The Attack on Pearl Harbor - December 7, 1941

[jamespowers]

Im just back from Hawaii. Sunday morning, I went to the Arizona Memorial to pay my respects. Its still quite a moving place, but there are extensive renovations under way. Even the large ship's anchor displayed at the entrance was gone. I suppose the area is being overhauled before the 70th anniversary.

Its sad to see so few survivors at Pearl. Back in 2001, they packed the area. It was wonderful to see them & hear their stories. And it was especially poignant to see the old servicemen bonding with the 9/11 survivors.
But we all knew they were elderly & soon wouldnt be able to make the long trip anymore.
I hope one day the military will be able to stop the Arizona's oil supply from bleeding into the harbor.

Thank Elvis for that Memorial in the first place. Around 1959 they had plans for the memorial but no money to build it. In comes Colonel Tom Parker, offering the commision his help by staging an Elvis concert as a benefit for the project.
Elvis' benefit would raise nearly $65,000 for the memorial building fund. All proceeds went directly to the project, without anything held for expenses. Even the Colonel and Elvis ($100) had to buy a ticket to get into the show!
Here is the story and the reason for the renovations:

By JOHN HUNNEMAN - hunneman@californian.com | Posted: Saturday, December 5, 2009 6:00 pm | No Comments Posted

Font Sizeefault font sizeLarger font sizeGood Sunday morning to you. A quick breakfast and then it's off to find the perfect tree.

With about 1.5 million visitors annually, the USS Arizona Memorial is one of the most visited sites operated by the National Park Service and a must-see destination for visitors to Hawaii.

Few of them are likely to be aware of the role Elvis Presley played in getting the memorial built.

On Monday, the annual ceremony will be held at a site to commemorate the Dec. 7, 1941, attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, 68 years before, when more than 2,400 people were killed.

The memorial, which honors all who died at Pearl Harbor that day, came close to not being built.

After World War II, there was talk of building a monument near the ship's submerged hull. However, for most of the 1950s, little was done. Some proposed scrapping what remained of the ship, still stuck in Pearl Harbor's muddy bottom.

In 1958, President Eisenhower authorized the creation of the memorial to be built with $500,000 of private money.

For several years, fundraising efforts floundered.

Finally, the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper sent out letters to other publications appealing to them to write editorials in support of the memorial.

Elvis Presley's manager, Col. Tom Parker, read one of those editorials in the Los Angeles Examiner. Presley ---- who had just gotten out of the U.S. Army ---- and Parker were scheduled to go to Hawaii to shoot a movie.

A fundraising concert ---- Presley's first performance since leaving the military ---- was planned at Bloch Arena, near Pearl Harbor, to help the fundraising effort.

The concert was held March 25, 1961, and all proceeds ---- Elvis performed for free ---- went toward the memorial. More than $60,000 was raised.

Though government money would be needed to finish the memorial, Presley's concert brought both cash and a greater awareness to the project.

The memorial was completed in 1962.

Now another fundraising effort at the memorial is near completion.

The USS Arizona visitor center at the memorial, built on a landfill in 1980, was slowly sinking for years. Last year, construction began on a new $58 million visitor and education center near the site.

Phase 1 of the two-phase project will open in February.

"We're right on schedule," Laurie Moore, public relations director for the Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund, told me this week. "The entire project is expected to be dedicated on Dec. 7, 2010."

The center is being built with a combination of public and private money.

"Fundraising has been pretty challenging," Moore said. "We still have to raise about $2.8 million."

You probably won't get to see Elvis ---- who knows, maybe you will ---- but if you want to contribute, log on to www.pearlharbormemorial.com.

 

[Forgotten Man]

I hope one day the military will be able to stop the Arizona's oil supply from bleeding into the harbor.

Only way is to get the whole ship out of there.

Fact is, only drops escape from the Arizona, and so does some air. I was speaking with one of the vets there and he said it's amazing to still see air and some oil raise from the ship 60+ years after the attack. The amount of oil isn't going to endanger the harbor, and it's also a grave for all the sailors who dided that morning and who are entombed in her.

