Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941-1942
Page 66
The trains were inundated. General Eisenhower recalled of that period: “Guns were loaded on flatcars, if flatcars were available; on gondolas if they could be had; and freight cars if nothing else was at hand. The men traveled in deluxe Pullmans, in troop sleepers, in modern coaches, and in day cars that had been obsolete and sidetracked in the yards for a generation and were now drafted for emergency troop movements.” Nineteenth-century coal-burning steam engines were hauled out of retirement. Plumes of dirty black smoke swept back into the old wicker passenger cars and blackened the servicemen’s uniforms. Men played cards, smoked, read, whistled at women, and watched the country roll by. When the trains ran out of food, the hungry men jostled and elbowed their way through the ubiquitous crowds, down the steps onto the platforms, and into the teeming stations to raid the shops and restaurants.
In 1942, it seemed as if the entire nation was on the move—not only troops and sailors but civilians seeking after war work. Because military personnel enjoyed priority on all buses and trains, civilians (including entire families) squatted in the stations, sleeping on benches or floors, waiting days or weeks to be assigned seats. America’s train and bus stations, wrote marine aviator Samuel Hynes,
were the sad places of the war, the limbos of lost souls. All those troops, far from their hometowns, and miserable-looking in their new uniforms, and the sad, young country girls, pregnant or holding babies, not looking around much, just standing, waiting. Lines everywhere. There was no place you could go that you didn’t have to stand in a line first. Piles of duffel bags. And MP’s with their white leggings and night sticks, patrolling, representing discipline, being discipline in their stiff postures and their sharp uniforms. War could do worse things than this to plain people, but for a sense of the ordinary outrages of life in a country at war, the stations were the place to go.
Reaching California, many of the Pacific-bound servicemen were caught in limbo, waiting for a ship, and that suited them fine. No one doubted that the route to Tokyo would be long and bloody, and they were in no hurry to travel it. The sweating malarial jungles of the South Pacific, the infinitesimal atolls of the central Pacific, all those obscure islands with their alien names—Efate, Espiritu Santo, Malaita, Guadalcanal, Emirau, Tarawa, Majuro, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Ulithi, Palau, Saipan, Morotai, Mindanao, Iwo Jima, Okinawa—they would see them soon enough.
“Golden Gate in ’48, bread line in ’49.” That pessimistic slogan, which began circulating in 1942, revealed a great deal about the attitudes of the American servicemen who fought in the Pacific. They fully expected that the war would last twice as long as it eventually did, and they assumed, as a matter of course, that the long effort would exhaust and bankrupt the nation. But the words also indicated a gritty, persevering determination. The Japanese had fatally misjudged them. They were not cowed by the prospect of a long war and a destitute homecoming. They would go on fighting, killing, and dying, overcoming fear, fatigue, and sorrow, until they reached the beaches of the detested empire itself. There, in 1945, the irresistible force of the Yankee war machine would meet the immovable object of the “Yamato spirit,” until two mushroom clouds and an emperor’s decision brought the whole execrable business to an end.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THANKS TO THE STAFFS OF THE NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND, the U.S. Naval War College, the FDR Presidential Library, the National Archives, the Independence Seaport Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU Museum, the San Francisco Public Library, the Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR), the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forces (JMSDF) Staff College, and the Japanese National Defense Academy at Yokosuka.
Special thanks to Professors Douglas V. Smith and Timothy H. Jackson of the U.S. Naval War College, and to Evelyn M. Cherpak, chief archivist and special collections curator at the same institution. With each passing week (so it seems) the wealth of online resources available to historians and researchers expands. Among the Web sites I have found most useful are www.history.navy.mil, CombinedFleet.com, and ibiblio.org/hyperwar. The Battle of Midway Roundtable (www.midway42.org) is a fine example of how the Web can expand the frontiers of historical knowledge by providing a virtual discussion forum for veterans and historians. Several of the BOMRT’s discussion threads have been published in No Right to Win, edited by Ronald Russell.
For reviewing portions of the manuscript and providing expert and/or editorial commentary, thanks to David Howell, Kenneth Pyle, Ronald Russell, Floyd Beaver, Jon Parshall, Vincent Anderson, VADM George Emery (USN, ret.), Yukio Satoh, Yoshihisa Komori, Koji Handa, and Kiyohiko Arafune. Russell and Beaver read the entire manuscript and provided constructive feedback, from typos to grammar to expert historical insights to (in Beaver’s case) corrections of the record based on his personal recollections. After reading my chapters on Japan, Ambassador Arafune provided thirty single-spaced pages of erudite commentary, composed in flawless English, drawing upon not only his deep knowledge of the history but also his boyhood memories of the war. As usual, any errors of fact or interpretation in these pages are to be blamed on the author alone.
