mooring. Another 1,178 US citizens were injured. The next day, President Roosevelt called the attack on Pearl Harbor “a day that will live in infamy” and America and Great Britain declared war on Japan ending its policy of isolationism. The attack was a victory for Japan and allowed it to launch a full-scale invasion of South-east Asia. But out of the US warships damaged or sunk on 7 December 1941, only three – the Arizona, Oklahoma and Utah – were beyond repair, and Utah was already obsolete.
But the Pearl Harbor attack also resulted in uniting an outraged American nation behind President Roosevelt and behind the war against Japan. A few days later, Germany and Italy declared war on America and Great Britain.
There were several wartime investigations into how America was taken so totally by surprise. They revealed a lack of co-ordination and communication between Washington and Oahu, and between different armed forces. As a result local US commanders Admiral Kimmel and Lt-Gen Short were fired. To be fair, the responsibility should have been shared, but ultimately, the commanders were held responsible.
Seventy years later America once again experienced a surprise attack on the twin towers in New York. Hopefully, we have learned our lesson to be alert at all times. Yes, in both cases the number of causalities was great, but in both cases, it could have been far worse. I’d like to think God helped keep it from being worse than it was. We should always remember Pearl Harbor – the start of America’s entry into World War II.
Sincerely,
Scotty