by Craig Nelson
“Regarding the broadcast of a special message in an emergency”: PHA.
“tiny ball of crumpled rice paper”: Savela.
“We knew then that things were building”: Ibid.
“condonement by the United States of Japan’s”: Hull testimony, PHA.
“Chances of favorable outcome of negotiations,” “I have been in constant touch”: PHA.
“If your bomb hits directly beside the turret”: Genda.
“Achtung, Warning, Alerte”: Bell.
“If I man these islands”: This conversation is detailed in Gillon and in PHA.
“that we were likely to be attacked”: Stimson diary.
“Hell no!”: This conversation is detailed in Gillon and in PHA.
“G-2 that was very disturbing”: Ibid.
“Those men over there do not believe me”: Iguchi.
“The slight prospect of Japan’s agreeing,” “sincerely desired that the message”: PHA.
“The Government of Japan will withdraw”: State.
“told me he had broken the whole thing off”: Stimson diary.
“Japan may attack the Burma Road”: PHA.
“a cold bath”: State.
“I was struck by despair,” “This must be divine grace”: Hotta, Japan 1941, citing Togo, Jidai no Ichimen.
“I knew at the same time as”: PHA.
“This dispatch is to be considered a war warning”: Ibid.
“We considered it an unequivocal war warning”: Ibid.
“My impression of the Hawaiian problem has been”: PHA
I would appreciate your early review”: Ibid.
“The news this morning indicates”: FDR papers.
“Excuse me for speaking my mind in crude”: Taiheiyo Senso e no Michi, Hara.
“preparatory to an emergency situation”: PHA.
“The most probable line of action for Japan”: Ibid.
“a seat at the head of the table”: Hull papers.
“They all come at me with knives”: Ibid.
“I could see with my own eyes”: Hara.
“With war, if you don’t try it”: Iguchi.
“the fact that service calls lasted only one month”: PHA.
“I hope they would be sighted”: Ibid.
“Niitaka yama nobore”: Prange papers.
“If it was permitted”: Brinkley.
“I am very sorry”: Ibid.
“After we finished flight training”: Editors, “Remembering Pearl Harbor,” National Geographic.
“North America (including Manila)”: PHA.
“serene after fully realizing the inevitability”: Prange papers.
“If we begin on November”: Spector.
“a hundred million Asians”: Costello.
“will lead to a war in which”: Prange papers.
“he had the Japanese running around”: Hull papers.
“Circular twenty four forty four”: PHA.
“without equivocation that Tokyo”: Clausen and Lee.
“Highly reliable information has been received”: PHA.
“We have received considerable”: Ibid.
“At five forty-five this evening,” FDR papers.
“approach the president”: G. Terasaki.
“an especially trained espionage man”: Ibid.
“If this is a blackfish”: Prange papers.
“the movements of the fleet”: PHA.
“With every hour that passes”: Hull papers.
“No expression of concern”: Perkins.
Chapter 5: December 6
“The problem is whether the Japanese,” “Emphatically!”: PHA.
“When they came out, Nomura had”: Vice Admiral William R. Smedberg, “Aide to Admiral Stark,” in Stillwell.
“I imagine you will receive it tomorrow”: PHA.
“Japanese warriors never tried to assassinate”: Brinkley.
“Hell, I didn’t even know they were sore at us”: LaForte and Marcello.
“in the late afternoon or early evening”: PHA.
“Gentlemen, are they going to”: PHA.
“firmly determined to fulfill the responsibility”: Prange papers.
“I received your telegram”: PHA.
“This needs a lot of work, Mrs. Edgers”: Ibid.
“Shoot this to Grew”: State.
“a very clever move on the part”: PHA.
“This son of man”: Ibid.
“left suddenly . . . undue alarm”: Ibid.
“left and went home at about 9 p.m.”: Clausen and Lee.
“If we are going into a war”: Ibid.
“Corporal, what in the hell do you”: Travers.
“We all knew war might break out,” “My God, what a way to spend that evening”: Clarke.
