Pearl Harbor

by Steven M. Gillon

  24 “Press Release,” America First Committee, Pittsburgh Chapter, America First Committee Papers (AFCP), Box 233, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace (HIWR); Hagy to Hulburd, “Pittsburgh and the War,” in War Comes to the U.S.

  25 Hagy to Hulburd, “Pittsburgh and the War,” in War Comes to the U.S.

  26 Executive Vice Chairman to William S. Foulis, December 9, 1941, Box 230, AFCP-HIWR; Hagy to Hulburd, “Pittsburgh and the War,” in War Comes to the U. S.

  27 Hagy to Hulburd, “Pittsburgh and the War,” in War Comes to the U.S.; Weintraub, Long Day’s Journey into War, 310–312.

  28 Hagy to Hulburd, “Pittsburgh and the War,” in War Comes to the U.S.

  Chapter 11

  1 Grace Tully, FDR: My Boss (New York: Scribner’s, 1949), 257; Gordon W. Prange, December 7, 1941: The Day the Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor (New York: Wings Books, 1991), 386.

  2 Report of the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack, 79th Cong., 2nd sess., document 244, appendix D, “The Last Hours” (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946), 441.

  3 “Naval Message,” December 7, 1941, 5:28 p.m., Map Room Papers, Box 36, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (FDRL).

  4 “December 7 in DC Chapter,” Gordon Prange Papers, Box 12, University of Maryland Library; Alonzo Fields, My 21 Years in the White House (New York: Coward-McCann, 1961), 80.

  5 “Memorandum: December 7, 1941,” Harry Hopkins Papers, Box 6, Folder 19, Georgetown University Library, Special Collections Research Center.

  6 “Notes taken of conversation between Admiral Stark and Admiral Bloch,” John Toland Papers, Box 126, FDRL.

  7 Ibid.

  8 Ibid.

  9 “Record of Telephone Conversation Between Gen. Gerow, WPD, and Gen. MacArthur in Manila, P.I., About 7:00 p.m.,” Toland Papers, Series V, December 7, 1941, Box 126, FDRL.

  10 Michael Schaller, Douglas MacArthur: The Far Eastern General (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 55–57.

  11 Eric Larrabee, Commander in Chief: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, His Lieutenants & Their War (New York: Harper and Row, 1987), 316–317; Archie Satterfield, The Day the War Began (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1992), 94–95.

  12 “Memorandum for General Miles: Chronology of December 7,” Toland Papers, Series V, “Chronology,” Box 125, FDRL.

  13 William Seale, The President’s House: A History (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 2:984.

  14 Landon to the President, December 7, 1941; Keen to the President, December 7, 1941; Dixon to the President, December 7, 1941, Official File, OF4675, World War II, Support: Governors, Mayors, Box 5, FDRL. These letters are a small sample of the wires and letters of support that fill more than a dozen boxes at the Roosevelt Library.

  15 Mrs. Peace Tungruito to the President, n.d., Official File, OF4675, World War II, Support: “P,” Box 5, FDRL.

  16 Merriman Smith, Thank You, Mr. President: A White House Notebook (New York: Harpers, 1946), 115–116.

  Chapter 12

  1 “Memoir, Mrs. Charles Hamlin,” December 7, 1941, John Toland Papers, Series V, December 7, 1941, Box 126, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (FDRL); Gordon W. Prange, December 7, 1941: The Day the Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor (New York: Wings Books, 1991), 248.

  2 Eleanor Roosevelt, “My Day,” December 7, 1941; Eleanor Roosevelt, This I Remember (Santa Barbara: Greenwood Press Reprints, 1975), 232–233; Prange, December 7, 1941, 248.

  3 Carl Anthony Sferrazza, “The First Ladies: They’ve Come a Long Way, Martha,” Smithsonian, October 1992, 135.

  4 James Roosevelt, My Parents: A Differing View (New York: Playboy Press, 1976), 10–11.

  5 Ibid., 12.

  6 Jean Edward Smith, FDR (New York: Random House, 2008), 44; J. Roosevelt, My Parents, 17.

  7 J. E. Smith, FDR, 46–47; Frank Freidel, Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny (New York: Little, Brown, 1990), 12–13.

  8 J. Roosevelt, My Parents, 33.

  9 Jonathan Alter, The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007), 43–44; J. E. Smith, FDR, 160.

  10 J. E. Smith, FDR, 161; J. Roosevelt, My Parents, 101.

  11 J. Roosevelt, My Parents, 102; J. E. Smith, FDR, 161.

  12 Eleanor Roosevelt Oral History, “The Roosevelt Years,” Robert Graft Papers, Box 4, p. 5, reel 1, FDRL.

  13 E. Roosevelt, This I Remember, 232–233.

  14 Alter, Defining Moment, 25; J. Roosevelt, My Parents, 7.

  15 J. E. Smith, FDR, 23.

  16 Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994), 80.

