6 July 01

Pearl Harbor, Singapore, and the Western Pacific, 1941

For most of the Twentieth Century Japanese had suffered the humiliation of not being taken seriously by America, Britain, or any of the European powers. Like Britain, Japan had built a powerful navy, but no matter how sophisticated and modern they became, they imagined themselves as being regarded as "third world" by racist Europeans. They defeated the Russians in 1905, but still no respect. Only a new round of military imperialism would bring them the world esteem they desperately craved. In 1931, General Tojo and his military clique, after murdering their way into power, gave legitimacy to this belief by invading China with a large army.

The island of Singapore, at the end of the British-controlled Malay Peninsula, was selected by the British as the home for its Far Eastern Fleet. Unfortunately, the British Navy had no Far Eastern Fleet! Typical of British military planning, its "naval base" at Singapore had no ships. It was a skeleton installation whose main job was waving the flag. Under the best of conditions, it would take months to get a fleet there from England.

Oahu is one of several islands which constitutes Hawaii, but it is unique in that it features the best natural harbor in the Eastern Pacific. That fact was not lost on the US Navy. In 1941, Pearl Harbor on Oahu was home for the entire US Pacific Fleet. Oahu contained several Army bases and airfields as well. The pride of the US Pacific fleet was its contingent of eight battleships. Ever since its stunning success during the Spanish-American War at the turn of the Century, the US Navy had been convinced that the battleship was the key to any successful navel action. Events would prove otherwise. Vulnerable to air attack, battleships were already obsolete. The aircraft carrier had displaced it as the most critical of navel assets, but only a few people realized it. Japanese Admiral Yamamoto was one of them!

The Chinese Army, under its inept dictator, Chiang Kai-shek, was courageous but top heavy, pathetically out of date, and utterly disorganized. Unlike the case with the Finns and the Greeks, Chinese resistance to Japanese invasion forces was largely ineffective. In fact, the rest of world took little note when hundreds of thousands (probably millions) of Chinese were casually massacred by remorseless Japanese troops. It was only in 1937, when the Japanese captured the City of Shanghai, where international business interests were protected by British and American troops, that anyone seemed to notice that the Japanese were up to something. The wake-up call was amplified in 1940 when Japanese forces invaded Burma and French Indochina. The British base at Singapore was suddenly in jeopardy, and Britain had no navy there to protect it.

By late 1939, American and German military ships had already been sporadically trading shots, and Roosevelt knew that America's involvement in the coming war against Hitler's Germany was inevitable, although there was little sympathy among the American public for "another European war." Ironically, America was headed for a war with Germany while Britain was headed for a war with Japan! However, on 3 Sept 1939 Britain declared war on Germany, and cunning Churchill persuaded Roosevelt that it had to be a "Europe first" war. Churchill, in effect, abandoned Singapore and British interests in the entire Western Pacific, although, in public, he declared Singapore a "fortress."

To his horror, President Roosevelt suddenly saw how truly impotent was British navel power in the Pacific. The entire British Navy was now fully committed against the German, Italian, and (newly captured by the Germans) French Navies. This left only the American Navy to counter Japanese Pacific expansion. Roosevelt's response was to embargo aviation fuel, and later all fuel and crude oil, as well as steel and iron, destined for Japan. Britain immediately joined in the embargo. In addition, Japanese financial interests in the US were frozen on 25 July 1941, and a squadron of "civilian" pilots were sent to China to help in stemming the Japanese advance.

Highly dependent upon America for oil, iron, and steel, Tojo now realized that his imperialistic expansion needed to include American soil, and soon! Without fuel and raw materials, Japanese excursions into China, French Indochina, the Malay Peninsula, and the entire Western Pacific would eventually grind to a halt. In Tojo's mind, an attack on America would be an act of self defense.

It was precisely then that US military intelligence began to pick up information that Japan was planning an attack on US real estate, specifically Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. President Roosevelt was duly briefed on a regular basis. Roosevelt knew that selling the idea of another European war at home would not be easy, but he agreed with Churchill that Europe had to come first. In the interim, he didn't want to think about Japan. Roosevelt chose to ignore the warnings!

