REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR!

[Popeye]

This Day in Diving History -- December 7, 1941 -- "A Date Which Will Live in Infamy" **

At 0755 Hawaii time, a Japanese dive bomber bearing the red symbol of the Rising Sun of Japan on its wings appears out of the clouds above the island of Oahu. A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes followed, descending on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in a ferocious assault. The surprise attack struck a critical blow against the U.S. Pacific fleet and drew the United States irrevocably into World War II.

With diplomatic negotiations with Japan breaking down, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his advisers knew that an imminent Japanese attack was probable, but nothing had been done to increase security at the naval base at Pearl Harbor, HI. It was Sunday morning, and many military personnel had been given passes to attend religious services off base. At 0702, two radar operators spotted large groups of aircraft in flight toward the island from the north; but, with a flight of B-17s expected from the United States at the time, they were told to sound no alarm. This caused, the Japanese air assault to come as a devastating surprise to the naval base.

Much of the Pacific fleet was rendered useless: 5 of 8 battleships, 3 destroyers, and 7 other ships were sunk or severely damaged, and more than 200 aircraft were destroyed. A total of 2,400 Americans were killed and 1,200 were wounded, many while valiantly attempting to repulse the attack. Japan's losses were some 30 planes, 5 midget submarines, and fewer than 100 men. Fortunately for the United States, all three Pacific fleet carriers were out at sea on training maneuvers. These giant aircraft carriers would have their revenge against Japan 6 months later at the Battle of Midway, reversing the tide against the previously invincible Imperial Japanese Navy in a spectacular victory.

The day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, President Roosevelt appeared before a joint session of Congress and declared, "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." After a brief and forceful speech, he asked Congress to approve a resolution recognizing the state of war between the United States and Japan. The Senate voted for war against Japan by 82 to 0, and the House of Representatives approved the resolution by a vote of 388 to 1. The sole dissenter was Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, a devout pacifist who had also cast a dissenting vote against the U.S. entrance into World War I. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war against the United States -- something they did not have to do under the terms of their treaty with Japan, since Japan attacked the U.S. and not the other way around. This proved to be a disastrous blunder on the part of Hitler and Mussolini, and the U.S. government responded in kind.

It was on one of America's darkest days that Navy Divers would rise to one of its very finest hours. Within a week of the attack, a salvage organization was formally established to begin what would clearly be a monumental undertaking. Commanded from early January 1942 by Captain Homer N. Wallin, this Salvage Division labored hard and productively for over two years to refloat five ships and remove weapons and equipment from the other two. Among its accomplishments were the refloating of the battleships USS NEVADA (BB-36) in February 1942, USS CALIFORNIA (BB-44) in March, USS WEST VIRGINIA (BB-48) and the minelayer USS OGLALA (CM-4) during April-July 1942. After extensive shipyard repairs, these four ships were placed back in the active fleet in time to help defeat Japan. Navy Salvors also righted and refloated the capsized battleship USS OKLAHOMA (BB-37), partially righted the capsized target ship UTAH (BB-31) and recovered material from the wreck of the battleship ARIZONA (BB-39). However, these three ships were not returned to service, and the hulls of the last two are the only two remain in Pearl Harbor to this day. Were it not for these efforts -- the return of warships to the fight or the ability to have Pearl Harbor serve as a functional fore-deployed base; the war effort in the Pacific Fleet would have certainly had a different outcome.

All this represented one of history's greatest salvage jobs. Seeing it to completion encompassed some 20,000 hours of bottom time in about 5000 dives. Long and exhausting efforts were expended in recovering human remains, documents, ammunition and other items from the oil-fouled interiors of ships that had been under water for months. Uncounted hours went into cleaning the ships and otherwise getting them ready for shipyard repair. Much of this work had to be carried out in gas masks, to guard against the ever-present risk of toxic gasses, and nearly all of it was extremely hazardous.

Note: To read more about salvage efforts following the Pearl Harbor attack; check out "Descent into Darkness Pearl Harbor, 1941" by Edward C Raymer.

[luis]

Thanks for the post.

[Bryan]

Thanks Bernie. Been watching Military Channel specials all evening.

[YankDownUnder]

The U.S. Navy knew that war was coming, they just didn't know where or when. The Japanese had been waging war for 10 years in Asia by that time. That was according to my father, a radioman second class on the USS Honolulu. It took a 500 pound bomb next to it and it was out of action for some time. He was assigned to the USS Saratoga and it was damaged later and sent in for repairs too.