  17 J. E. Smith, FDR, 6, 25.

  18 Freidel, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 6.

  19 Geoffrey C. Ward, A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt (New York: Harper and Row, 1989), 607–608.

  20 Freidel, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 7.

  21 Ibid., 41.

  22 J. E. Smith, FDR, 191.

  23 J. Roosevelt, My Parents, 72–73.

  24 Ward, First-Class Temperament, 600.

  25 E. Roosevelt Oral History, “The Roosevelt Years,” Graft Papers, Box 4, p. 5, reel 1, FDRL; J. Roosevelt, My Parents, 73–74.

  26 J. Roosevelt, My Parents, 73–74.

  27 Hugh Gregory Gallagher, FDR’s Splendid Deception (Arlington, VA: Vandamere Press, 1994), 63.

  28 Ibid., 65.

  29 J. Roosevelt, My Parents, 92–93; Ward, First-Class Temperament, 694–695.

  30 Ward, First-Class Temperament, 696–697.

  31 J. E. Smith, FDR, 197–198.

  32 Ibid., 204; Freidel, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 45–56.

  33 Ward, First-Class Temperament, 715, 728; Alan Brinkley, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 16–17.

  34 Ward, First-Class Temperament, 750.

  35 Alter, Defining Moment, 64–65, 327.

  36 Ibid., 51–52.

  37 A. Brinkley, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 18–19.

  38 Ward, First-Class Temperament, 782–783.

  39 J. B. West, Upstairs at the White House (New York: Warner Books, 1974), 17; A. Brinkley, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 20.

  40 E. Roosevelt, This I Remember, 165–166.

  41 The full text of her remarks can be found online at: http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/q-and-a/q21-pearl-harbor-address.cfm.

  Chapter 13

  1 Frances Perkins, The Roosevelt I Knew (New York: Viking, 1946), 378.

  2 Ibid.

  3 Ibid., 379; Francis Biddle, In Brief Authority (New York: Doubleday, 1962), 206.

  4 “Memorandum: December 7, 1941,” Harry Hopkins Papers, Box 6, Folder 19, Georgetown University Library, Special Collections Research Center; Perkins, The Roosevelt I Knew, 379.

  5 Perkins, The Roosevelt I Knew, 379.

  6 “December 7, 1941,” Claude Wickard Papers, Box 13, Cabinet Meetings, 1941–1942, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (FDRL). Attorney General Francis Biddle noted in his diary that FDR “expected the possibility of war with Germany and Italy.” “December 7, 1941,” Francis Biddle Papers, Box 1, Cabinet Meetings, 1941, FDRL.

  7 “December 7, 1941,” Biddle Papers, Box 1, Cabinet Meetings, 1941, FDRL; “December 7, 1941,” Wickard Papers, Box 13, Cabinet Meetings, 1941–1942, FDRL; Perkins, The Roosevelt I Knew, 379.

  8 “December 7, 1941,” Wickard Papers, Box 13, Cabinet Meetings, 1941–1942, FDRL; Donald J. Young, First 24 Hours of War in the Pacific (Shippensburg, PA: Burd Street Press, 1998), 157.

  9 “December 7, 1941,” Biddle Papers, Box 1, Cabinet Meetings, 1941, FDRL; “December 7, 1941,” Wickard Papers, Box 13, Cabinet Meetings, 1941–1942, FDRL.

  10 Perkins, The Roosevelt I Knew, 379–380.

  11 “December 7, 1941,” Wickard Papers, Box 13, Cabinet Meetings, 1941–1942, FDRL.

  12 Ibid.

  13 Monday, December 8, 1941, Henry Lewis Stimson Diaries (microfilm edition, reel 7), Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University L
ibrary (MA-YUL).

  14 “December 7, 1941,” Biddle Papers, Box 1, Cabinet Meetings, 1941, FDRL; Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932–1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 312.

  15 Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 312; “Monday, December 8, 1941,” Stimson Diaries, MA-YUL.

  16 “December 7, 1941,” Wickard Papers, Box 13, Cabinet Meetings, 1941–1942, FDRL; “December 7, 1941,” Biddle Papers, Box 1, Cabinet Meetings, 1941, FDRL.

  17 Bernard Asbell, The FDR Memoirs (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973), 249.

  18 Jean Edward Smith, FDR (New York: Random House, 2008), 207, 248.

  19 Ibid., 494.

  20 J. E. Smith, FDR, 495; Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994), 246.

  21 McIntire to Johnson, November 25, 1941; Johnson to McIntire, November 14, 1941, McIntire Papers, Box 9, FDRL.

  22 Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, 294.

