Published by the WW II History Roundtable s1

December 1997 Volume 6 Number 4 Published by the WW II History Roundtable Edited by Jim and Jon Gerber

Welcome to the December meeting of the Dr. Harold C. Deutsch World War II History Roundtable. Tonight’s program has a very definite Minnesota flavor as a large number of the sailors on the USS Ward were from Minnesota. One of the guns from the USS Ward is mounted on the grounds of the State Capitol near the Vietnam Memorial. It is well worth the time to go to see this important part of history. While the Ward may have fired the first shot in WW II there is some evidence that there was earlier contact with the Japanese before December 7th. On December 5th, the destroyers USS Selfridge and Ralph Talbot made underwater contact with what the Talbot commander reported as a submarine about five miles off Pearl Harbor. He requested but was denied permission to depth-charge with the explanation that it was not a submarine but a blackfish. “If this is a blackfish, it has a motorboat up its stern!” he responded. That same night Admiral William F. Halsey’s task force was advised that a submarine had been reported on December 4th just south of Hawaii.

Martin-Bellinger Report In March of 1941 two US officers, Rear Admiral Patrick Bellinger and Major General Frederick Martin, were charged with the task of creating a joint Army-Navy plan in the event of an attack on Oahu or US fleet ships in Hawaiian waters. Among the highlights of the report are observations such as: -A successful, sudden raid against our ships and naval installations on Oahu might prevent effective offensive action by our forces in the Western Pacific for a long period. -It appears possible that Orange(the US code for Japan) submarines and/or an Orange fast raiding force might arrive in Hawaiian waters with no prior warning from our intelligence service. -Orange might send to into this area one or more submarines and/or one or more fast raiding forces composed of carriers supported by fast cruisers. -A declaration of war might be preceded by: A surprise submarine attack on ships in the operating area; a surprise attack on Oahu, including ships and installations in Pearl Harbor. -It appears that the most likely and dangerous form of attack on Oahu would be an air attack...such an attack would most likely be launched from one or more carriers which would probably approach inside of three hundred miles. -Any single submarine attack might indicate the presence of a considerable undiscovered surface force.... -In a dawn air attack there is a high probability that it could be delivered as a complete surprise.

Please Don’t Bother Us With Details General Hein Ter Poorten, commander of the Netherlands East Indies Army, advised the US military observer in Java, Brigadier General Elliot Thorpe, in early December 1941, that his intelligence staff had intercepted a Japanese code which stated that Japan would attack Hawaii, the Phillipines, Malaya and Thailand shortly. He further noted that the signal for hostilities against the US would be the message “East wind, rain.” General Thorpe sent this information to Washington along with three others on the subject, but Washington’s reply requested that he send no further information on the subject.

The Japanese Leaders of the Pearl Harbor Attack Many of the key Japanese officers in the planning and execution of the Pearl Harbor attack lost their lives during the war. With the exception of Minoru Genda, who was the tactical planner, and Flight Leader Mitsuo Fuchida, whose “Tora! Tora! Tora!’ initiated the hostilities, here is the fate of some of the others: -Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the man who insisted that any war with the US begin with the destruction of the US fleet, was aboard a plane shot down by US airmen over Bougainville, April 18, 1943. -Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, commander-in-chief, 1st Air Fleet (the senior officer present in the attack fleet), was killed in action at Saipan. -Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi, commander-in-chief, 2nd Carrier Division, died aboard his aircraft carrier during the Battle of Midway. -Rear Admiral Matome Ugaki, chief of staff to Yamamoto and the man who wrote the historic “Climb Mount Niitaka” message signaling the irrevocable order to attack Pearl Harbor, died piloting a kamikaze plane on the last day of the war. -Lieutenant Commander Kakuiche Takahashi, leader of the dive bombers in the first wave, was killed on May 22, 1942 in the Battle of the Coral Sea. -Lieutenant Commander Shigemaru Murata, leader of the torpedo bombers in the first wave, was killed in the Battle of Santa Cruz, October 26-27, 1942. -Lieutenant Commander Takashige Egusa, leader of the dive bombers in the second wave, was killed over Saipan. -Lieutenant Commander Shigeru Itaya, leader of the first wave of fighter planes, was shot down by mistake by Japanese Army planes of the Kuriles. -Lieutenant Commander Shigekazu Shimazaki, commander of the second wave attack force, was killed on January 9, 1945, off of the Phillipines. Of the two major participants who survived, Minoru Genda, the tactical planner, went on to become a lieutenant general and later served as a member in the upper house of the Diet(the Japanese equivalent of the U.S. Senate). Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, leader of the air attack on Pearl Harbor with the utterance of “Tora! Tora! Tora!” was en route to Hiroshima by plane on August 6, 1945, and saw the mushroom cloud rise above his homeland when the US dropped the atom bomb. Fushida was also aboard the USS Missouri to witness the surrender ceremonies the following September. He is believed to be the only person present at all three historical events; the attack on Pearl Harbor, the dropping of the first atomic bomb and the surrender ceremonies. After the war he became a convert to Christianity and frequently visited the United States.

Certain Victory “To make victory certain, we would have to march into Washington and dictate the terms of peace to the White House.” The above statement was made by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in a letter to Japanese ultranationalist Ryoichi Sasakawa prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. The excerpt was later taken out of context by US nationalists to foster the belief that Yamamoto intended to invade the US and capture Washington, D.C. In its entirety, the paragraph was actually a sarcastic cut at Japan’s extreme right. Yamamoto was telling them that the US was not a hollow giant. It continued: “I wonder if our politicians, among whom armchair arguments about war are being glibly bandied about in the name of state politics, have confidence as to the final outcome and are prepared to make the necessary sacrifices.”

Suggestions for further reading:

East Wind, Rain by Stan Cohen Pictorial Histories Publishing Missoula, Montana 1981

The Day Pearl Harbor Was Bombed by George Sullivan Scholastic, Inc. New York, New York 1991

At Dawn We Slept by Gordon Prange McGraw-Hill Publishing New York, New York 1981

Pearl Harbor; The Verdict of History by Gordon Prange Penguin Books New York, New York 1986

Infamy by John Toland Doubleday and Company Garden City, New York 1982

Air Raid: Pearl Harbor edited by Paul Stillwell Naval Institute Press Annapolis, Maryland 1981

Day of Infamy by Walter Lord Bantam Books New York, New York 1957

Happy Holidays See You Next Year