Pearl Harbor: From Infamy To Greatness

by Craig Nelson

  “Regarding the broadcast of a special message in an emergency”: PHA.

  “tiny ball of crumpled rice paper”: Savela.

  “We knew then that things were building”: Ibid.

  “condonement by the United States of Japan’s”: Hull testimony, PHA.

  “Chances of favorable outcome of negotiations,” “I have been in constant touch”: PHA.

  “If your bomb hits directly beside the turret”: Genda.

  “Achtung, Warning, Alerte”: Bell.

  “If I man these islands”: This conversation is detailed in Gillon and in PHA.

  “that we were likely to be attacked”: Stimson diary.

  “Hell no!”: This conversation is detailed in Gillon and in PHA.

  “G-2 that was very disturbing”: Ibid.

  “Those men over there do not believe me”: Iguchi.

  “The slight prospect of Japan’s agreeing,” “sincerely desired that the message”: PHA.

  “The Government of Japan will withdraw”: State.

  “told me he had broken the whole thing off”: Stimson diary.

  “Japan may attack the Burma Road”: PHA.

  “a cold bath”: State.

  “I was struck by despair,” “This must be divine grace”: Hotta, Japan 1941, citing Togo, Jidai no Ichimen.

  “I knew at the same time as”: PHA.

  “This dispatch is to be considered a war warning”: Ibid.

  “We considered it an unequivocal war warning”: Ibid.

  “My impression of the Hawaiian problem has been”: PHA

  I would appreciate your early review”: Ibid.

  “The news this morning indicates”: FDR papers.

  “Excuse me for speaking my mind in crude”: Taiheiyo Senso e no Michi, Hara.

  “preparatory to an emergency situation”: PHA.

  “The most probable line of action for Japan”: Ibid.

  “a seat at the head of the table”: Hull papers.

  “They all come at me with knives”: Ibid.

  “I could see with my own eyes”: Hara.

  “With war, if you don’t try it”: Iguchi.

  “the fact that service calls lasted only one month”: PHA.

  “I hope they would be sighted”: Ibid.

  “Niitaka yama nobore”: Prange papers.

  “If it was permitted”: Brinkley.

  “I am very sorry”: Ibid.

  “After we finished flight training”: Editors, “Remembering Pearl Harbor,” National Geographic.

  “North America (including Manila)”: PHA.

  “serene after fully realizing the inevitability”: Prange papers.

  “If we begin on November”: Spector.

  “a hundred million Asians”: Costello.

  “will lead to a war in which”: Prange papers.

  “he had the Japanese running around”: Hull papers.

  “Circular twenty four forty four”: PHA.

  “without equivocation that Tokyo”: Clausen and Lee.

  “Highly reliable information has been received”: PHA.

  “We have received considerable”: Ibid.

  “At five forty-five this evening,” FDR papers.

  “approach the president”: G. Terasaki.

  “an especially trained espionage man”: Ibid.

  “If this is a blackfish”: Prange papers.

  “the movements of the fleet”: PHA.

  “With every hour that passes”: Hull papers.

  “No expression of concern”: Perkins.

  Chapter 5: December 6

  “The problem is whether the Japanese,” “Emphatically!”: PHA.

  “When they came out, Nomura had”: Vice Admiral William R. Smedberg, “Aide to Admiral Stark,” in Stillwell.

  “I imagine you will receive it tomorrow”: PHA.

  “Japanese warriors never tried to assassinate”: Brinkley.

  “Hell, I didn’t even know they were sore at us”: LaForte and Marcello.

  “in the late afternoon or early evening”: PHA.

  “Gentlemen, are they going to”: PHA.

  “firmly determined to fulfill the responsibility”: Prange papers.

  “I received your telegram”: PHA.

  “This needs a lot of work, Mrs. Edgers”: Ibid.

  “Shoot this to Grew”: State.

  “a very clever move on the part”: PHA.

  “This son of man”: Ibid.

  “left suddenly . . . undue alarm”: Ibid.

  “left and went home at about 9 p.m.”: Clausen and Lee.

  “If we are going into a war”: Ibid.

  “Corporal, what in the hell do you”: Travers.

  “We all knew war might break out,” “My God, what a way to spend that evening”: Clarke.