“What a target that would make”: Ibid.
“The mood on the mother submarine”: Allen.
“On to Pearl Harbor!”: Ibid.
“a little farewell drink”: Verklan.
“I slept soundly”: Prange papers.
“The night before the attack”: Brinkley.
It is my sole wish to serve: Costello.
“The Japanese Government regrets”: PHA.
“to Secretary Hull’s office at ten thirty”: Stimson diary.
“received a very brief, urgent”: PHA.
“I am going now”: Schmidt.
“I would find a target on the ground”: Ibid.
“Honolulu sleeps,” “Admiral, I am sure the airmen”: Friedrich.
“The ships pitched and rolled”: Editors, “Remembering Pearl Harbor,” National Geographic.
“Our fighting spirit was high”: Allen.
“The wind was competing”: Schmidt.
“From the decks of the aircraft carriers,” “On my arrival there Colonel Bratton”: PHA.
“immediately stunned,” “I think that I immediately called”: Ibid.
“very early in the morning in the Far East”: Ibid.
“That’s a periscope, sir”: Lord.
“We searched for about an hour”: PHA.
“As we flew, I thought many thoughts”: Schmidt.
“Oh, glorious dawn for Japan!”: Prange papers.
“about fifteen hundred yards on starboard quarter”: PHA.
“You had better get going”: Ibid.
“Have you any previous details”: PHA.
“Between seven thirty and seven forty”: Ibid.
“It seemed that if you got in trouble”: Travers.
“something completely out of the ordinary”: PHA.
“the warm air of an unending summer land”: Blakeman.
“Just before I was sounding reveille”: Ibid.
“Enemy formation at anchor”: Genda.
“There’s a large number of planes”: PHA.
“If the AWAS service had been operating”: Ibid.
“the communications between the fighter-director”: PHA.
“They’ve changed the color of our planes”: Lord.
“All crew abandoning ship”: McWilliams.
Chapter 6: From the Air
“They didn’t have a chance”: McWilliams.
“the air was not the place”: Harding.
“P-40s hell”: Ibid.
“In the movies, an airplane attack”: Author interview.
“We’re going to have an air show”: Spector.
“I suppose the reason my attention”: McWilliams.
“By then the sky was thick with puffs”: Stephens.
“Our asphalt landing strip”: Ibid.
“We carried him to the supply room”: McWilliams.
“At this time our lieutenant called us together”: Gabik.
“After the last explosion”: State of Hawaii.
“Mrs. Mayfield, is it”: Ibid.
“I was thirteen years old”: Richardson, On the Treadmill.
“We’re at war”: Lord.
“It was the first time I had ever”: McWilliams.
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“a skinny crew-cut kid”: Ibid.
“To think that this bunch of little yellow bastards”: Clarke.
“On Sunday morning in those days”: James Jones, WW II: A Chronicle of Soldiering (New York: Ballantine, 1975).
“something like machine-gun fire”: Editors, “Remembering Pearl Harbor,” National Geographic.
“As long as I live”: State of Hawaii.
“They lack only one thing”: John Steinbeck, “Fear of Death as Green Troops Sail to Invasion,” New York Herald Tribune, October 3, 1943.
“Hey, I’ve heard the Japs only”: Clarke.
“Go back to sleep, you’re having a bad dream”: PHA.
“It was remarkable”: Ibid.
“Suddenly, I noticed the gunner”: Richardson, Reflections.
“I heard a plane come roaring in from astern”: Goldstein, “John Finn.”
“Lieutenant Iida communicated”: Verklan.
“I was in a very excited state”: Ibid.
“When a short distance from Barbers”: Historic Wings.
“What the hell is wrong with that crazy SOB”: Ibid.
“We’d been practicing towing a carrier”: Richardson, Reflections.
Chapter 7: Pearl Harbor
“A faint haze of kitchen smoke”: Schmidt.
“It must’ve been about seven forty-five”: Brinkley.
“Adolph, I wonder what it would be like”: Lord.
“Hail Mary, full of grace”: Ibid.