For providing introductions and other invaluable assistance in Japan: Kiyohiko Arafune, Yukio Satoh, VADM Yoji Koda (JMSDF, ret.), VADM Masanori Yoshida, Hiroshi Takaku, Eiichi Ishii, Yoshie Nakatani, RADM Umio Otsuka, Cdr. Kuniaki Yamanaka, Prof. Naoyuki Agawa, and Prof. Haruo Tohmatsu.
For the maps, thanks to my illustrator, Loren Doppenberg. For tracking down the photographs and obtaining rights to publication, thanks to Susan Buschhorn.
In the spirit of Samuel Johnson’s epigram “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money,” I remain heartily grateful to my agent, Eric Simonoff.
I am indebted to the entire team at W. W. Norton. My editor, Starling Lawrence, continues to be a valuable advocate, counselor, and friend.
NOTES
Prologue
xiv to “double time down the corridor”: Potter, Halsey, p. 28.
xv “We do not need”: TR’s 1906 Annual Message to the Congress; online at www.millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches.
xvii “I tackled the job”: Mahan, From Sail to Steam, pp. 278, 276.
xviii “War, once declared”: Asada, From Mahan to Pearl Harbor, p. 8.
xviii “From 1892 on”: Livezey, Mahan on Sea Power, pp. 72, 59.
xviii “We owe to [Captain Mahan] the three million pounds”: Beach, The United States Navy: A 200-Year History, p. 332.
xviii “I am just now not reading”: Asada, From Mahan to Pearl Harbor, p. 3.
xix “more of my works”: Mahan, From Sail to Steam, p. 303.
xix “total absorption”: Cleary, The Japanese Art of War, p. 79.
xix “Naval strategists of all nations”: Tribute reproduced in Taylor, The Life of Admiral Mahan, p. 115.
xix “During the last two days”: TR to Alfred Thayer Mahan, Washington, May 12, 1890, in Auchincloss, ed., Theodore Roosevelt: Letters and Speeches, pp. 45–46.
xix an admiring review: TR’s review in Atlantic Monthly (October 1890), in Works, Vol. 14, pp. 306–16.
xx “only too glad”: Mahan to TR, October 24, 1906, quoted in Turk, The Ambiguous Relationship: Theodore Roosevelt and Alfred Thayer Mahan, p. 149.
xx “There is a homely old adage”: Speech given in Chicago, April 2, 1903, in TR, Presidential Addresses and State Papers, Vol. 1, pp. 265–66.
xx “as strong as the United States Navy”: TR (1916), Mem. Ed. XX, 261; Nat. Ed. XVIII, 225, reproduced in TR Cyclopedia, p. 352.
xxi “In the century that is opening”: TR, “Address at Mechanics’ Pavilion,” San Francisco, May 13, 1903; “America’s Destiny on the Pacific,” New York Times, May 14, 1903.
xxi “The enemies we may have to face”: “Washington’s Forgotten Maxim,” Address by TR, U.S. Naval War College, June 2, 1897. Naval Institute Proceedings 23, p. 456.
xxi “In a dozen years”: TR to Cecil Spring-Rice, June 16, 1905, in Auchincloss, ed., Theodore Roosevelt: Letters and Speeches, pp. 391–92.
xxii “some exuberance”: Brands, T.R.: The Last Romantic, p. 554.
xxii “not physical exercise”: TR to Charles Joseph Bonaparte, February 17, 1906, in Auchincloss, ed., Theodore Roosevelt: Letters and Speeches, pp. 448–49.
xxii Even by 1906: Karsten, The Naval Aristocracy, p. 360.
xxiii The British navy: Ibid., p. 13.
xxiii “old-style naval officers”: TR to Secretary of the Navy, August 28, 1905, in Auchincloss, ed., Theodore Roosevelt: Letters and Speeches, p. 402.
xxiii to “encourage the best among them”: Roosevelt, America and the World War, p. 167.
xxiii But in Roosevelt’s navy: Karsten, The Naval Aristocracy, p. 69.
xxiii “They must have skill”: “Washington’s Forgotten Maxim,” Address by TR, U.S. Naval War College, June 2, 1897.
xxvi “If you affect valor”: Dower, War Without Mercy, p. 61.
xxvi At sea, the Japanese fleet: Edgerton, Warriors of the Rising Sun, p. 137.
xxvi “Europe has not recovered”: Illustrated London News, quoted in ibid., p. 223.