  “What a target that would make”: Ibid.

  “The mood on the mother submarine”: Allen.

  “On to Pearl Harbor!”: Ibid.

  “a little farewell drink”: Verklan.

  “I slept soundly”: Prange papers.

  “The night before the attack”: Brinkley.

  It is my sole wish to serve: Costello.

  “The Japanese Government regrets”: PHA.

  “to Secretary Hull’s office at ten thirty”: Stimson diary.

  “received a very brief, urgent”: PHA.

  “I am going now”: Schmidt.

  “I would find a target on the ground”: Ibid.

  “Honolulu sleeps,” “Admiral, I am sure the airmen”: Friedrich.

  “The ships pitched and rolled”: Editors, “Remembering Pearl Harbor,” National Geographic.

  “Our fighting spirit was high”: Allen.

  “The wind was competing”: Schmidt.

  “From the decks of the aircraft carriers,” “On my arrival there Colonel Bratton”: PHA.

  “immediately stunned,” “I think that I immediately called”: Ibid.

  “very early in the morning in the Far East”: Ibid.

  “That’s a periscope, sir”: Lord.

  “We searched for about an hour”: PHA.

  “As we flew, I thought many thoughts”: Schmidt.

  “Oh, glorious dawn for Japan!”: Prange papers.

  “about fifteen hundred yards on starboard quarter”: PHA.

  “You had better get going”: Ibid.

  “Have you any previous details”: PHA.

  “Between seven thirty and seven forty”: Ibid.

  “It seemed that if you got in trouble”: Travers.

  “something completely out of the ordinary”: PHA.

  “the warm air of an unending summer land”: Blakeman.

  “Just before I was sounding reveille”: Ibid.

  “Enemy formation at anchor”: Genda.

  “There’s a large number of planes”: PHA.

  “If the AWAS service had been operating”: Ibid.

  “the communications between the fighter-director”: PHA.

  “They’ve changed the color of our planes”: Lord.

  “All crew abandoning ship”: McWilliams.

  Chapter 6: From the Air

  “They didn’t have a chance”: McWilliams.

  “the air was not the place”: Harding.

  “P-40s hell”: Ibid.

  “In the movies, an airplane attack”: Author interview.

  “We’re going to have an air show”: Spector.

  “I suppose the reason my attention”: McWilliams.

  “By then the sky was thick with puffs”: Stephens.

  “Our asphalt landing strip”: Ibid.

  “We carried him to the supply room”: McWilliams.

  “At this time our lieutenant called us together”: Gabik.

  “After the last explosion”: State of Hawaii.

  “Mrs. Mayfield, is it”: Ibid.

  “I was thirteen years old”: Richardson, On the Treadmill.

  “We’re at war”: Lord.

  “It was the first time I had ever”: McWilliams.
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  “a skinny crew-cut kid”: Ibid.

  “To think that this bunch of little yellow bastards”: Clarke.

  “On Sunday morning in those days”: James Jones, WW II: A Chronicle of Soldiering (New York: Ballantine, 1975).

  “something like machine-gun fire”: Editors, “Remembering Pearl Harbor,” National Geographic.

  “As long as I live”: State of Hawaii.

  “They lack only one thing”: John Steinbeck, “Fear of Death as Green Troops Sail to Invasion,” New York Herald Tribune, October 3, 1943.

  “Hey, I’ve heard the Japs only”: Clarke.

  “Go back to sleep, you’re having a bad dream”: PHA.

  “It was remarkable”: Ibid.

  “Suddenly, I noticed the gunner”: Richardson, Reflections.

  “I heard a plane come roaring in from astern”: Goldstein, “John Finn.”

  “Lieutenant Iida communicated”: Verklan.

  “I was in a very excited state”: Ibid.

  “When a short distance from Barbers”: Historic Wings.

  “What the hell is wrong with that crazy SOB”: Ibid.

  “We’d been practicing towing a carrier”: Richardson, Reflections.

  Chapter 7: Pearl Harbor

  “A faint haze of kitchen smoke”: Schmidt.

  “It must’ve been about seven forty-five”: Brinkley.

  “Adolph, I wonder what it would be like”: Lord.