“On Saturday night, 6 December”: Ramsey.
“Approximately five or ten minutes after”: PHA.
“Look out the window!”: Tennant.
“when I am sure my children are dead”: Ibid.
“It sounded like the hum of bees swarming”: Nicholson.
“When I looked up in the sky”: Naval History & Heritage Command.
“The torpedo bombers released their torpedoes”: Verklan.
“We were about to change an island of dreams”: Ibid.
“The Enterprise was slated to tie up next”: Richardson, Reflections.
“After a minute or two”: Ibid.
“What’s going on out there”: Lord.
“The plane’s canopy was open”: Richardson, Reflections.
“Slow down, kid”: Slackman.
“The plane we had shot down”: Naval History & Heritage Command.
“running a stick along one”: McWilliams.
“and her sister ship:” Richardson, Reflections.
“tiny Filipino messboy”: McWilliams.
“I heard a voice behind me”: Ibid.
“I was in my Skivvies”: Editors, “Remembering Pearl Harbor,” National Geographic.
“We had a first-class electrician’s mate”: Richardson, Reflections.
“The events about to be related here”: Molotsky.
“in utter disbelief and completely stunned”: Gillon.
“I ran over to my offices”: Batty.
“If it’s any satisfaction to you”: PHA.
“We saw the water channel and we turned left”: Verklan.
“I saw two objects fall from their craft,” “I was sleeping in the plotting room”: Richardson, Reflections.
“It wasn’t hard,” “The captain had a serious abdominal wound”: Naval History & Heritage Command.
“I volunteered to join the ten-hand”: Richardson, Reflections.
“Just then the USS Arizona’s”: Naval History & Heritage Command.
“Man your battle stations! This is no shit!”: Ibid.
“The ship was lifted rapidly”: Richardson, Reflections.
“the boxes containing the ready ammunition”: Ibid.
“I was about twenty meters”: Verklan.
“When a torpedo hits”: Editors, “Remembering Pearl Harbor,” National Geographic.
“I was five foot three and”: Ibid.
“the lights blackened out and”: “Trapped in a Watery Grave.”
“We had four flashlights”: Ibid.
“I helped a partially incapacitated”: Naval History & Heritage Command.
“Chaplain Schmitt pushing one person,” “Someone tried earlier”: Spiller.
“When you get out of the shower”: Editors, “Remembering Pearl Harbor,” National Geographic.
“As I treaded water”: “Trapped in a Watery Grave.”
“There’s no way you could get out”: Ibid.
“I obtained a copy of the Oklahoma”: Naval History & Heritage Command.
“orders were given”: Ibid.
“heading toward the Middle Loch”: McWilliams.
“His chin stuck out”: Michael F. Reilly as told to William J. Slocum, Reilly of the White House (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1947).
“the president thought the report”: “Memorandum: December 7, 1941,” Harry Hopkins papers, Georgetown University Library Special Collections Research Center.
“resorted to every possible measure”: Hull papers.
“The gang around today”: Ibid.
“Oh, it’s terrible!”: Prange, Dec. 7, 1941.
“we are forced to terminate negotiations,” “Our deceptive diplomacy is steadily”: French, “Pearl Harbor Truly a Sneak Attack.”
“extreme calmness,” “deadly calm”: James Roosevelt, My Parents (New York: Playboy Press, 1976).
“If any unauthorized person”: PHA.
“We’re supposed to weld”: Richardson, Reflections.
“It was just a few minutes”: Jasper et al.
“We were blown off the gun”: Wallin.
“We found the admiral’s body”: PHA.
“I stuck my head in”: Jasper et al.
“Dark gray puffs”: Fuchida and Okumiya.
“I glanced up”: Gudmens.
“A huge waterspout splashed”: McWilliams.
“Now we had given this”: Brinkley.
“a hateful, mean-looking”: Fuchida and Okumiya.
“A red fireball shot up”: Clarke.
“Ships on fire, ships burning”: Batty.
“All of the oil tanks on all of the battlewagons”: Lord.