  Chapter 14

  1 George N. Green, “Connally, Thomas Terry,” Handbook of Texas Online, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fco36.

  2 Tom Connally, My Name Is Tom Connally (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1954), 248.

  3 “Memorandum: December 7, 1941,” Harry Hopkins Papers, Box 6, Folder 19, Georgetown University Library, Special Collections Research Center; C. P. Trussell, “Congress Decided,” New York Times, December 8, 1941, 1.

  4 Connally, My Name Is Tom Connally, 248.

  5 Frank McNaughton to Hulburd, December 8, 1941, War Comes to the U.S.—Dec. 7, 1941: The First 30 Hours as Reported to the Time-Life-Fortune News Bureau from the U.S. and Abroad (New York, 1942); Hearings Before the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack, 79th Cong., pt. 19, exhibit 160, “Remarks of the President,” December 7, 1941 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946), 3503.

  6 Hearings Before the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack , 79th Cong., pt. 19, exhibit 160, “Remarks of the President,” December 7, 1941, 3504.

  7 Ibid.

  8 “Monday, December 8, 1941,” Henry Lewis Stimson Diaries (microfilm edition, reel 7), Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.

  9 Connally, My Name Is Tom Connally, 249.

  10 Hearings Before the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack, 79th Cong., pt. 19, exhibit 160, “Remarks of the President,” December 7, 1941, 3504.

  11 Connally offered an embellished account of this confrontation in his memoir. He claimed to have followed up with a series of pointed questions directed at Knox. “Didn’t you say last month that we could lick the Japs in two weeks? Didn’t you say that our navy was so well prepared and located that the Japanese couldn’t hope to hurt us at all? When you made those public statements, weren’t you just trying to tell the country what an efficient secretary of the navy you were?” While Knox “fumbled around” searching for words, Roosevelt said nothing. “President Roosevelt sat perfectly quiet with a blank expression on his face.” Connally, My Name Is Tom Connally, 249. This exchange cannot, however, be found in the transcript of the meeting. See Hearings Before the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack, 79th Cong., pt. 19, exhibit 160, “Remarks of the President,” December 7, 1941, 3505.

  12 “Memorandum: December 7, 1941.”

  13 Hearings Before the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack, 79th Cong., pt. 19, exhibit 160, “Remarks of the President,” December 7, 1941, 3504; “December 7, 1941,” Wickard Papers, Box 13, Cabinet Meetings, 1941–1942, FDRL.

  14 “Memorandum: December 7, 1941.”

  15 C. P. Trussell, “Congress Decided,” New York Times, December 8, 1941, 1; Raymond Z. Henle, “Roosevelt May Ask War on Axis,” Pittsburgh Post Gazette, December 8, 1941, 1.

  16 “Nearly All Congressional Opposition to Roosevelt’s Foreign Policy Fades,” Wall Street Journal, December 8, 1941, 3; Trussell, “Congress Decided”; Wm. C. Murphy Jr., “Roosevelt to Give Message on War to Congress Today,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 8, 1941, 1.

  17 Henle, “Roosevelt May Ask War on Axis,” 1.

  18 “From Brick Dust to Bouquets,” Time, December 15, 1941, 50.

  19 Alexander Kendrick, Prime Time: Life of Edward R. Murrow (New York: Littlehampton, 1970), 240.

  20 Frank Costigliola, “Broken Circle: The Isolation of Franklin D. Roosevelt in World War II,” Diplomatic History 32 (November 2008): 693.

  21 Kendrick, Prime Time, 240.

  22 A. M. Sperber, Murrow: His Life and Times (New York: Fordham University Press, 1999), 207; “Memorandum: December 7, 1941.”

  23 Ibid., 207.

  24 Kendrick, Prime Time, 240–241.

  25 James Roosevelt, My Parents: A Differing View (New York: Playboy Press, 1976), 266.

  26 William Seale, The President’s House: A History (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 2:989–990.

  Chapter 15

  1 Grace Tully, FDR: My Boss (New York: Scribner’s, 1949), 258.

  2 Stanley Weintraub, Long Day’s Journey into War: December 7, 1941 (New York: Dutton, 1991), 625.

  3 “British Declare War on Japan Without Waiting for America,” Los Angeles Times, December 9, 1941, 1.

  4 CINCPAC Cable, “Shown to President by Naval Aide, 8:30 am, December 8,” Map Room Papers, Military Files, Series I, Box 36, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (FDRL); CINCPAC Cable, “Shown to President by Naval Aide, 8:45 am, December 8,” Map Room Papers, Military Files, Series I, Box 36, FDRL.

  5 “Phoned from Operations Duty Officer,” December 8, 1941, Map Room Papers, “Warfare: Philippines, 1941–1943,” Box 99, FDRL.