 

[Story]

US pilot who dismissed Pearl Harbor reports dies
Feb 25, 3:46 PM EST


SAN DIEGO (AP) -- An American pilot who dismissed initial reports of what turned out to be the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has died at age 96.

Kermit Tyler was the Army Air Forces' first lieutenant on temporary duty at Ft. Shafter's radar information center in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, when two privates reporting seeing an unusually large blip on their radar screen, indicating a large number of aircraft about 132 miles away and fast approaching.

"Don't worry about it," Tyler famously replied, thinking it was a flight of U.S. B-17 bombers that was due in from the mainland.

The aircraft were the first wave of more than 180 Japanese fighters, torpedo bombers, dive bombers and horizontal bombers whose surprise attack on Pearl Harbor shortly before 8 a.m. plunged the United States into World War II.

Many questioned his decision for years, and the 1970 movie "Tora! Tora! Tora!" portrayed him in an unflattering light. Audiences watching a documentary at the Pearl Harbor Visitors Center theater still groan when they hear Tyler's response to the radar report.

Daniel Martinez, Pearl Harbor historian for the National Park Service, said Tyler's role was misunderstood and that congressional committees and military inquiries that looked into what happened at Pearl Harbor did not find him at fault. He said a flight of B-17s flying in from Hamilton Field north of San Francisco was indeed due to land at Hickam Field.

"Kermit Tyler took the brunt of the criticism, but that was practically his first night on the job, and he was told that if music was playing on the radio all night, it meant the B-17s were coming in," Martinez said

The music played all night so the B-17 pilots could home in on the signal, and when he heard the music as he was driving to work, Tyler figured the aircraft would be coming in soon.

"I wake up at nights sometimes and think about it," Tyler said in a 2007 interview with the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. "But I don't feel guilty. I did all I could that morning."

Tyler, who suffered two strokes within the last two years, died Jan. 23 at his home in San Diego, said his daughter Julie Jones.

After Pearl Harbor, Tyler flew combat missions in the Pacific. He retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel in 1961, launched a career in real estate, and was a landlord.

Tyler is survived by three children. He was preceded in death by his wife, Marian, and a son.

 

[MisterCairo]

Only way is to get the whole ship out of there.

Fact is, only drops escape from the Arizona, and so does some air. I was speaking with one of the vets there and he said it's amazing to still see air and some oil raise from the ship 60+ years after the attack. The amount of oil isn't going to endanger the harbor, and it's also a grave for all the sailors who dided that morning and who are entombed in her.

While serving on exercise at Pearl Harbour in 2008 (RIMPAC), I visited the memorial. It is said that the tiny amount of oil that leaks each year, less than four litres each year, is regarded by many as the Arizona "bleeding". It is a miniscule amount, and given the runoff from roads each year, essentially a non-issue environmentally speaking.

Leave her be I say.....

 

[Story]

http://www.militarytrader.com/article/wwii-sailor-returned-for-burial/

June 17, 2010

An 18-year-old World War II sailor from the Upper Penninsula of Michigan, whose remains were identified by DNA matching samples found on letters he mailed home, was finally laid to rest last Saturday.

 

[jamespowers]

http://www.militarytrader.com/article/wwii-sailor-returned-for-burial/

June 17, 2010

An 18-year-old World War II sailor from the Upper Penninsula of Michigan, whose remains were identified by DNA matching samples found on letters he mailed home, was finally laid to rest last Saturday.

Welcome home U.S. Navy Fireman 3rd Class Gerald G. Lehman. Thank you for your service sir.

 

[Chas]

The attack on PH gets my vote as the "Most Bone-Headed" move in military history. The Japanese were in no condition or position to take on half the world.

 

[Chasseur]

My grandfather was a cook on the USS Avocet, a mine sweeper and then seaplane tender the morning of the attack. He never said much about it but talked about the ammount of AA fire they put to shot down the Japanese planes and also how terribble it was when the Arizona went down.