  “Hail Mary, full of grace”: Ibid.

  “On Saturday night, 6 December”: Ramsey.

  “Approximately five or ten minutes after”: PHA.

  “Look out the window!”: Tennant.

  “when I am sure my children are dead”: Ibid.

  “It sounded like the hum of bees swarming”: Nicholson.

  “When I looked up in the sky”: Naval History & Heritage Command.

  “The torpedo bombers released their torpedoes”: Verklan.

  “We were about to change an island of dreams”: Ibid.

  “The Enterprise was slated to tie up next”: Richardson, Reflections.

  “After a minute or two”: Ibid.

  “What’s going on out there”: Lord.

  “The plane’s canopy was open”: Richardson, Reflections.

  “Slow down, kid”: Slackman.

  “The plane we had shot down”: Naval History & Heritage Command.

  “running a stick along one”: McWilliams.

  “and her sister ship:” Richardson, Reflections.

  “tiny Filipino messboy”: McWilliams.

  “I heard a voice behind me”: Ibid.

  “I was in my Skivvies”: Editors, “Remembering Pearl Harbor,” National Geographic.

  “We had a first-class electrician’s mate”: Richardson, Reflections.

  “The events about to be related here”: Molotsky.

  “in utter disbelief and completely stunned”: Gillon.

  “I ran over to my offices”: Batty.

  “If it’s any satisfaction to you”: PHA.

  “We saw the water channel and we turned left”: Verklan.

  “I saw two objects fall from their craft,” “I was sleeping in the plotting room”: Richardson, Reflections.

  “It wasn’t hard,” “The captain had a serious abdominal wound”: Naval History & Heritage Command.

  “I volunteered to join the ten-hand”: Richardson, Reflections.

  “Just then the USS Arizona’s”: Naval History & Heritage Command.

  “Man your battle stations! This is no shit!”: Ibid.

  “The ship was lifted rapidly”: Richardson, Reflections.

  “the boxes containing the ready ammunition”: Ibid.

  “I was about twenty meters”: Verklan.

  “When a torpedo hits”: Editors, “Remembering Pearl Harbor,” National Geographic.

  “I was five foot three and”: Ibid.

  “the lights blackened out and”: “Trapped in a Watery Grave.”

  “We had four flashlights”: Ibid.

  “I helped a partially incapacitated”: Naval History & Heritage Command.

  “Chaplain Schmitt pushing one person,” “Someone tried earlier”: Spiller.

  “When you get out of the shower”: Editors, “Remembering Pearl Harbor,” National Geographic.

  “As I treaded water”: “Trapped in a Watery Grave.”

  “There’s no way you could get out”: Ibid.

  “I obtained a copy of the Oklahoma”: Naval History & Heritage Command.

  “orders were given”: Ibid.

  “heading toward the Middle Loch”: McWilliams.

  “His chin stuck out”: Michael F. Reilly as told to William J. Slocum, Reilly of the White House (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1947).

  “the president thought the report”: “Memorandum: December 7, 1941,” Harry Hopkins papers, Georgetown University Library Special Collections Research Center.

  “resorted to every possible measure”: Hull papers.

  “The gang around today”: Ibid.

  “Oh, it’s terrible!”: Prange, Dec. 7, 1941.

  “we are forced to terminate negotiations,” “Our deceptive diplomacy is steadily”: French, “Pearl Harbor Truly a Sneak Attack.”

  “extreme calmness,” “deadly calm”: James Roosevelt, My Parents (New York: Playboy Press, 1976).

  “If any unauthorized person”: PHA.

  “We’re supposed to weld”: Richardson, Reflections.

  “It was just a few minutes”: Jasper et al.

  “We were blown off the gun”: Wallin.

  “We found the admiral’s body”: PHA.

  “I stuck my head in”: Jasper et al.

  “Dark gray puffs”: Fuchida and Okumiya.

  “I glanced up”: Gudmens.

  “A huge waterspout splashed”: McWilliams.

  “Now we had given this”: Brinkley.

  “a hateful, mean-looking”: Fuchida and Okumiya.

  “A red fireball shot up”: Clarke.

  “Ships on fire, ships burning”: Batty.