  6 Greene to Hulburd, War Comes to the U.S.—Dec. 7, 1941: The First 30 Hours as Reported to the Time-Life-Fortune News Bureau from the U.S. and Abroad (New York, 1942); Arthur Krock, “Unity Clicks into Place,” New York Times, December 8, 1941, 6.

  7 Raymond Z. Henle, “Nation Set to Avenge Jap Blows,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , December 9, 1941, 1.

  8 C. Fred Lehr to President, December 8, 1941, Official File, OF4675, World War II, Support: “M-L,” Box 5, FDRL.

  9 Jefferson to President, December 8, 1941, Official File, OF4675, World War II, Support: “J,” Box 5, FDRL.

  10 The FDR Library also has in its possession aluminum braces that belonged to Roosevelt. It is unclear, however, when Roosevelt wore these braces. The aluminum design is similar to that of the steel braces, but they weigh only three and a half pounds each.

  11 William C. Murphy Jr., “U.S. Declares War on Japs,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 9, 1941, 1; Hugh Gregory Gallagher, FDR’s Splendid Deception (Arlington, VA: Vandamere Press, 1994), 163.

  12 Felix Belair Jr. to Hulburd, War Comes to the U.S.

  13 Michael F. Reilly, Reilly of the White House (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1947), 27.

  14 Ibid., 27–28. Reilly says the conversation took place on December 9, the day after FDR’s address to Congress. In fact, it was December 8.

  15 James Reston, “Capital Swings into War Stride,” New York Times, December 9, 1941, 1; Belair to Hulburd, War Comes to the US.

  16 Frank Wilson and Beth Day, Special Agent (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1965), 147.

  17 “Memoir, Mrs. Charles Hamlin,” December 7, 1941, John Toland Papers, Series V, Infamy, “December 7, 1941,” Box 126, FDRL; Gordon W. Prange, December 7, 1941: The Day the Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor (New York: Wings Books, 1991), 248; Gallagher, FDR’s Splendid Deception, 164–165; Frank L. Kluckhohn, “Unity in Congress,” New York Times, December 9, 1941, 1; Belair to Hulburd, War Comes to the U.S.

  18 Belair to Hulburd, War Comes to the U.S.

  19 Gallagher, FDR’s Splendid Deception, 97, 165.

  20 Louis M. Lyons, “Again a U.S. President Asks for Declaration of War,” Boston Daily Globe, December 8, 1941, 1.

  21 McNaughton to Hulburd, War Comes to the U.S.

  22 Ibid. />
  23 Ibid.

  24 Murphy, “U.S. Declares War on Japs,” 1.

  25 James Roosevelt, My Parents: A Differing View (New York: Playboy Press, 1976), 92–93.

  26 Kenneth Davis, FDR: The War President (New York: Random House, 2000), 206–208.

  27 McNaughton to Hulburd, War Comes to the U.S.

  28 Murphy, “U.S. Declares War on Japs,” 1.

  29 Ibid.

  30 Eleanor Roosevelt, This I Remember (Santa Barbara: Greenwood Press Reprints, 1975), 234.

  31 Kluckhohn, “Unity in Congress,” 1; Ernest Lindley, “The President in Crisis,” Washington Post, December 14, 1941, 7; Murphy, “U.S. Declares War on Japs,” 1.

  32 Audio Recording, “FDR’s Address to Congress,” December 8, 1941, FDRL.

  33 Laird to Hulburd, War Comes to the U.S.

  34 C. P. Trussell, “Unanimous Senate Acts in 15 Minutes,” New York Times, December 9, 1941, 1.

  35 http://clerk.house.govhighlights.html.

  36 Hulburd to McNaughton, War Comes to the U.S.

  37 Ibid.

  38 FDR to “For the Former Naval Person,” December 8, 1941, Map Room Papers, Warfare, Box 99, FDRL.

  Epilogue

  1 John Mueller, “Pearl Harbor: Military Inconvenience, Political Disaster,” International Security (Winter 1991–1992): 172–203.

  2 “Chicagoans Rush to Join Forces Fighting Japan,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 9, 1941, 7.

  3 “Minutes of the Special Meeting of the Advisory Board,” December 8, 1941, America First Committee Papers, Box 162, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; “Isolation Groups Back Roosevelt,” New York Times, December 9, 1941, 44; Kenneth Davis, FDR: The War President (New York: Random House, 2000), 348–349.

  4 “Labor for Ending Defense Strikes,” New York Times, December 9, 1941, 37.

  5 Ernest Lindley, “The President in the Crisis,” Washington Post, December 14, 1941, 7.

  6 Frank L. Kluckhohn, “The Commander-in-Chief,” New York Times Magazine , December 14, 1941, 10.

  7 Frank Freidel, “FDR vs. Hitler: American Foreign Policy, 1933–1941,” Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society (1987): 25–43.