Less than two hours, December 7, 1941

December 7, 2021 6:51 AM

Attack on Pearl Harbor: December 7, 1941, fold3 HQ, Jenny Ashcraft, December 2, 2021. Eighty years ago this month, a surprise attack by Japanese forces occurred at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The attack killed more than 2,000, injured 1,178, and led to America’s entry into WWII. During the attack, six U.S. battleships were sunk, and more than a dozen others were damaged. The Japanese also destroyed 300 airplanes. The attack lasted less than two hours, and the following day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. The volunteers at Stories Behind the Stars are working on an ambitious project to tell the story of each Pearl Harbor casualty. As we mark the 80th anniversary of that fateful day, here are a few stories they’ve gathered:
posted by cenoxo (21 comments total)

My grandfather was in the Navy through both world wars, on a battleship during the second one, and somehow I never connected him with the attack on Pearl Harbor before now. He passed when I was in my twenties, and I didn't have the presence of mind to ask him about his history. He must have been there, possibly on one of those battleships. Well. Thanks so much for posting this.
posted by emmet at 7:35 AM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

My grandfather spent his career as United States Navy officer, serving during both World Wars. He was a naval architect and engineer who, when he was responsible for landing craft development in the Bureau of Construction and Repair, brought Andrew Higgins to Washington to discuss the Eureka boat that became the prototype for the LCPL and LCPV landing crafts. My grandfather was stationed at Pearl Harbor in 1941 and, as a commander in the Scouting Force and one of the three senior material officers of the fleet, was intimately involved in the salvage work following the attack. My mother was six years old at the time and remembered her father frantically pulling on a uniform over his pajamas in order to get to the base, although I gather that there wasn't much for him to do by the time he got there. He was an amazing storyteller who told many amusing tales of his times and friends in the Navy, but I never once heard him speak of Pearl Harbor.
posted by slkinsey at 8:09 AM on December 7, 2021 [6 favorites]

If you're looking for a more technical description of what happened that day, Montemayor on YouTube has an excellent, fact-based description of the attack.
posted by Hatashran at 8:33 AM on December 7, 2021 [6 favorites]

Pearl Harbor has always held a fascination for me; going to the Arizona memorial is definitely on my bucket list. These stories are fascinating; young men going about their business suddenly in the midst of an undeclared war. (As an aside, Japan’s attacking US bases in the Pacific prior to declaring war was considered a war crime after their surrender. Apparently the need to declare war prior to commencing hostilities doesn’t apply to the US.) I have read a number of accounts of the attack, but don’t recall seeing this horrifying detail before: “ During salvage operations, crews began to work through the compartments, removing the remains of the 66 sailors. In one compartment, they found marks on the wall indicating that some sailors survived for as many as 16 days. They had access to food and water but died when their oxygen supply ran out. ”
posted by TedW at 8:38 AM on December 7, 2021

“‘Never Thought They Could Pull Off Such an Attack’: Prejudice and Pearl Harbor,” [Caution: Racism] Caesar Nafrada and Joseph Caddell, War on the Rocks, 07 December 2021
posted by ob1quixote at 9:58 AM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Just a minor correction. The post states that “ six U.S. battleships were sunk, and more than a dozen others were damaged.” That should be “warships.” “Battleship” refers to a particular class of vessel and there were only eight at Pearl Harbor that day.

I don’t see anything after “these are a few of the stories they’ve gathered” but I can (and did) follow the link. Good post. Thanks.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 10:11 AM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

“‘Never Thought They Could Pull Off Such an Attack’: Prejudice and Pearl Harbor,” [Caution: Racism]

Prejudice illustrated by this Dr. Seuss cartoon that stereotypes Japanese-Americans as saboteurs lining up for TNT. Contrast with these schoolkids doing the Pledge of Allegiance.

The same racism led to about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry being put into internment camps.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:19 AM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

There are more articles and historic photo galleries at the Naval History and Heritage Command > Wars and Events > World War II > Pearl Harbor Raid > Post-Attack Ship Salvage. The Salvage of USS Oklahoma, 1942-1944 was the largest and most difficult effort.
posted by cenoxo at 10:35 AM on December 7, 2021

If you're looking for a more technical description of what happened that day, Montemayor on YouTube has an excellent, fact-based description of the attack.

I did not know that I was looking for a more technical description until I clicked that link. Pro click.
posted by Sphinx at 10:56 AM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

More detail about the men trapped aboard the USS West Virginia for 16 days; apparently they knew there were people trapped there but had no way to get to them.
posted by TedW at 11:14 AM on December 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

I want to recommend "At Dawn We Slept" by Gordon W. Prang. After the war, he interviewed everyone who survived on the Japanese side having anything to do with the Pearl Harbor attack, and this material is still being mined my historians. (Prange spoke very fluent German, so they sent him to Japan, because of course they did)
posted by ivanthenotsoterrible at 12:05 PM on December 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

My Great-Grandfather's ship did not quite sink. He was blown overboard from the Vestal when the Arizona's magazine exploded, and he swam through burning oil to get back on board and get the Vestal beached. He died at Guadalcanal a year later. I've seen photos of my grandmother as young girl accepting what I believe to be his Navy Cross.
posted by buildmyworld at 12:14 PM on December 7, 2021 [10 favorites]

going to the Arizona memorial is definitely on my bucket list

We went back in the early 2000s. It's really affecting. One thing that still sticks with me that I hadn't previously been aware of: you can stand there on the memorial, watching the water, and every few seconds a drop of fuel will bloop to the surface from the ship.