The Navel commander on Oahu in 1941 was Husband E Kimmel. The Army commander was Walter Short. Both had been made aware of the Japanese threat, but the US Army and Navy had a long tradition of noncooperation. What few conversations that took place between the two were usually on the golf course. Isolation of Hawaii in the Eastern Pacific lulled both into presumptuous complacency. Within the previous twenty-seven months, no fewer than fourteen neutral nations had suffered surprise attacks, but in Hawaii, "Just let them try!" was the prevailing attitude.

The thinking was that any Japanese flotilla would surely be detected long before it got within striking range of Hawaii. In addition, navel intelligence had assured Kimmel that Pearl Harbor was too shallow for Japanese air-dropped torpedoes. When dropped, they would simply detonate harmlessly on the sea bed. Assuming they were correct, Kimmel did not install anti-torpedo netting around his battleships. However, he did order that one forth of the fifty-caliber machine guns aboard ship be manned all the time. All the same, the guns themselves were locked and ammunition was not stored at the gun positions. It was locked away in distant vaults, and only certain officers (all of whom were taking the weekend off) had the keys. So, virtually all AAA on ships was "manned" but in such a low state of readiness that it had no chance of effectively countering any kind of surprise attack. Fearing local Japanese sympathizers, Short ordered all aircraft bunched together on airfields, again with no fuel and no ammunition! The obvious and laughable contradiction of such policies were never discussed out loud. As in more modern times, it would be politically incorrect.

In Singapore, November was bringing with it the rainy season. Any attack the Japanese were planning would surely have to wait until spring. The local British commander, Air Chief Marshall Sir Robert Brook-Popham breathed a sigh of relief! He was further relieved when the British battleship Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser Repulse arrived in Singapore harbor.

Suddenly, a Japanese navel battle group, with no fewer than six aircraft carriers, was spotted assembling in Cam-Ranh Bay in Indo China. The British assumed its target would be Singapore and so informed the Americans. Just as suddenly, the flotilla was reported to have left. On Saturday, 6 December, Kimmel curtailed local reconnaissance flights because of bad weather. His sailors had the weekend off. Thirteen B-17 bombers left California that morning for Oahu on their way to countering the Japanese threat in the Philippines. There was no specific alert, so they too carried no ammunition!

Admiral Isoroku Takano-Yamamoto was wounded during the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 and later educated in America. Yamamoto was a vocal proponent of carrier-based air power. He cautioned Tojo about moving too aggressively against the Americans. He also cautioned against any alliance with Hitler. He knew American public opinion was keeping America neutral for the moment (at least officially), and he wanted it to stay that way as long as possible. However, he was overruled and told to prepare an attack plan against American navel forces.

Reluctantly, Yamamoto devised a plan to deliver a surprise, knockout blow to the US Navy's fleet of aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbor. His weapon of choice was air-dropped torpedoes, which were modified to be effective in shallow water. Wave after wave of carrier-based aircraft would pommel the parked American fleet, aircraft, hangers, supply and fuel dumps, buildings, etc. The entire island of Oahu would be reduced to a smoldering cinder! A fleet of midget submarines were also part of the plan. Their job was to bottle up the harbor by sinking something at the entrance. Simultaneously, other Japanese forces would attack Thailand, the Malay Peninsula, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and American garrisons on a number of Pacific islands. He earnestly hoped the Americans would be so overwhelmed, they would not be able to deliver an effective counter for months.

Yamamoto's plan was criticized as being too optimistic. Fearing the loss of carriers, Tojo ordered him to scale it back. Tojo wanted a lightening strike and a lightening withdrawal. Yamamoto warned him that a merely "slapping" the Americans would be a grave error. He was overruled again!

The Japanese attack fleet, encased within a raging storm, silently made their way across the Pacific. There were completely undetected when they arrived at their assigned position. The storm had not relented. It was early Sunday morning, 7 Dec 41.

In Washington, DC, American intelligence decoded a message sent to the Japanese embassy from Tokyo. The message was to be delivered to Secretary of Sate Hull at 1:00pm on Sunday, 7 Dec (7:30am in Hawaii). This was an obvious deadline, and warnings were immediately radioed to Philippines, California, and Panama, but radio messages to Hawaii were curtailed by atmospherics, so Short and Kimmel were sent a telegram. When it arrived on Oahu, it was laid aside, because it was not marked "urgent!" The first approaching wave of Japanese aircraft were detected on radar, but they were mistaken for the incoming flight of US B-17s. No warning went out.

