retreating Germans were harried by British mobile columns and by air attack.
Against this assault, German plans to make a stand at El Adem collapsed. Add-
ing to the pressure, South African armored car units and mobile columns of the
East Kent Regiment swinging southwestward from Tobruk attacked the enemy’s
right rear. Allied forces also captured the coastal supply point of Gambut; and in
operations north of the Bardia-Tobruk road they found 27 abandoned tanks, rais-
ing to 109 the number of German tanks captured or destroyed in the past seven
days. 10 In Russia, the Germans, having proclaimed the end of offensive operations for the winter, announced that they were withdrawing to shortened winter lines
for tactical reasons. 11
It was upon the Pacific, however, and the maelstrom of Japanese attacks there
that American eyes were focused. Early reports seemed favorable. The Army
announced that a Philippine army division had repelled Japanese attacks 180 miles
north of Manila. Indeed, the army confidently announced that the Philippine
situation was “completely in hand.” British reports sounded an equally confident
note. Under the headline “ BRITISH JOLT FOES
” it was reported that British
forces had beaten off two attacks at Hong Kong. The situation had been “stabi-
lized.” Two boatloads of Japanese attempting a landing had been sunk by British
machine-gun fire, and the rest of the party wiped out on the beach. British reports
attributed these severe losses to effective artillery fire. 12
Other reports were more ominous: that Japanese troops and parachutists had
won footholds on the Northwest Luzon coast despite the assault of Army and
Navy fliers on a six-ship troop convoy. Meanwhile, Japanese aviation in the form
of four-motor bombers levied a prolonged assault on the Manila area. Huge col-
umns of smoke were seen spiraling up from the Nichols Air Depot and big fires
were ignited at the Cavite Naval Base.
American interceptor planes rose to the defense in the four separate attacks
of the afternoon. The boom of antiaircraft guns was mixed with the rattle of
machine guns from the fighting planes. Eyewitnesses reported Japanese planes
trailing plumes of smoke and others slanting seaward, then disappearing. 13 , 14
These combats gave rise to conflicting claims. Japan boasted that it had obliter-
ated the U.S. Asiatic Fleet and in addition had smashed the main Pearl Harbor–
based forces of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. In addition to the Prince of Wales and the Repulse , Tokyo claimed the sinking of two U.S. battleships, two U.S. aircraft carriers
200 First Week at War: December 8–13, 1941
and U.S. submarines and auxiliary vessels. Certainly in the battered Battleship
Row at Pearl Harbor there was ample evidence of the destruction or the disabling
of more than two battleships. As to the destruction of the American aircraft car-
riers, however devoutly wished by the Japanese Admiralty, none had yet been
engaged in active combat. 15 Then there were persistent rumors that the German battleship Tirpitz was operating off the coast of Malaya and that German aviation had participated in the Pearl Harbor attack. 16
Of one thing there was no doubt. American casualty lists, printed daily in the
press, were lengthening. Behind each one there was a story. Once such casualty was
Louis Schleifer of Newark, New Jersey. On the Monday after the Pearl Harbor
attack, his parents received a letter from their son at his station at Hickam Field Pearl Harbor enclosing $45. “Don’t save it! Spend it!” he urged. “I might never get home
to use it.” In the next mail the family received a notification from the War Depart-
ment that their son had been killed in action during the Pearl Harbor attack. 17
The War of Nerves
On this fourth night after the Pearl Harbor attack, the mood on the U.S. West
Coast was one not simply of jitters, but of serious and well-grounded apprehension.
In Los Angeles, the Fourth Interceptor Command ordered a three-hour blackout
of southern California and part of Nevada on reports of “unidentified” planes over
the area for more than an hour. An hour later, the planes were reported heading
southward in the direction of the San Diego Naval Base. But no one heard the
sound of aircraft motors and Army and Navy searchlight crews in the vicinity
scanned the skies in vain. The alarm had been given at 8:10 p.m.; the “all clear”
was sounded at 11:08. Air-raid workers, including police, fire, air-raid wardens and
Boy Scouts, had quickly moved to their posts, patrolling the streets to order the
dousing of any remaining lights. Results were reasonably satisfactory, and Sheriff
Eugene Biscailuz announced that the blackout had been 90 percent effective. 18 , 19
On the East Coast, where 300 interceptor planes had been sent up and Army
and Navy establishments and industrial plants evacuated, Major General Herbert
A. Dargue, commanding the First Army Air Force at Mitchel Field, confirmed
that no planes indeed had been detected and Major General Francis B. Wilby,
commanding the Army First Corps area, said that U.S. planes, not properly iden-
tified, had probably been the source of the alarm. But, he saw no harm in the
incident and for the Army some good. The Army had taken the same precautions
as it would have in the case of an actual attack. 20
If the air-raid alarms had indeed been false, the blackouts were not without
casualties. Traffic accidents on darkened streets sent an unusually high number of
patients to the General Police Hospital and in Long Beach and other areas near the
harbor, more deaths had been charged to the blackout.
