December 1941

by Craig Shirley

  161. Associated Press, “Germany May Declare War at Any Moment,” Boston Evening Globe, December 1, 1941, 1.

  162. Associated Press, “Reichstag May Meet Tomorrow to Hear Stand on New War,” Washington Evening Star, December 9, 1941, A3.

  CHAPTER 10: THE TENTH OF DECEMBER

  1. Ruth Cowan, “Roosevelt Shows Little Effect of Strain in Directing War,” Evening Star, December 10, 1941, A3.

  2. Ruth Cowan, “Roosevelt Shows Little Effect of Strain in Directing War,” Evening Star, December 10, 1941, A3.

  3. David Brinkley, Washington Goes to War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988), 105.

  4. Ruth Cowan, “Roosevelt Shows Little Effect of Strain in Directing War,” Evening Star, December 10, 1941, A3.

  5. David Brinkley, Washington Goes to War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988), 252.

  6. Evening Star, “President Defines Duties and Curbs on Resident Aliens,” December 9, 1941, 2X.

  7. Evening Star, “President Defines Duties and Curbs on Resident Aliens,” December 9, 1941, 2X.

  8. Baltimore Sun, “Full Navy Department Shakeup Demanded as Result of Hawaii Defeat,” December 10, 1941, 2.

  9. J. Edgar Hoover, “J. Edgar Hoover to Edwin M. Watson,” December 10, 1941, Federal Bureau of Investigation, President’s Official File 10-B: Justice Department; FBI Reports, 1941; Box 15, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, NY, 1.

  10. Henry N. Dorris, “Senate, House Groups Vote Bills to Keep All in Service During War,” New York Times, December 10, 1941, 1.

  11. Evening Star, “U.S. Control of All Radio Authorized,” December 10, 1941, A-1.

  12. Frank L. Kluckhohn, “Army, Navy Get Control of Radio,” New York Times, December 11, 1941, 3.

  13. Evening Star, “Gen. Pershing, 81, Offers Services to President,” December 10, 1941, A1.

  14. Associated Press, “President’s Power Greatly Enlarged,” New York Times, December 9, 1941, 7.

  15. Associated Press, “President’s Power Greatly Enlarged,” New York Times, December 9, 1941, 7.

  16. Associated Press, “President’s Power Greatly Enlarged,” New York Times, December 9, 1941, 7.

  17. John C. Henry, “Roosevelt Summons State and Military Leaders to Parley,” Evening Star, December 10, 1941, A1.

  18. John C. Henry, “Roosevelt Summons State and Military Leaders to Parley,” Evening Star, December 10, 1941, A1.

  19. Associated Press, “Real Teeth in Price-Control Bill Urged,” Boston Daily Globe, December 10, 1941, 19.

  20. Birmingham (AL) News, “Strict Censorship Is on But Feverish Activity Is Apparent,” December 9, 1941, 14.

  21. Associated Press, “Alien Enemies in U.S. Under Rigid Rules,” Boston Daily Globe, December 10, 1941, 19.

  22. Lawrence E. Davies, “Carrier Is Hunted off San Francisco,” New York Times, December 10, 1941, 20.

  23. Associated Press, “Hawaii Calm Since Blitzkrieg, Governor Says; Food Control Planned to Conserve Supplies,” New York Times, December 9, 1941, 13.

  24. Associated Press, “Seek Exchange of American for Japanese,” Boston Evening Globe, December 9, 1941, 3.

  25. United Press, “Japan to Protect Enemy Nationals,” New York Times, December 9, 1941, 15.

  26. Associated Press, “Americans, Britons Rounded Up,” New York Times, December 9, 1941, 15.

  27. Associated Press, “U.S. Warships in Battle off Manila, Berlin Says,” Baltimore Sun, December 10, 1941, 1.

  28. Associated Press, “Superior Knowledge of Languages Seen as Aid to Japan,” Evening Star, December 10, 1941, A15.

  29. C.P. Trussell, “Navy Criticized as Caught Asleep,” New York Times, December, 10, 1941, 1.

  30. C.P. Trussell, “Navy Criticized as Caught Asleep,” New York Times, December, 10, 1941, 1.

  31. Associated Press, “Wheeler Calls for Support of Roosevelt,” Boston Daily Globe, December 8, 1941, 11.

  32. Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1950), 652–655.