The first wave of Japanese Zeros began strafing the Kanoeha Navel Air Station and the Ewa Marine Air Station. Japanese pilots were astonished that they were met with no AAA, and there were no American fighter aircraft anywhere to be seen. They couldn't believe their luck! Ground AAA crews were, of course, unable to fire back, because their ammunition was locked up, and the officer with the key was no where to be found! US Marines, who did have guns and ammunition, began firing back immediately with rifles and pistols.

Most of the US battleships were torpedoed and destroyed before anyone knew what was happening. There was no effective AAA, because, of course, the guns and ammunition were locked. Even after their ships were hit, most sailors still thought the whole thing was a drill! One of the arriving B-17s was shot down, and two crash landed. The rest landed safely.

It was not until 8:00am that at least some AAA positions began firing. Several Japanese planes were shot down. By that time many ships, including most of the battleships, were already listing and damaged beyond repair. By 9:00am, two American P40s got into the air and immediately shot down several Zeros. Short and Kimmel ran to their headquarters. The enormity of the destruction was just sinking in, and both fully expected a ground invasion to follow on the heels of the bombing.

At 9:26pm, what remained of the first Japanese wave broke off and returned to their carriers. They were all gone as suddenly as they had arrived. Throughout the rest of the day, jittery AAA gunners fired on anything in the air, including friendly aircraft. Several were shot down. Nervous sentries shot at each other.

Elated Japanese pilots returned to their carriers, eager to rearm, refuel, and launch a second wave. However, the task force commander, Chuichi Nagumo, was disturbed to discover that no American aircraft carriers, the prime target of the strike, were sunk or even attacked. Alarmed, he aborted the second wave and prepared to steam back to Japan. Pilots were astonished and disappointed, but Nagumo held firm.

American losses were staggering, but Yamamoto had failed to deliver the knockout blow for which he was aiming. As soon as he found out that the American carrier fleet had not been sunk, he knew the entire raid had been a disastrous miscalculation. Nonetheless, after the attack the American Navy would not risk a rescue mission to the Philippines. General MacArthur and his 130,000 man garrison were abandoned to the Japanese.

Neither Kimmel nor Short were court-martialed, but they were both immediately retired and never commanded ships or troops again. Kimmel was extremely bitter for the rest of his life. Of course, it is Roosevelt who should have been court-martialed, but politicians never go to jail.

Lessons:

There were many mistakes on the Allied side too. Roosevelt and Churchill were so pathologically secretive that they kept vital information from each other and from their field commanders. Kimmel and Short never received anything close to adequate intelligence, and they made poor use of their own intelligence network. They just couldn't imagine a surprise attack was possible. Their complacency was based on ignorance, in most cases, willful ignorance!

The US fleet was in Oahu to prepare for war with Japan and Germany. Yet, they behaved as if they were all on vacation! The serious attitude that should have been conveyed to every serviceman there never filtered down. For example, American AAA gunners had been trained to fire at aircraft traveling at only half the speed of Japanese Zeros. No updated training was ever scheduled. The result was that few Japanese pilots were killed by American AAA, but several dozen Americans were (nearly including Kimmel himself), via panicked and sloppy shooting and outdated and faulty ammunition.

Americans in 1941 naively thought that they were loved throughout the world! America had been the most generous and forgiving country in history, and the fact that someone could possibly hate us was beyond the comprehension of the average, naive American. Being always prepared for war seemed so "unnecessary." After the Pearl Harbor attack, the backlash was vehement, as Americans waged a war against the Japanese which bordered on genocide. In fact, much of Hollywood's 1950s and 1960s obsession with "invaders from outer space" can be psychologically traced to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The US military is afraid of guns, then and now! True readiness requires loaded guns continuously in the hands of people who know how to use them. Anything less, in the name of "safety" of course, is naive.

"Better to have and train and not require, than to grasp in panic, only to find the scabbard empty!"

/John