When reports of “enemy aircraft” overflying California cities were issued by
competent authorities, corroborative evidence was bound to spring up from all
quarters. In Washington State, two long brush fires were seen burning six miles
from Port Angeles. Police said that the fires had been shaped liked arrows pointed
Thursday, December 11, 1941 201
along the Strait of Juan de Fuca toward Puget Sound, the Bremerton Naval base
and Boeing aircraft factories. State patrolmen searched in vain for fifth columnists
who might have set the fires. “We believe that they were deliberately set and
we have several hot clues that may lead to the perpetrators.” 21 California police believed that lights had been flashed from the ground to Japanese planes making
reconnaissance flights along the California coast.
“An alert woman” who remained unidentified observed flashing lights, took
moving pictures of them and delivered them promptly to agents of the FBI, who
ran the film looking for code words and other clues. Federal agents were soon on
the ground searching the area in which the lights had been seen.
Many reported seeing flares that may or may not have been shooting stars. It
lent authenticity to the remarks of as well informed an observer as New York
Mayor La Guardia, who declared: “It has happened, it is happening, right here.” 22
If, as reported by the Houston Chronicle , America’s Pacific coast was buckled
down “in grim earnest” to intense preparations to repel any invasion, then it was
natural that any activities of Japanese or perceived Japanese would be the subject
of alarm. Thus, in S
an Francisco, a Japanese was arrested while he was taking pic-
tures in the Twin Peaks area overlooking the Golden Gate. 23
The New York Times reported an investigation of Japanese espionage on the
West Coast that had been suppressed for fear of embarrassing diplomatic rela-
tions between the United States and Japan. The report was now said to reveal
that fishing boats by the hundreds, long accustomed to operating off Los Angeles,
had been converted into minelaying craft and, what is more, equipped with high-
power radio and manned by officers of the Japanese Navy. Equally to the point,
the Japanese had photographed and charted American military and naval bases on
the mainland and on Pacific islands in great detail. These charts showed cruising
ranges of military and naval aircraft and were supplemented by photographs of
U.S. naval vessels in varied types and formations.
Japanese truck gardeners played a prominent role in producing food in the
Los Angeles area. There was a concern that their farms were located adjoining
or uncomfortably close to defense-related installations, including oil storage tank
farms, airplane factories, shipyards, and dry docks. 24 , 25 For fear that the produce from the Japanese truck farms might have been poisoned, tests were conducted
without positive results. Alien custodian officers were in the process of being
appointed to take charge of these Japanese farms. Los Angeles grocery shoppers
might be relieved to know that except for carrots, beets, and turnips, there was no
shortage of vegetables in the markets. 26
America at War: Repercussions
Although Congress had responded to hostile declarations of war one vote shy
of total unanimity, and although there was no doubt as to the overwhelming
support and indeed enthusiasm for the war that had been thrust upon America,
still there were bound to be criticisms, complaints and even outrage over the
course of events that had brought the country to its present pass. And there
202 First Week at War: December 8–13, 1941
were. Characterizing the attack on Pearl Harbor as a “disaster that’s almost
unspeakable,” New Hampshire Senator Tobey charged that it had been caused
by “dereliction and inefficiency” in the Navy. His bill of particulars was exten-
sive: warning systems had not been working; battleships were at anchor with no
steam up (although in fact the battleships had been moored to piers and not at
anchor). He called for a new naval commander, in stinging terms—a commander
who believed in efficiency rather than publicity. But when challenged by Sena-
tor Lucas of Illinois, who demanded to know the source of Tobey’s facts, Tobey
admitted he had made no effort to verify what he had been told by unidentified
sources. 27
The questions of who knew what and when about the Japanese attack surfaced
almost immediately after the event. Representative Clare Hoffman of Michigan
alleged that a dispatch from Chungking, China, published in a newspaper owned
by Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, had contained a full warning of the Japa-
nese attack. But, he said, it had been ignored. The message, he claimed, had con-
tained a warning that there might be a break with Japan over the weekend. The
correspondent garnished his article with an anecdote in which an officer of a U.S.
gunboat told him: “It’s going to happen tonight.” These questions remain the
topic of lively inquiry and discussion up to the present day. 28
In a time of tension and popular excitement, there will always be those who
take things into their own hands. The Japanese cherry trees in blossom gracing
the borders of the Tidal Basin in Potomac Park were one of the nation’s capital’s
premier springtime sights. Over Wednesday night four of these famous trees had
been cut down. Two of them had been part of the initial gift of the Japanese gov-
ernment. It was, said the Park Department, “an act of vandalism the only result
of which was the destruction of beauty in the national capital.” The Department
thought that the deed had been done by “misguided individuals, probably youths”
and it asked all residents of the city to participate in the protection of parks and
park values in a time of wartime emergency. 29
There will always be newspaper space for glamour, especially when it is
allied with royalty. In this case it was the glamorous red-headed Princess Sophie
Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingfuerst, the divorced wife of a Habsburg prince.