“These people were zombies”: LaForte and Marcello.
“The most vivid recording”: Spiller.
“Arizona, I remember you”: Manchester.
“You don’t abandon ship on me”: McWilliams.
“was standing on gun turret”: Jasper et al.
“at first I thought”: Ibid.
“As I was running forward”: Naval History & Heritage Command.
“When that bomb hit”: McWilliams.
“I was about three-quarters of the way”: Naval History & Heritage Command.
“When I came up, I was gagging”: Ibid.
Chapter 8: Describing the Indescribable
“Hell, no, this is”: McWilliams.
“These Americans, when”: Larrabee.
“A warm feeling came with the realization”: Iguchi.
“While on the starboard side”: Naval History & Heritage Command.
“My God”: Ibid.
“As we crowded the shoreline”: Schmidt.
“My thoughts were to make a act of defiance”: Naval History & Heritage Command.
“All this time, our cooks had been”: Ibid.
“a ‘dog’ sandwich and beans”: pearlharborsurvivorsonline.org.
“Some of us were given new”: Ibid.
“A young man, filthy black”: Ramsey.
“Turning my attention”: Ibid.
“to get on the operational telephone”: PHA.
“I want three volunteers”: Lord.
“At 1030 took off in 6-S-1”: Historic Wings.
“This is Gatty”: Ibid.
“succeeded only in enraging me”: PHA.
“Suppose that the enemy was located”: Ibid.
“When you’re awakened suddenly”: Brinkley; Goldstein, “Kenneth Taylor.”
“We had absolutely no trouble”: Ibid.
“The deck
is now transformed”: PHA.
“Four battleships sunk”: Hara.
“Nagumo would have been”: Ibid.
“If they had destroyed the oil”: PHA.
“whose time fuses had”: Clarke.
“I was a teenager at that time”: Richardson, Reflections.
“requested and urged Martial Law”: PHA.
“You must be one kind of child”: Clarke.
“I smelled acrid smoke”: Kato.
“the conference met in”: Hopkins papers.
“My greatest fear was that”: Gillon.
“It’s quite true”: Ibid.
“To have the United States at our side was to me”: Churchill.
“the turning point,” “never in history has a people”: Stanley Weintraub, Long Day’s Journey into War: December 7, 1941 (New York: Dutton, 1991).
“The entire message”: Gillon.
“I am speaking to you”: “Eleanor Roosevelt’s Remarks: December 7, 1941,” the first lady’s weekly radio broadcast, Pan American Coffee Bureau, National Broadcasting Company, http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/q-and-a/q21-pearl-harbor-address.cfm.
“We by grace of heaven”: Bartsch.
“We just got scraps of information”: Perkins.
“My God, how did it happen?”: Alonzo Fields, My 21 Years in the White House (New York: Coward-McCann, 1961).
“that it would be necessary”: Ibid.
“There was ample opportunity,” “on the ground, by God”: Sperber.
“Hey, coxswain”: pearlharborsurvivorsonline.org.
“That afternoon of course”: Verklan.
“The only thing I could see”: Clarke.
“Oh, you hear all kinds of stories”: Lord.
“ordered to take care of”: pearlharborsurvivorsonline.org.
Chapter 9: Infamy
“I saw and heard other men”: McWilliams.
“We pulled over and stopped”: Naval History & Heritage Command.
“It was just as dark as”: Slackman.
“Two of our own .50-caliber”: Naval History & Heritage Command.
“something strange in the water”: PHA.
“had fully expected to die”: Editors, “Remembering Pearl Harbor,” National Geographic.
“Little doubt exists”: Captain Andrew Biache Jr., “Pearl Harbor: A Midget Sub in the Picture?,” Naval History Magazine, December 2004.
“It’s not impossible that they’re”: Ibid.
“our tails are up in the air”: “Record of Telephone Conversation Between Gen. Gerow, WPD, and Gen. MacArthur in Manila, P.I., About 7:00 PM,” December 7, 1941, FDR papers.