  33. Walter Robb, “Clique Pushed Japan Into War, Says Writer,” Los Angeles Times, December 8, 1941, 4.

  34. Glenn Babb, “Japanese Run True to Form—Striking at U.S. Without Warning,” Birmingham News, December 9, 1941, 13.

  35. Glenn Babb, “Japanese Run True to Form—Striking at U.S. Without Warning,” Birmingham News, December 9, 1941, 13.

  36. Boston Daily Globe, “Madness Infects Japanese, President of Tufts Asserts,” December 9, 1941, 7.

  37. Christian Science Monitor, “U.S. Navy Suffers a ‘Scapa Flow’; Allies Quick to Declare War on Japan,” December 11, 1941, C1.

  38. Carroll Kilpatrick, “Army Does Not Plan Expeditionary Force Against Japs at Once,” Birmingham News, December 9, 1941, 14.

  39. Carroll Kilpatrick, “Army Does Not Plan Expeditionary Force Against Japs at Once,” Birmingham News, December 9, 1941, 14.

  40. Helen Lombard, “Admiral Leahy’s Warning on Japan Recalled, Wanted to ‘Clean Up’ After Panay Was Sunk,” Washington Evening Star, A5.

  41. David Lawrence, “U.S. Learns, Lesson in Attack,” Evening Star, December 9, 1941, A11.

  42. Jay G. Hayden, “U.S. Navy Caught off Guard,” Evening Star, December 9, 1941, A11.

  43. Associated Press, “Preparedness of Defenses Is Questioned: Capital Hears Queries About Functions of Hawaii Off-Shore Patrol,” Baltimore Sun, December 9, 1941, 1.

  44. Baltimore Sun, “Full Navy Department Shakedown Demanded as Result of Hawaii Defeat,” December 10, 1941, 2.

  45. Baltimore Sun, “Full Navy Department Shakedown Demanded as Result of Hawaii Defeat,” December 10, 1941, 2.

  46. Baltimore Sun, “Full Navy Department Shakedown Demanded as Result of Hawaii Defeat,” December 10, 1941, 2.

  47. Jack Bell, “Hitler Promised to Aid Japs, Says Senator Gillette,” Evening Independent, December 9, 1941, 1.

  48. Husband E. Kimmel, “Admiral Kimmel’s Story,” (Chicago, IL, Henry Regnery Company, 1955) 32.

  49. Husband E. Kimmel, “Admiral Kimmel’s Story,” (Chicago, IL, Henry Regnery Company, 1955) 2.

  50. Washington Post, “Strategy at Hawaii,” December 8, 1941, 12.

  51. New York Times, “The Rendezvous with Destiny,” December 12, 1941, C24.

  52. New York Times, “Drastic Control Marks War News,” December 9, 1941, 7.

  53. Associated Press, “Raid Manila; Seize Guam Call Hawaii Loss ‘Disaster’,” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 9, 1941, 1.

  54. Associated Press, “60 Years Later, Pearl Harbor Pilots Recall Attack,” Mount Airy News, December 6, 2001, 8A.

  55. Washington Post, “Strategy at Hawaii,” December 8, 1941, 12.

  56. Washington Post, “Strategy at Hawaii,” December 8, 1941, 12.

  57. Associated Press, “Reports Plane Mother Ship Sunk,” December 9, 1941, 13.

  58. New York Times, “Large U.S. Losses Claimed By Japan,” December 9, 1941, 1.

  59. Winston Churchill, “The Grand Alliance.” (New York, NY, Rosetta Books, 1948), 551.

  60. New York Times, “Japan Says Allies Are Broken at Sea,” December 11, 1941, 1.

  61. New York Times, “Japan Says Allies Are Broken at Sea,” December 11, 1941, 1.

  62. F. Tillman Durdin, “Japanese Ashore in Force in Malaya,” New York Times, December 10, 1941, 1.

  63. Associated Press, “Britain and Japan Hurl Reinforcements Into Malayan Jungle Battle,” Baltimore Sun, December 10, 1941, 4.