Apparently there are still something like half a million gallons of fuel down there that have been leaking since 1941, and it's estimated that it could be leaking for the next 500 years. We were told that the environmental impact of trying to recover or siphon it all off would be worse than just letting it slowly leak, so they've left it in place.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:24 PM on December 7, 2021 [6 favorites]

Interesting to read in that "Never Thought" article that racism and cultural superiority nonsense played a factor in both sides. On the American side - the obvious of not thinking such an attack was a possibility enough to make even the most half hearted of defensive gestures (plus the rock solid surety that Japanese Americans would gladly throw their lot in with the empire) One the Japanese side - thinking that such an attack would heavily damage the country's resolve.

Both very interesting miscalculations borne of not know who you were dealing with.

(Also interesting to note just how many time dud munitions came into play in WWII. The Japanese here with their attack and the notorious US Mk 14 torpedo. Wonder what the failure rate is these days.)
posted by drewbage1847 at 1:47 PM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

There’s a detailed analysis of Japanese aerial torpedo design and development at Pearl Harbor: Thunderfish in the Sky – Japan’s Type 91 Modification 2 Torpedo Fins at Pearl Harbor, Ray Panko, Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, December 28, 2015:

Thanks to extensive experience that led to constant development, the Japanese Type 91 torpedo was by far the best aerial torpedo in the world in December 1941. It was reliable at a time when most aerial torpedoes were fragile and quick to stop, sink, or turn away from their targets. Under water, its depth-keeping limits were plus or minus 18 inches. Its yaw limits were a mere 1 percent of the range.[17] Its warhead was big enough to sink even battleships.

Perhaps best of all, from the bomber crew’s point of view, it could be dropped at considerable speed and from considerable height. This made torpedo attacks more survivable for the air crew. Although the attack on Pearl Harbor at point-blank range did not require these performance attributes, the Japanese used them three days later, when G3M and G4M two-engine, land-based bombers used Type 91 torpedoes to sink the HMS Prince of Wales and the HMS Repulse off the coast of Malaya. Three days into the Pacific War, the allies had no working battleships.

posted by cenoxo at 6:57 PM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

the obvious of not thinking such an attack was a possibility enough to make even the most half hearted of defensive gestures

Those who cannot remember the past....

On the Japanese side - thinking that such an attack would heavily damage the country's resolve.

Well, there was a lot of anti-war sentiment in the US at the time, the military was small, the Pacific large, and Japan was having a pretty good run so far, not least of all against the Russians again. Easy enough to get cocky. Mind you, Yamamoto did just say it was a bad idea.
posted by BWA at 7:17 PM on December 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Those who cannot remember the past....

And I can see how it would have been dismissed by analysts as being "much easier because the logistics of attacking a nearby port, yada yada yada."

I do think the Japanese got cocky with their sweeping through Manchuria but, again maybe cultural blindness not seeing that isolationist sentiments were a very vocal minority by 1940 and FDR was hell bent on getting the US into the European theater.
posted by drewbage1847 at 10:01 PM on December 7, 2021

"Into the European theater" is sort of key, though. If Russia didn't want a two theater war (and they didn't; after getting a bloody nose in Manchuria, they signed a separate peace with Japan) then logically America, with no Asian borders, wouldn't either. (Un-fun fact- Russians held Doolittle raiders who landed in Russian territory as POWs. This, while accepting US Lend Lease.)

As to anti-war sentiment - not that small a minority. Indeed, as late as June 1940 and the fall of France, majority US opinion (61%) was still against intervention. What changed? Britain, understandably concerned, launched considerable propaganda state side. Seems to have worked. Note how the wording of the pollsters changes over the years and months leading to Pearl Harbor, focusing on Britain. (American thoughts on Japan about the time are interesting.) Even so, it took some doing to move the needle into the pro-war camp by 1941.

We will assume that the poll numbers were not massaged.
posted by BWA at 6:51 AM on December 8, 2021 [3 favorites]

Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki, the only surviving crewmember of five Japanese midget submarines that attacked Pearl Harbor, was captured on Oahu by U.S. forces and became the first Japanese POW of World War II.
posted by cenoxo at 3:20 PM on December 8, 2021 [2 favorites]

Another little-known eddy of history from Wikipedia:

The Niʻihau incident occurred on December 7–13, 1941, when Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service pilot Shigenori Nishikaichi crash-landed his Zero on the Hawaiian island of Niʻihau after participating in the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Imperial Japanese Navy had designated Niʻihau as an uninhabited island for damaged aircraft to land and await rescue.

The pilot shared information about the Pearl Harbor attack with island locals of Japanese descent. Native Hawaiian residents were initially unaware of the attack, but apprehended Nishikaichi when the gravity of the situation became apparent. The pilot then sought and received the assistance of the three residents of Japanese descent on the island in overcoming his captors, finding weapons, and taking several hostages. Eventually, Nishikaichi was killed by Niihauans Benehakaka "Ben" Kanahele and his wife Kealoha "Ella" Kanahele;[1] Ben Kanahele was wounded in the process, and one of Nishikaichi's supporters, Yoshio Harada, committed suicide.
...
Historian Gordon Prange notes that "the rapidity with which the three resident Japanese went over to the pilot's cause" troubled the Hawaiians and added: "The more pessimistic among them cited the Niʻihau incident as proof that no one could trust any Japanese, even if an American citizen, not to go over to Japan if it appeared expedient."[16] Novelist William Hallstead argues that the Niʻihau incident influenced decisions leading to the Japanese American internment on the continental United States.

More details in the article.
posted by cenoxo at 4:25 PM on December 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

buildmyworld > My Great-Grandfather's ship…

The repair/salvage ship USS Vestal (AR-4) had one hell of a service record. Not enough credit is given to the support ships, crews, and officers that keep everyone afloat and underway.
posted by cenoxo at 7:35 AM on December 9, 2021 [1 favorite]