xxvi “The Japs interest me”: TR to Cecil Spring-Rice, June 13, 1904, in Auchincloss, ed., Theodore Roosevelt: Letters and Speeches, p. 336.
xxvi “I believe in them”: TR, Autobiography, p. 378.
xxvii “My right ankle”: TR to Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., April 9, 1904, in Letters to His Children, p. 31.
xxvii “the growth of Japan”: TR’s 1906 Annual Message to the Congress.
xxvii “fairly startled the world” . . . “as thick almost”: Asada, From Mahan to Pearl Harbor, pp. 13, 6.
xxviii “cold, wet, and shivering”: Mahan, From Sail to Steam, pp. 233, 244.
xxviii Japan had financed the war: Edgerton, Warriors of the Rising Sun, pp. 215–16.
xxviii the Japanese people exploded: Ibid., p. 219.
xxviii in Hibiya Park: Buruma, Inventing Japan, p. 69.
xxviii Armed mobs charged: Wheeler, Dragon in the Dust, p. 54.
xxix When the riots came to an end: Edgerton, Warriors of the Rising Sun, p. 219.
xxix “should not be placed”: Bailey, Theodore Roosevelt and the Japanese-American Crisis, p. 14.
xxix “The danger to American institutions”: “Japanese a Menace to American Women,” “Whole State Stirred by Menace of the Invasion,” and “Brown Men an Evil in the Public Schools,” San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 27, 1905, March 1, 1905, and March 5, 1905.
xxx thousands of homeless refugees: Bailey, Theodore Roosevelt and the Japanese-American Crisis, p. 23.
xxx Japan had donated $246,000: Ibid., p. 17.
xxx “It will be easy work”: Ibid., p. 50.
xxx Secretary of State Elihu Root suspected: Neu, An Uncertain Friendship, p. 137.
xxxi “but the exclusion of Japanese”: Bailey, Theodore Roosevelt and the Japanese-American Crisis, p. 54.
xxxi “while at the same time refusing”: TR to Henry Cabot Lodge, May 15, 1905, in Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, Vol. 4, p. 1181.
xxxi published a cartoon: Harper’s Weekly, Nov. 10, 1906, cover art by William A. Rogers. Captioned: “For Heaven’s Sake Do Not Embarrass the Administration.”
xxxi “The feeling on the Pacific slope”: TR to Henry Cabot Lodge, June 5, 1905, quoted in Neu, An Uncertain Friendship, p. 24.
xxxi “wicked absurdity”: TR’s 1906 Annual Message to the Congress.
xxxi the “Gentlemen’s Agreement”: Starr, Embattled Dreams, p. 44.
xxxi Digging was proceeding: Sprout and Sprout, The Rise of American Naval Power: 1776–1918, p. 250.
xxxi Rumors flourished: Starr, Embattled Dreams, p. 53.
xxxii “I had been doing my best”: TR to Sir George Otto Trevelyan, Oct. 1, 1911, in TR Cyclopedia, p. 36.
xxxii “The Philippines form”: TR to Taft, August 21, 1907, quoted in Neu, An Uncertain Friendship, p. 142.
xxxii “would have a good deal”: TR to Henry Cabot Lodge, July 10, 1907, in TR Cyclopedia, p. 35.
xxxiii “Did you ever see”: Brands, T.R.: The Last Romantic, p. 613.
xxxiii In a voyage of fourteen months: Ibid., pp. 636–37.
xxxiii demonstrated that “the Pacific”: Zimmermann, First Great Triumph, p. 6.
xxxiv “War Plan Orange”: Miller, War Plan Orange, pp. 43–46, 53–55, and 66–67.
xxxv “one of the cardinal principles”: TR, “Japan’s Part,” Japan Society, New York, 1919, p. 13; TR Cyclopedia, p. 275.
xxxv “bent upon establishing”: TR to Eugene Hale, October 27, 1906, in Auchincloss, ed., Theodore Roosevelt: Letters and Speeches, p. 505.
xxxv “woe to our country”: TR, “The Navy as a Peacemaker,” New York Times, Nov. 22, 1914, Magazine section, p. 5.
xxxv a “bitter awakening”: TR, “Problems of Power,” New Outlook 104, May 31, 1913.
xxxvi “practically memorized”: Toland, The Rising Sun, p. 53.
xxxvi “I do not anticipate trouble”: TR to FDR, May 10, 1913, in Auchincloss, ed., Theodore Roosevelt: Letters and Speeches, p. 681.
Chapter One
8 “Wow, spectacular maneuvers”: Dan Kong account in Richardson and Stillwell, Reflections of Pearl Harbor, p. 46.
