PEARL HARBOR the Attack Itself, Minute by Minute
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75th Anniversary commemorative edition PEARL HARBOR The attack itself, minute by minute The mood of a nation plunged into war 2 / PEARL HARBOR 32 3 25 COULD IT THE ATTACK HAPPEN AGAIN? INTERNMENT What would such a surprise World War II is often ITSELF attack look like now? What characterized as the great crusade A minute-by-minute look at what keeps our national security against tyranny. That’s hard to happened in Hawaii Dec. 7, 1941. forces up at night? reconcile with the treatment of Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast, more than 100,000 of whom were uprooted from NEWS OF WAR their homes and sent to When the U.S. unleashed “shock and awe” against the regime of 34 10 internment camps. Saddam Hussein in 1993, the assault was broadcast live. Not so in LEARNING MORE 1941, when it took hours for news of the Pearl Harbor attack to reach Recommended reading, American homes. viewing, memorials to visit MOBILIZATION 14 Although the United States had had a draft since 1940, the armed 36 forces remained small. That changed swiftly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when thousands of draft boards sprang up around the TRIVIA country, and millions of men were conscripted for military service. Test your knowledge ISOLATIONISM 39 17 World War II officially began in September 1939 when Germany NAMES OF invaded Poland, but the United States did not enter the war for more than two years. After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. sprang into action. THOSE KILLED What was life like before America entered the war? BLIPPAR CHRISTMAS 1941 Throughout this section we are using an app called Blippar to direct you to online Coming just 18 days after the attack, this was a holiday unlike 20 content via your smartphone. any other. For many Americans, it was the last time they would 1. Download the free app in the Apple App Store or Google Play, for Android phones be together. and tablets. 2. When you see these icons near a story or photo, open ONLINE the app and point your smart device’s Visit our website to dive deeper into the history of Dec. 7, 1941. Look for STEP ONE STEP TWO STEP THREE camera at the page. ‘Pearl Harbor’ on your newspaper website’s homepage under Our Picks DOWNLOAD FILL SCREEN BLIPP IMAGE 3. Blippar will bring BLIPPAR APP WITH IMAGE INTO LIFE and you’ll find: • More historic photos up related digital • Video and audio archives from the Library of Congress content on your phone or tablet. • Links to more resources For example, open the Blippar app and hover your phone over the text of FDR’s • An interactive quiz of the trivia on Pages 36-38 Christmas Eve speech on Page 23. Audio of the speech should start playing on your device. PEARL HARBOR / 3 THE ATTACK The U.S. Navy ITSELF‘Sunday in Hell’ author details two hours on battleships USS West Virginia Pearl Harbor that changed history (sunken at left) and USS Ten- nessee shrouded in smoke after the Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor. WIKIPEDIA Use the Blippar app to open a video of Bill McWilliams interviewing Pearl Harbor survivors. SEE INSTRUCTIONS ON PAGE 2 The following is an excerpt from the book “Sunday in Hell: Pearl Harbor Minute by Minute” by Bill McWilliams. Copyright (c) 2011 by Bill McWilliams. Reprinted with the permission of Open Road Integrated Media, Inc. 4 / PEARL HARBOR n Thursday, 4 December, the U.S. Navy’s guarded, highly classified radio receiving station in Cheltonham, Maryland, intercepted a Japanese Ooverseas “News” broadcast from Station JAP (Tokyo) on 11980 kilocycles. The broadcast began at 8:30 a.m., corresponding to 1:30 a.m. in Hawaii, One of the 29 Japanese and 10:30 p.m., 5 December, in Tokyo. aircraft lost on Dec. 7, The broadcast was probably in Wabun, this ‘Val’ dive bomber the Japanese equivalent of Morse Code, trails flames from its right wing. and was originally written in syllabic THE NATIONAL katakana characters, a vastly simpler and WWII MUSEUM phonetic form of written Japanese. It was recorded in Cheltonham on a special typewriter, developed by the Navy, which typed the Roman-letter equivalents of the Japanese characters. The Winds Message broadcasts, which Japanese embassies all over the world had been alerted to listen to in a 19 November coded message, was forwarded to the Navy Department by TWX (teletype exchange) from the teletype-transmitter in the “Intercept” receiving room at Cheltenham to “WA91,” the page-printer located beside the GY Watch Officer’s desk in U.S. Army Air Forces aircraft destroyed by Japanese raiders at Wheeler Air Field Dec. 7. WIKIPEDIA the Navy Department Communication Intelligence Unit under the command of Navy Captain Lawrence F. Safford. Saturday evenings on Oahu were