Much of the support resources for the Pacific Fleet were sent to the Atlantic to assist the British and it was impossible for Adm. Kimmel to keep the fleet dispersed at sea. Had those ships been sunk outside of Pearl, with the great depths, none would have been salvaged and many more sailors would have died.

General Short worried about local Japanese destroying the aircraft at Wheeler Field, where I was stationed as a pilot. He knew 25% of the island's population were Japanese. However, those same Japanese were Americans and became the basis of the 449th, the most decorated unit to fight the Germans in WWII.

The first shot fired at Pearl was by the USS Ward. It sank a Japanese submarine attempting to enter the security zone which leads to Pearl. Green reserves like the crew of the Ward had reported submarines in the past, which were just whales and the radio report was ignored. Ballard located that sub, and there is a hole just below the conning tower, right where the Ward crew said it would be.

The Japanese actually did a poor job at Pearl Harbor. They failed to damage the repair facilities, they failed to sink the fuel tanker at Ford Island and did not even launch a second attack. Still, a lot of damage was done and they lost 10% of their aircraft in the attack.

Adm. Yamamoto said:" I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." He told his commanders he could guarantee free reign in the Pacific for 6 months, but no more. Three months later, two of the Japanese carriers that carried out the attack were sunk at the Battle of the Coral Sea. Three more months would pass and the other four would sink at Midway.

There were 49 ships in the Japanese fleet which attacked Pearl Harbor. By war's end, 48 would be on the bottom of the Pacific. Yamamoto was killed by U.S. Army pilots. The Navy code breakers determined he would make an inspection tour and told the U.S. Army Air Corps. He never finished that tour.

Steve

[Popeye]

A bit OT,
but it's a slow night, but I'll make it quick.

USS Ward DD-139,
Sank the Japanese midget sub trying to enter Pearl Harbor with it's second round from it's #3(4inch/50)through the conning tower,this was Naval Legend until 2002 when this sub was found in 2002 by a Univ Hawaii research sub on a check-out dive which filmed and ID'ed the sub and the hole in the Conning tower, Discovery Channel has a program about this.

Triva:
This #3 gun mount sits on the state capital lawn in St Paul, Minnesota since 1958.

Majority of the crew on the Ward were Naval Reservest from Minnesota.

The USS Ward DD-139 was sunk by a Kamikaze aircraft 7 December 1944(3 years to the day if fired the first shot.)

Former crew members started the 1st Shot Naval Vets. (first shot club) I had the honor of attending the 2002 meeting where former crew members viewed the video of the sunken midget sub.

[8dust]

You get to go to all the good parties Bernie.

Thanks to you and Steve both for the lesson.

[capn_tucker]

The sad thing about Pearl Harbor is that FDR knew exactly when and where the attack was to take place, and deliberately ordered that information from Admiral Kimmel and General Short. Both the Japanese naval and diplomatic codes had been broken, and US intelligence was reading the messages even before Japanese commanders and diplomats could decode them. FDR knew that only a "dastardly sneak attack" would stir up the isolationist American public enough to want to go to war.
FDR's wanting to take out the Axis powers was a good idea, but to do it in such a manner that sacrificed thousands of American lives was shameful. The raid could not have been stopped, but those soldiers and sailors at Pearl could have been warned at least in time to have been at their guns when the attack did come. See the book "Day of Deceit" by Robert Stinnett. It was written with the aid of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, and is a real eye-opener..

[antique diver]

I have heard that, and if it's true it sure hurts!

[JES]

Here's a review of Robert B. Stinnett's book by RADM Richard E. Young, USNR (RET).

In 1999, Robert B. Stinnett, since 1986 a retired long-time employee of the Oakland Tribune, authored his book, Day of Deceit, based upon years of extensive personal research.
Attempting to personally blame Roosevelt for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is not new. Others have made similar assertions over the years. But Stinnett claims that through personally reviewing hundreds of thousands of documents, many obtained through use of the Freedom of Information Act, he found indisputable "proof" that Roosevelt actually knew of, and deliberately provoked, the Japanese attack.

A number of reviewers of Stinnett's book, perhaps impressed by 65 pages of some 595 footnotes (many quite lengthy) and accepting them carte blanche as valid, praised the book. But, as one would say, the devil is in the details.

Stinnett's conclusions rest on four major allegations. First, that Navy Lieutenant Commander McCollum drafted a memorandum dated October 7, 1940 for his boss, Navy Captain Anderson, entitled "Estimate of the Situation in the Pacific and Recommendations for Action by the United States." In it McCollum set forth eight steps which could be interpreted as provocative to Japan. Stinnett asserts that the President read or knew of this memorandum, and immediately adopted and carried out those eight steps "...to provoke Japan through a series of actions into an overt act: the Pearl Harbor attack."