8 “I had to admit”: Brown, Hawaii Goes to War, p. 20.
8 “the best goddamn drill”: Marine Major Alan Shapley of the Arizona, recalling an anonymous shipmate’s words, quoted in Prange, Goldstein, and Dillon, At Dawn We Slept, p. 510.
8 “smoke bombs”: Brown, Hawaii Goes to War, p. 20.
8 a “practice smoke screen”: Petrie quoted in Prange, Goldstein, and Dillon, December 7, 1941, p. 121.
8 “We interrupt this broadcast”: Gene White account in Richardson, Reflections of Pearl Harbor, p. 37.
8 “This is no maneuver”: Quoted in Bailey and Farber, The First Strange Place, p. 2.
8 “Why are those planes flying”: William Duffie Clemons account in McCabe, Pearl Harbor and the American Spirit, p. 68.
8 “Why are the boys shooting” . . . “What a stupid, careless pilot”: Prange, Goldstein, and Dillon, At Dawn We Slept, p. 506.
8 “Somebody goofed big”: Leonide (Lee) R. Soucy account in McCabe, Pearl Harbor and the American Spirit, p. 136.
8 “My God!”: Kenton Nash account in LaForte and Marcello, eds., Remembering Pearl Harbor, p. 280.
9 “What kind of a drill”: Soucy account in McCabe, Pearl Harbor and the American Spirit, p. 137.
9 “a lone, berserk”: A. L. Seton account in Stillwell, ed., Air Raid—Pearl Harbor!, p. 183.
9 “armed soldiers”: Maxwell R. Urata account in McCabe, Pearl Harbor and the American Spirit, p. 150.
9 “every conceivable vehicle”: Lawson P. Ramage account in Stillwell, ed., Air Raid—Pearl Harbor!, p. 198.
9 “We heard what sounded like”: Larry Katz account in McCabe, Pearl Harbor and the American Spirit, p. 97.
9 Jack Lower, a civilian electrician: Lord, Day of Infamy, pp. 139–40.
9 “Suddenly from the shock of bullets”: Dickinson, The Flying Guns, p. 24.
10 “a mighty thunderclap”: Mason, Battleship Sailor, p. 221.
10 “There were steel fragments”: Martin Matthews account in LaForte and Marcello, eds., Remembering Pearl Harbor, p. 30.
10 “These men were zombies”: James Cory account in ibid., p. 18.
12 “Hell, I could even see”: Col. William J. Flood quoted in Prange, Goldstein, and Dillon, At Dawn We Slept, p. 523.
12 “They were so low”: Leon Bennett account in LaForte and Marcello, eds., Remembering Pearl Harbor, p. 81.
12 “let go the handles”: Quoted in Dickinson, The Flying Guns, p. 39.
12 “I still expect”: Elphege A. M. Gendreau quoted in Prange, Goldstein, and Dillon, At Dawn We Slept, p. 567.
12 “The entire scene”: Mason, Battleship Sailor, p. 219.
12 “It was like being engulfed”: CPO Charles A
. Russell quoted in Prange, Goldstein, and Dillon, December 7, 1941, p. 277.
12 “If you didn’t go through it”: John H. McGoran account in Nardo, ed., Pearl Harbor, p. 106.
13 “about things far removed”: Hopkins’s notes, Dec. 7, 1941, quoted in Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, p. 430.
14 the president had sent word: Eleanor Roosevelt, This I Remember, p. 232.
14 Hopkins was incredulous: Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, p. 431.
14 the president took a call: Tully, F. D. R.: My Boss, p. 255.
14 “stood around in stupefied”: Mrs. Charles S. Hamlin quoted in Prange, Goldstein, and Dillon, December 7, 1941, p. 250.
14 “was concentrating”: Eleanor Roosevelt, This I Remember, p. 233.
15 “The Boss maintained”: Tully, F. D. R.: My Boss, p. 255.
16 “a crisis had come”: Stimson diary, Dec. 7, 1941, quoted in Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, p. 294.
16 “I thought that”: Eleanor Roosevelt, This I Remember, p. 233.
16 “People who have never seen”: Cory account in LaForte and Marcello, eds., Remembering Pearl Harbor, pp. 19–20.
16 “gummy black oil”: Mason, Battleship Sailor, p. 235.
17 “Each time this was done”: Ephraim P. Holmes account in Nardo, ed., Pearl Harbor, p. 112.
17 “I remember one sailor”: Leslie Le Fan account in LaForte and Marcello, eds., Remembering Pearl Harbor, p. 162.