Here's a picture that I have on my office wall:

 

[Silver Dollar]

The attack on PH gets my vote as the "Most Bone-Headed" move in military history. The Japanese were in no condition or position to take on half the world.

You're right about that. I believe it was a matter of ego. Yamamoto knew they screwed up right off the bat. They figured that we would just lay down and stay out of their affairs. Then they would "conquer " all of Asia and be the elite nationality.

 

[Chas]

Consider that the Japanese were intending to control a vast empire over hundreds of thousands of square miles, against the combined might of the two largest navies in the world. They suffered considerable economic and political strife during the 1930's, including famine.

All of their strategic planning was made on assumptions. Assumptions that the Chinese would cave in after the occupation of their major cities (proved very wrong), assumptions that the Asian countries would fall in behind Japan in the formation of the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" ("hey, we're superior by virtue of being Japanese, so of course they will!"), and the assumption that the Allies would fight the kind of battle that would be favorable to the Japanese; i.e. a Mahan doctrine contest in which there is a single decisive contest at sea. Never mind that the era of the big-gun battleship was over, and at the outset their carrier forces were roughly at par, with the advantage in aircraft design and aircrew quality going clearly to the Japanese. Not enough of an advantage, if the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway were to show. After the Solomons Campaign, it was clear that the IJN air arm was finished, and I think that they commissioned 4 large carriers in the following years. The USN, on the other hand, commissioned 24 Essex Class carriers, all of which carried twice the complement of a/c that their Japanese counterparts could. USN carriers as well were far harder to sink, owing to their vastly superior damage control capabilities.

The internecine conflict and rivalry between the IJN and the IJA made the Germans look like the masters of inter-service cooperations, to boot. They had completely separate agendas, logistics, research and development and intelligence arms. They were frequently at loggerheads with each other; insane.

Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but I believe that Toshikozu Kase, an assistant to Foreign Minister Shigemitsu who signed the articles of surrender aboard USS Missouri said "looking around, I could see the uniforms of many nations. At that point, I wondered how it could be possible that anyone could believe that Japan by itself could defeat all those nations."

Short answer? Hubris and racism.

 

[Silver Dollar]

That's fantastic info, Chas. It was definitely the world according to the Empire of the Sun. Talk about a reality check. It's like the kid who wonders why he gets so badly stung when he puts a stick through a hornets' nest figuring they would fly away in fear.

 

[Chas]

I found this article out; that the US Senate has rehabilitated the reputations of Admirals Kimmel and Short. I'm still not convinced that that they were not at least partly at fault, however, and they could have taken more proactive measures to secure the safety of their commands. There was a general sense that war was coming, and the carriers were out on training and deployment missions. No reason why the BB's could'nt have been "on exercises".

On Dec. 6th, Roosevelt and the War Dept. knew that an attack was imminent, but they didn't know the precise target. The Pearl Harbor command was not warned until the morning of the 7th. They could have put to sea on the evening of the 6th, when Washington knew about the attack from the compromised Japanese diplomatic codes, but they weren't.

So Kimmel and Short were scapegoated, which isn't fair.

 

[Silver Dollar]

It definitely was not fair to them. One of the theories I had heard about was that Roosevelt was itching to get into the fight with both Japan and Germany but couldn't do it outright. By putting all the aircraft and ships packed so close together, the destruction was sure to be devastating but just enough to be able to retaliate right away. I honestly don't know if this is true. [huh]

 

[Stearmen]

Roosevelt's Navy

It definitely was not fair to them. One of the theories I had heard about was that Roosevelt was itching to get into the fight with both Japan and Germany but couldn't do it outright. By putting all the aircraft and ships packed so close together, the destruction was sure to be devastating but just enough to be able to retaliate right away. I honestly don't know if this is true. [huh]

The fleet had been on maneuvers the previous two weekends, Admiral Kimmel decided they should have a rest even though Washington advised against it. Roosevelt did not know, the Navy was his baby and he would not sacrifice his Ships that he lobbied so hard to get over a 20 plus year career! Same bunk as the 9/11 Truthers! There have been lots of war games on what would happen if the fleet was out, one result would have been the destruction of the dry docks, which saved us at Midway, when the USS Yorktown was able to be repaired with out going back to the main land, with out the Yorktown we may have lost.