Music,” “The Battle of the Bands” The 4 December message was one of the last key normally filled with relaxed revelry, featured Navy bands primarily from intelligence intercepts the Navy was decoding and sprinkled with “happy hours” in the local “capital ships” home ported in Pearl translating, in attempts to determine Japanese intentions hotel lounges and bars, dinners at Harbor and those attached to shore and plans during their deteriorating diplomatic relations restaurants and clubs, dances, floor installations in Hawaii. Four bands were and negotiations with the United States. There was some shows, quiet gatherings with families to compete in each round of the delay and uncertainty in decoding and translating the and friends, and walks on the beaches. tournament with one winner per round message, which, as indicated in the Japanese government’s On the military installations, in the selected to perform in the final 19 November message, would be contained in the Tokyo officers’ clubs, enlisted recreation competition rounds. The (USS) Arizona news broadcasts’ weather reports. After considerable centers, and other locations on bases and band won the first round in September, discussion of the 4 December intercept, senior Naval posts, similar activities occur. and several of its members attended this Intelligence officers concluded the message meant an Tracing its origins to the early 1900s, night, to listen to their future imminent break in diplomatic relations with Great Britain, the Navy’s School of Music opened in “competition” – tonight’s winner. at least, and probably the United States – since the Washington, D.C. in 1935 and operated Each band performed a swing number, embassies had received instructions to destroy their codes. in conjunction with the U.S. Navy Band. a ballad and one specialty tune, then Code destruction and replacement was a routine Students enrolled in the school in this played for the jitterbug contest. procedure at regular, specified intervals throughout the era were interviewed in advance, selected Competing this final night of the year, but ominously, the most recent order to destroy codes for attendance, graduated in complete elimination round, were only three didn’t fit the normal pattern of Japanese behavior in ensembles, and transferred aboard ship. bands. As the men stomped and cheered, managing their most secret codes. At Pearl Harbor, a crowd gathered at bands from the battleships Pennsylvania But unknown to American intelligence another more the new Bloch Recreation Center the (BB-38) and Tennessee, and the fleet ominous message had been sent to the combined fleet at night of 6 December 1941 for “The Battle support ship, Argonne (AG-31), fought it 0730 hours on 2 December, Tokyo time, Monday, 1 of the Bands,” the last elimination round out to go to the finals. The Pennsylvania December in Washington and Hawaii. Sent by Admiral of a Pacific Fleet music tournament band won, everybody sang “God Bless Yamamoto’s chief of Naval General Staff, Rear Admiral begun the previous 13 September and America,” and the evening wound up Matome Ugaki, it was to become one of the most famous held every two weeks, with the final with dancing. When the crowd filed out messages in naval history. “Climb Mount Niitaka, 1208.” It competition planned for 20 December. at midnight, many argued that the best signaled that X-Day – the day to execute the Japanese war The Bloch Recreation Center was a place band of the tournament thus far was the plan – was 0000 December 8, Japan time. Nagumo’s task designed to give the enlisted man every Arizona’s. force received the information at 2000 hours, and at this kind of relaxation the Navy felt proper – The threat of hostilities on Oahu hour was about 940 miles almost directly north of Midway, music, boxing, bowling, billiards, and 3.2 seemed farfetched to all but a few. well beyond the arc of U.S. reconnaissance flights. beer. Called by some “The Battle of PEARL HARBOR / 5 Planes and a Gordon W. Prange, in “At Dawn We hangar burn- Slept,” recorded the chain of events ing at the Ford that followed the deployment of the Island Naval Japanese Empires’ midget Air Station’s submarines early the morning of 7 seaplane December: “A waning moon peeked base, during through the broken overcast to or immediately glimmer on the waters off Pearl after the air Harbor. About ‘1 3/4 miles south of raid. The ru- entrance buoys,’ the minesweepers ined wings of Condor and Crossbill plied their a PBY Catalina mechanical brooms. At 0342 patrol plane something in the darkness ‘about fifty are at left and yards ahead off the port bow’ in the center. attracted the attention of Ensign THE NATIONAL Russell G. McCloy, Condor’s Officer of WWII MUSEUM the Deck. He called to Quartermaster Second Class R.C. Uttrick and asked him what he thought.