  64. Associated Press, “Heroism in Philippines,” Baltimore Sun, December 10, 1941, 4.

  65. Associated Press, “Tokyo Claims Seizure of 200 Merchantmen,” Baltimore Sun, December 10, 1941, 4.

  66. Associated Press, “Tokyo Claims Seizure of 200 Merchantmen,” Baltimore Sun, December 10, 1941, 4.

  67. Associated Press, “Tokyo Claims Seizure of 200 Merchantmen,” Baltimore Sun, December 10, 1941, 4.

  68. Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum,“Halifax to FDR Letter Regar
ding Military Situation: Military Report from London, December 10, 1941,” December 12, 1941, Hyde Park, NY.

  69. Associated Press Wire Photo, “Casualty Error,” Evening Star, December 10, 1941, A2.

  70. New York Times “2 False Air ‘Raids’ Upset New Yorkers,” December 10, 1941, 1.

  71. New York Times, “Blackout Ordered for Capitol Dome,” December 10, 1941, 18.

  72. International News Service, “The Presidents Day,” Washington Post, December 11, 1941, 2.

  73. New York Times, “The President’s Address,” December 10, 1941, 1.

  74. New York Times, “The President’s Address,” December 10, 1941, 1.

  75. New York Times, “The President’s Address,” December 10, 1941, 1.

  76. New York Times, “The President’s Address,” December 10, 1941, 1.

  77. New York Times, “The President’s Address,” December 10, 1941, 1.

  78. New York Times, “The President’s Address,” December 10, 1941, 1.

  79. New York Times, “The President’s Address,” December 10, 1941, 1.

  80. International News Service, “The Presidents Day,” Washington Post, December 11, 1941, 2.

  81. International News Service, “The Presidents Day,” Washington Post, December 11, 1941, 2.

  82. Associated Press, “New Air Raid Alarm Sounded in New York After 2 False Scares,” Evening Star, December 10, 1941, A2.

  83. Associated Press, “New Air Raid Alarm Sounded in New York After 2 False Scares,” Evening Star, December 10, 1941, A2.

  84. Associated Press, “New Air Raid Alarm Sounded in New York After 2 False Scares,” Evening Star, December 10, 1941, A2.

  85. Thomas R. Henry, “Innocent Inquiry ‘Alerts’ Northeast Seaboard,” Evening Star, December 10, 1941, B1.

  86. Lawrence R. Davies, “Carrier Is Hunted off San Francisco,” New York Times, December 10, 1941, 20.

  87. Lawrence R. Davies, “Carrier Is Hunted off San Francisco,” New York Times, December 10, 1941, 20.

  88. New York Times, “The Day in Washington,” December 10, 1941, 7.

  89. C. P. Trussell, “Navy Criticized as Caught Asleep,” New York Times, December 10, 1941, 1.

  90. C.P. Trussell, “Navy Criticized as Caught Asleep,” New York Times, December 10, 1941, 1.

  91. Associated Press, “Senate Committees Refuse to Question Defense Strategy,” Washington Evening Star, December 10, 1941, A-5.

  92. Paul W. Ward, “Navy and Army Criticized For Hawaii Defeat,” Baltimore Sun, December 10, 1941, 3.

  93. C.P. Trussell, “Navy Criticized as Caught Asleep,” New York Times, December 10, 1941, 1.

  94. New York Times, “Arrests of 12,850 Revealed in Vichy,” December 10, 1941, 7.

  95. New York Times, “Arrests of 12,850 Revealed in Vichy,” December 10, 1941, 7.

  96. New York Times, “Arrests of 12,850 Revealed in Vichy,” December 10, 1941, 7.

  97. Associated Press, “Germany Cuts Off Press Relations with America,” Washington Evening Star, December 10, 1941, A-1.

  98. New York Times, “Enlistments Rise to New Highs Here,” December 10, 1941, 22.

  99. Associated Press, “Bulletins: Report U.S. Burning Papers,” Hartford (CT) Courant, December 10, 1941, 1.

  CHAPTER 11: THE ELEVENTH OF DECEMBER

  1. Associated Press, “Germany and Italy Declare War on U.S. and Sign New Axis Alliance,” Washington Evening Star, December 11, 1941, A1.