  “All of the oil tanks on all of the battlewagons”: Lord.

  “These people were zombies”: LaForte and Marcello.

  “The most vivid recording”: Spiller.

  “Arizona, I remember you”: Manchester.

  “You don’t abandon ship on me”: McWilliams.

  “was standing on gun turret”: Jasper et al.

  “at first I thought”: Ibid.

  “As I was running forward”: Naval History & Heritage Command.

  “When that bomb hit”: McWilliams.

  “I was about three-quarters of the way”: Naval History & Heritage Command.

  “When I came up, I was gagging”: Ibid.

  Chapter 8: Describing the Indescribable

  “Hell, no, this is”: McWilliams.

  “These Americans, when”: Larrabee.

  “A warm feeling came with the realization”: Iguchi.

  “While on the starboard side”: Naval History & Heritage Command.

  “My God”: Ibid.

  “As we crowded the shoreline”: Schmidt.

  “My thoughts were to make a act of defiance”: Naval History & Heritage Command.

  “All this time, our cooks had been”: Ibid.

  “a ‘dog’ sandwich and beans”: pearlharborsurvivorsonline.org.

  “Some of us were given new”: Ibid.

  “A young man, filthy black”: Ramsey.

  “Turning my attention”: Ibid.

  “to get on the operational telephone”: PHA.

  “I want three volunteers”: Lord.

  “At 1030 took off in 6-S-1”: Historic Wings.

  “This is Gatty”: Ibid.

  “succeeded only in enraging me”: PHA.

  “Suppose that the enemy was located”: Ibid.

  “When you’re awakened suddenly”: Brinkley; Goldstein, “Kenneth Taylor.”

  “We had absolutely no trouble”: Ibid.

  “The deck
is now transformed”: PHA.

  “Four battleships sunk”: Hara.

  “Nagumo would have been”: Ibid.

  “If they had destroyed the oil”: PHA.

  “whose time fuses had”: Clarke.

  “I was a teenager at that time”: Richardson, Reflections.

  “requested and urged Martial Law”: PHA.

  “You must be one kind of child”: Clarke.

  “I smelled acrid smoke”: Kato.

  “the conference met in”: Hopkins papers.

  “My greatest fear was that”: Gillon.

  “It’s quite true”: Ibid.

  “To have the United States at our side was to me”: Churchill.

  “the turning point,” “never in history has a people”: Stanley Weintraub, Long Day’s Journey into War: December 7, 1941 (New York: Dutton, 1991).

  “The entire message”: Gillon.

  “I am speaking to you”: “Eleanor Roosevelt’s Remarks: December 7, 1941,” the first lady’s weekly radio broadcast, Pan American Coffee Bureau, National Broadcasting Company, http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/q-and-a/q21-pearl-harbor-address.cfm.

  “We by grace of heaven”: Bartsch.

  “We just got scraps of information”: Perkins.

  “My God, how did it happen?”: Alonzo Fields, My 21 Years in the White House (New York: Coward-McCann, 1961).

  “that it would be necessary”: Ibid.

  “There was ample opportunity,” “on the ground, by God”: Sperber.

  “Hey, coxswain”: pearlharborsurvivorsonline.org.

  “That afternoon of course”: Verklan.

  “The only thing I could see”: Clarke.

  “Oh, you hear all kinds of stories”: Lord.

  “ordered to take care of”: pearlharborsurvivorsonline.org.

  Chapter 9: Infamy

  “I saw and heard other men”: McWilliams.

  “We pulled over and stopped”: Naval History & Heritage Command.

  “It was just as dark as”: Slackman.

  “Two of our own .50-caliber”: Naval History & Heritage Command.

  “something strange in the water”: PHA.

  “had fully expected to die”: Editors, “Remembering Pearl Harbor,” National Geographic.

  “Little doubt exists”: Captain Andrew Biache Jr., “Pearl Harbor: A Midget Sub in the Picture?,” Naval History Magazine, December 2004.

  “It’s not impossible that they’re”: Ibid.

  “our tails are up in the air”: “Record of Telephone Conversation Between Gen. Gerow, WPD, and Gen. MacArthur in Manila, P.I., About 7:00 PM,” December 7, 1941, FDR papers.