She had been a close friend and associate of Captain Fritz Wiedemann, formerly
German General Counsel in San Francisco and before that Adolf Hitler’s World
War I company commander. The Princess had been arrested by the FBI as a dan-
gerous alien and expelled from the country as undesirable. She was believed to be
in Mexico.
Amid these excitements the state of Georgia was on the alert. It placed its State
Defense Corps on active duty and dispatched an unspecified number of units to
undisclosed destinations throughout the state. Once more it was at locations from
the Rabun Gap to Tybee Light that the Corps was scattered. The Georgia Corps
would operate in close coordination with General Omar N. Bradley at Fort Ben-
ning, who had requested the Corps’ transfer to active duty. 30 A trial blackout the next week by the Georgia Defense Corps could relieve the Army of significant
responsibilities.
Thursday, December 11, 1941 203
There were echoes of the past in a letter to the President from General of the
Armies John J. Pershing, who had commanded American troops in the War of
1917–18, the results of which lay at the roots of the present conflict. The General
wrote:
Dear Mr. President: All Americans today are unified in one ambition—to
take whatever share they can in the defense of our country.
As one of those millions, I hasten to offer my services in any way in
which my experience and my strength to the last ounce will be of help in
this fight.
In supreme confidence that under your calm and determined leadership
we will retain our balance despite foul blows.
I am faithfully yours,
John J. Pershing 31
The President’s stately response showed that he was well grounded in the cour-
tesies of high office. He wrote to Pershing:
You are magnificent. You always have been and you always will be. I am
deeply grateful for your letter of December 10.
Under a wise law, you have never been placed on the retired list. You
are very much on the active list and your services will be of great value.
Always sincerely,
Franklin D. Roosevelt 32
There was a footnote to this exchange. John W. Smallwood had been Persh-
ing’s chauffeur in France and sought to reenlist. He passed the physical examina-
tion but was far in excess of the thirty-five-year age limit.
Ardent recruits came from all stations of life. Bob Feller, twenty-three, Cleve-
land’s top pitcher and a future Hall of Famer, was sworn into the Navy as a Chief
Boatswain’s Mate by former world heavyweight champion Gene Tunney. “He
wants to be where the action is,” Tunney said. 33
In Salem, Oregon, Clare Jarvis, forty-six, was shown ta
king his physical exami-
nation. He had served in the Navy during the World War as a Chief Pharmacist’s
Mate. He was joining the Navy, again, to serve with his son, Clare Jarvis, Jr., a
navy petty officer first class who was home on leave at the time.
There were those who had stood against war and participation in it out of a
deeply held principle. In the rush to war, they had been left stranded by the ebb-
ing tide of pacifism. In New York the Fellowship of Reconciliation adopted a
resolution:
The fact that our beloved country has been drawn openly and fully into
war does not alter our own opposition to all war and our refusal, insofar
as we are free to determine our own course, to take any part in war
measures. 34
204 First Week at War: December 8–13, 1941
Members of the Fellowship, it said, would do nothing to sabotage or obstruct
those who were performing duties that they regarded as a patriotic obligation. A
far better way, the statement said, was nonviolence and reconciliation; but it did
not venture to propose how reconciliation and nonviolence would be achieved
with those who had levied the attack of December 7 and their Nazi and Fascist
partners. The Fellowship was on sounder ground in stating that it could not rec-
ognize the right of any man to silence the preaching of any faith rooted in the
great Jewish-Christian prophetic tradition. 35
On the opposite side of the continent, in Portland, Oregon, local chapters of
the America First Committee and the Ministers’ No War Committee were dis-
banded. The America First Committee had claimed a membership numbering
in the thousands; while the No War Committee counted twenty-five ministerial
members. But Dr. Paul Cotton, chairman of both groups, observed that their
purpose had been to prevent war, and that there would be no point to meetings
during war. But Dr. Cotton did not go quietly into the night.
I believe that the principles of the America First Committee have been
vindicated by recent events. We have built our organization upon the plat-
form of ‘defend America’ and we have opposed sending our vital war
equipment to Britain and Russia; and if the administration had followed
our program many of our boys killed in action might be alive today. 36
Crucible of a Generation Page 32