  2. Associated Press, “Dictators Give Views on Conflict,” Kingsport (TN) Times, December 11, 1941, 1.

  3. Associated Press, “Dictators Give Views on Conflict,” Kingsport (TN) Times, December 11, 1941, 1.

  4. Associated Press, “Dictators Give Views On Conflict,” Kingsport (TN) Times, December 11, 1941, 1.

  5. Associated Press, “Mussolini War Statement,” New York Times, December 12, 1941, 4.

  6. Associated Press, “Dictators Give Views on Conflict,” Kingsport (TN) Times, December 11, 1941, 1.

  7. Associated Press, “How Hitler Declared War on U.S.,” Christian Science Monitor, December 11, 1941, 10.

  8. Associated Press, “How Hitler Declared War on U.S.,” Christian Science Monitor, December 11, 1941, 10.

  9. Associated Press, “Germany and Italy Declare War on U.S. and Sign New Axis Alliance,” Washington Evening Star, December 11, 1941, A1.

  10. Michael Barone, Our Country: The Shaping of America from Roosevelt to Reagan (New York: Free Press, 1990), 145.

  11. Brett Gary, The Nervous Liberals: Propaganda Anxieties from World War I to the Cold War (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1999), 301.

  12. Washington Evening Star, “Axis Envoys Notifying U.S. of War Received By Under-Officials,” December 11, 1941, A2.

  13. Bertram D. Hulen, “Hull Very Frigid to Visiting Envoys,” New York Times, December 12, 1941, 3.

  14. Washington Evening Star, “Axis Envoys Notifying U.S. of War Received By Under-Officials,” December 11, 1941, A2.

  15. Associated Press, “Germany and Italy Declare War on U.S. and Sign New Axis Alliance,” Washington Evening Star, December 11, 1941, A1.

  16. New York Times, “Charges in German Note,” December 12, 1941, 5.

  17. Associated Press, “Sequence of Nazi Aggression Leading to Break With U.S.,” Christian Science Monitor, December 11, 1941, 6.

  18. New York Times, “Submarine Warfare,” February 20, 1940, 18.

  19. Washington Evening Star, “Axis Envoys Notifying U.S. of War Received By Under-Officials,” December 11, 1941, A2.

  20. Washington Evening Star, “Italian and German Embassies Are Calm at War Declaration,” December 11, 1941, A3.

  21. New York Times, “Our Declaration of War,” December 12, 1941, 1.

  22. New York Times, “City Calm and Grim as the War Widens,” December 12, 1941, 1.

  23. Frank L. Kluckhohn, “War Opened On Us,” New York Times, December 12, 1941, 1.

  24. Associated Press, “Miss Rankin Voted ‘Present’ in Weak Voice; Clerk Had to Call Her Name a Second Time,” New York Times, December 12, 1941, 6.

  25. Chicago Daily Tribune, “Montana G. O. P. Head Demands Rep. Rankin Change Vote on War,” December 9, 1941, 4.

  26. Robert C. Albright, “Declaration Laid On President’s Desk Three Hours After Two Houses Meet,” Washington Post, December 12, 1941, 1.

  27. Associated Press, “U.S. Troops Released for War Abroad,” Kingsport (TN) Times, December 11, 1941, 1.

  28. Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen, “Washington Merry-Go-Round,” Kingsport (TN) Times, December 11, 1941, 4.