Stinnett's own research proves otherwise. There were no forwarding endorsements on McCollum's October 7, 1940 memorandum. Stinnett found only a response to McCollum from a Captain Dudley Knox, commenting on its contents. Even though Stinnett admits that "no specific record has been found by the author indicating whether he (Captain Anderson, the addressee) or Roosevelt actually ever saw it," Stinnett goes on to claim that "a series of secret presidential routing logs plus collateral intelligence information in Navy files offer conclusive evidence that they (Roosevelt and Captain Anderson) did see it."

However, if one tries to find the "secret presidential routing logs" cited by Stinnett in his lengthy footnote 8, no secret presidential routing logs are even mentioned, let alone cited. When asked about this, Stinnett replied that the logs he had referenced in footnote 8 (apparently by mistake) "are fully described" in footnote 37 on page 314. But this footnote deals with radio intercepts, not McCollum's memorandum.

It is clear after delving into Stinnett's footnotes that there is no "conclusive evidence," in fact no evidence whatsoever, that Roosevelt saw or even knew of McCollum's memorandum. Stinnett has proved just the opposite of his own oft repeated allegation that Roosevelt adopted McCollum's eight point program. Through Stinnett's own exhaustive research, we now know that there is not one scintilla of documentary evidence that President Roosevelt saw, knew of, or adopted McCollum's proposals.

Stinnett's second major allegation is that Roosevelt prevented Admiral Kimmel from conducting a training exercise that would have uncovered the oncoming Japanese Fleet. Stinnett provides no relevant documents to support his allegation. Stinnett does quote Admiral Turner (at the time of Pearl Harbor, Director of Navy Plans in Washington, D.C.), testifying before Congress after the war, as proof that the Navy had been ordered out of the area where Nagumo's task force was headed:

"We were prepared to divert traffic when we believed that war was imminent. We sent
the traffic down via Torres Strait, so that the track of the Japanese task force would be
clear of any traffic."

What is bothersome is that Turner never made this statement. What Stinnett has done is cobble together phrases of Admiral Turner's testimony from different sentences to arrive at the above quoted statement. The reading of Turner's actual testimony leaves a different meaning

But the mort serious flaw facing Stinnett is that Admiral Kimmel himself, for years fighting to restore his dignity and reversing the belief of many that he was negligent in permitting his Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor to be so surprised, never once stated, suggested or hinted in the hundreds of pages of his testimony before various investigative bodies, in his own book, or in any of his speeches, that he was prevented from finding the Japanese task force. In fact, he did not believe that the Japanese were about to attack Pearl.

Kimmel's own testimony totally disproves Stinnett's second allegation:

"In short, all indications of the movements of Japanese military and naval forces which came to
my attention confirmed the information in the dispatch of 27 November - that the Japanese were
on the move against Thailand or the Kra Peninsula in southeast Asia."

"In brief, in the week immediately prior to Pearl Harbor, I had no evidence that the
Japanese carriers were enroute to Oahu."

Conducting and then concluding a standard annual war game north of Hawaii by some ships of the Pacific Fleet some two weeks before December 7th, is hardly evidence, as Stinnett claims, of Kimmel being prevented from discovering the Japanese attack force.

The remaining two major allegations, one being that the Japanese task force actually sent radio messages while on the way to Pearl, the other that many Japanese secret messages about the planned attack on Pearl Harbor were not only intercepted but were deciphered and translated before the attack, have already been discredited by experts in cryptology and radio communications, as well as by noted historians of Pearl Harbor, such as Gordon W. Prange and John Prados.

An analysis of much of the research done by Stinnett and his quotes raise serious questions about the accuracy and relevance of many of his claims. Any serious student of Pearl Harbor needs to look carefully at Stinnett's research before concluding that he has really uncovered any thing new.

Richard E. Young, RADM, USNR (Ret)

[Ron]

It sounds like the Admiral figured out that Mr. Stinnett was full of more than good story telling ability.

[Bryan]

Then again well executed deception takes paths to be both believed and or denied depending on the outcome of events.....

1. It was all our idea....Saw it from miles away and let them come right into our trap.

or

2. We had no idea....How could we know Professor Plumb was in the library?


Just sayin

[captain]

I have no recollection of the year or month but there was an article in Skin Diver Mag in the 60's about two Navy divers doing a training dive just outside Pearl Harbor when they accidentally came across one of the midget subs.