 

[Chas]

The fleet had been on maneuvers the previous two weekends, Admiral Kimmel decided they should have a rest even though Washington advised against it. Roosevelt did not know, the Navy was his baby and he would not sacrifice his Ships that he lobbied so hard to get over a 20 plus year career! Same bunk as the 9/11 Truthers! There have been lots of war games on what would happen if the fleet was out, one result would have been the destruction of the dry docks, which saved us at Midway, when the USS Yorktown was able to be repaired with out going back to the main land, with out the Yorktown we may have lost.

That is one thing I had not considered, thanks for pointing that out- I had read that before, so, yes, I can see that. However, if Kimmel ordered the fleet out then it would probably have been merely tired instead of burning and sitting on the bottom of Pearl Harbor had he done so. All of this is academic, of course. He didn't.

One thing that always puzzled me, though, was why the Japanese paid no attention in the attack to either the drydocks or the fuel stores. Both put together were probably more valuable assets than the old BB's in the harbor.

It's actually a fortunate thing that the old BB's were cooked at PH, if you stop to think of it. The USN was forced to rely on it's carrier forces, which was the real deal in the Pacific War. It also allowed the US to concentrate on building newer, sexier BB's and to rely on the submarines to carry the fight to the IJN, at least in the interim. Fortunately for us Nimitz was an old submariner himself, so he had confidence in that particular arm of the USN.

 

[Diamondback]

Actually, there were only 17 Essexes/Ticonderogas (8' stretch for extra AA) commissioned before VJ, but also 9 Independence CVL's and a swarm of merchie-hull escort carriers.

Your point still stands: Japan was doomed by their very decision to go to war--at the time, the US had 40% of the entire world's military-industrial potential, which once mobilized could drown any other country except maybe the USSR in a steel tsunami as long as political will and population demographics (i.e., sufficient men of combat age available) held out long enough.

 

[Chas]

Thanks for the correction. 17 Essex/Ticonderogas with capacities of 80-90 a/c each, compared to:

Taiho (65 a/c)
Hiyō (56 a/c)
Unryu (65 a/c)
Amagi (65 a/c)
Katsuragi (65 a/c)
Junyo (53 a/c)

Not an even match at all. Combine that with the leap forward in the quality of USN air crew and aircraft design, matched against the stagnation in Japanese a/c design and a precipitous drop in pilot quality in the IJN fleet air arm.

 

[Diamondback]

Actually, some Essexes went up over 100 AC, Essex herself briefly to 150 around January '45.

Which only underscores the point.

Sorry, we've been having a shouting match about this over on a WWII miniatures board I mod and the Lusers forced me to break out the Clue-Bats again today.

 

[Stearmen]

One thing that always puzzled me, though, was why the Japanese paid no attention in the attack to either the drydocks or the fuel stores. Both put together were probably more valuable assets than the old BB's in the harbor.

They did go after the oil depot, but fortunately it had been misidentified, so they bombed the wrong target, one of the few mistakes by the lone Japanese spy. The dry docks were suppose to be hit by the third wave, which was never launched! A destroyer was bombed in one of the dry docks, while it was destroyed the dry dock survived.

 

[Diamondback]

The Shaw--a lucky hit to the magazine, IIRC. Cassin and Downes in the same dock were technically totaled, but they were towed to California and their guts stuffed into new hulls built to their original plans, and kept their names and numbers.

I'm actually trying to work up a scenario to reenact the battle using the Axis & Allies Naval Miniatures game-system, but one big complication is that the entirety of Pearl Harbor fits into a single 10,000-yard-square sector on a standard game map.