  29. Associated Press, “Grim-Visaged F.D.R. Signs War Papers,” Atlanta Constitution, December 12, 1941, 6.

  30. Associated Press, “Proof Democracy Can Move Swiftly,” Atlanta Constitution, December 12, 1941, 6.

  31. Associated Press, “U. S. Answers Axis Challenge, Declares War,” Atlanta Constitution, December 12, 1941, 1.

  32. Associated Press, “U.S. Troops Released for War Abroad,” Kingsport (TN) Times, December 11, 1941, 1.

  33. Associated Press, “Tobey Renews Demands for Navy Inquiry,” Washington Evening Star, December 11, 1941, A1.

  34. Associated Press, “Tobey Renews Demands for Navy Inquiry,” Washington Evening Star, December 11, 1941, A1.

  35. Associated Press, “Senators of Both Parties Demand Investigation of Hawaii Attack,” Kingsport (TN) Times, December 11, 1941, 4.

  36. Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen, “Washington Merry-Go-Round,” Kingsport (TN) Times, December 11, 1941, 4.

  37. New York Times, “Silent Galleries Watch War Vote,” December 12, 1941, 5.

  38. Washington Evening Star, “Roosevelt Accepts Offer of Parties to Drop Politics,” December 1, 1941, A9.

  39. Associated Press, “Democrats and Republicans Adjourn Domestic Politics,” Los Angeles Times, December 11, 1941, 17.

  40. Associated Press, “Japs May Have Timed Attack By U.S. Army’s Down Patrol,” Washington Evening Star, December 11, 1941, A8.

>   41. Gordon W. Prange, At Dawn We Slept (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981), 70–77.

  42. New York Times, “Stimson Asks Time for Facts on Hawaii,” December 12, 1941, 11.

  43. George Fielding Eliot, “Bomb Hits of Japanese Hint New Device Used,” Los Angeles Times, December 11, 1941, 5.

  44. Washington Post, “Suicide Pilots’ Dove Straight Into Ships, U.S. Officers Think,” December 11, 1941, 1.

  45. Washington Post, “Congressmen Halt Hawaiian Investigation,” December 11, 1941, 26.

  46. Charles Hurd, “U.S. Fliers Score,” New York Times, December 12, 1941, 1.

  47. Associated Press, “Churchill Expects U.S. Losses to Cut Help for Britain,” Washington Evening Star, December 11, 1941, A2.

  48. Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1950), 620.

  49. Associated Press, “130 Officers Saved With 2,200 Men from Wales and Repulse,” Washington Evening Star, December 11, 1941, A3.

  50. Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1950), 590.

  51. Canadian Press, “British-U.S. Navies Still Superior To Joint Axis Fleets,” Lethbridge Herald (Alberta, Canada), December 11, 1941, 1.

  52. Associated Press, “Brown of CBS, Rescued from Sea,” Atlanta Constitution, December 11, 1941, 1.

  53. O. D. Gallagher, International News Service, “Repulse Survivor Walked Down to Sea as on Sloping Sidewalk,” Atlanta Constitution, December 11, 1941, 1.

  54. New York Times, “The Admiralty’s Christmas Card of Good Cheer Becomes a Message of Sorrow,” December 11, 1941, 7.

  55. Washington Evening Star, “Officials Consider Air Raid Shelters for Washington,” December 11, 1941, A1.

  56. Associated Press, “Capitol Hums with War Activity; One Senator Blocks FDR Bill,” Atlanta Constitution, December 11, 1941, 2.

  57. Washington Post, “Navy to Clean Up Merchant Marine,” December 11, 1941, 7.

  58. Associated Press, “Late War Bulletins,” Washington Evening Star, December 11, 1941, A1.

  59. Alfred Friendly, “U.S. Bans Tire Sales; Will Seize All Imports,” Washington Post, December 11, 1941, 1.

  60. Alfred Friendly, “U.S. Bans Tire Sales; Will Seize All Imports,” Washington Post, December 11, 1941, 1.

  61. Associated Press, “Capitol Hums with War Activity; One Senator Blocks FDR Bill,” Atlanta Constitution, December 11, 1941, 2.