Pearl Harbor — What Really Happened

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The conclusions of the reappraisal were, said Knox: "If war eventuates with Japan, it is believed easily possible that hostilities would be initiated by a surprise attack upon the Fleet or the Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. In my opinion, the inherent possibilities of a major disaster to the Fleet or Naval Base warrant taking every step, as rapidly as can be done, that will increase the joint readiness of the Army and Navy to withstand a raid of the character mentioned above."

Every step was not taken, of course, as the information supplied by both Knox and Grew — and Mitchell well before them — was largely ignored in Washington. And perhaps that was understandable, since nothing about any surprise attack was turning up in the Magic transcripts.

In 1940 Lt. Col. William F. Friedman of the Army Signal Corps had succeeded in cracking the complex Japanese diplomatic code called Purple, and quickly a series of machines had been built and put into action. They translated intercepts of Japanese transmissions between Tokyo and its emissaries in Washington, and the messages, called Magic by the Americans, were then circulated among U.S. officials. The U.S. knew about Japan’s designs on Southeast Asia but learned nothing from Purple about Pearl Harbor. Just so: Throughout 1941, information about the daring assault was so closely held by officials in Tokyo that they apparently kept even their ambassador to the U.S., Nomura Kichisaburo, in the dark.

But squadron leader Abe Zenji recalls a distinct sense that something was brewing. "Then one day in October 1941, an officer took the curtain off a table to reveal to us a model of Pearl Harbor," Abe, now 85, says during an interview at his home in Koganei. "'All of you are wondering what is going on,' he said. 'For the last four months, we've been doing different training. If we don't tell you why, it could affect your fighting spirit. Japan has been negotiating with the U.S. patiently to maintain our position in East Asia. But the U.S. doesn't seem willing to compromise. The relationship is getting worse. So we might have to attack Pearl Harbor in the near future.' It was the secret of all secrets."

And also, for Abe, it was welcomed news: "Some of us felt like a cloud covering the sky had now been cleared up and there was a target to go for."

On November 17, Yamamoto gave a speech to key members of the First Air Fleet aboard the Akagi: "Although we hope to achieve surprise, everyone should be prepared for terrific American resistance in this operation." A toast was raised to success in the coming battle: "Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!"

Meantime in Pearl Harbor, Thanksgiving passed tranquilly. Christmas lights were strung above Fort Street in Honolulu, and decorations appeared in store windows. On the first Saturday in December, officers played golf at the Fort Shafter course. Twenty-four thousand football fans watched the University of Hawaii Rainbows beat Willamette. After nightfall, sailors cruised Hotel Street, and some of them took in the floor show with the "Tantalizing Tootsies" at the Princess. Elsewhere, the Tremaines dined with the Gelleys at the Officers’ Club, while others attended a battle of the Fleet’s dance bands. The swinging outfit from the Pennsylvania won. All members of the Arizona’s band would die the next day.

On the night of December 6, Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, commander of the U.S. Army’s Hawaiian Department, gazed upon the harbor, just as Commander Gelley was doing at an adjacent pier. He noted the twinkling lights of the battleships and observed, "Isn’t that a beautiful sight? And what a target they would make."

Ronald Oba, who still lives in Hawaii at 79, was in high school and remembers distinctly the feel of the place: "On weekends, we went hiking up the mountains and picked guavas and fruits. We used to swim and fish in Pearl Harbor. At that time there were no restrictions about rowing your boat next to a submarine or a destroyer.

"On Sundays, we always had hot cakes. It was a treat. All of a sudden I heard this 'Bang-bang-bang.' It went from one end of the horizon to the other. 'Boom, boom!' I said to my family, 'Oh, they are having maneuvers again.' Then there was a 'rhruunmp' and a great explosion that shook our flimsy home. Still in my pajamas, I jumped up and ran down to the shore. I was there in five minutes. The water was lapping my feet as I was watching. I said, 'My God, the battleship Arizona is on fire.'"

The first wave of planes — 49 Kate bombers, each armed with one 1,760-pound armor-piercing bomb; 40 Kates carrying torpedoes; 51 Val dive bombers, each of which carried a 551-pound bomb; and 43 Zero fighter planes — roared over Hawaii. At 7:49 a.m., Air Group Commander Fuchida Mitsuo spotted Pearl Harbor: seven battleships in Battleship Row. At 7:53, he gave the signal by telegraph key: to and ra — or together, the word for "tiger." Over and over: to-ra, to-ra, to-ra.

The torpedo bombers dived to a level from which they could launch their weapons. Other bombers split off to hit Army and Navy airfields. The biggest planes flew steadily on, homing in on their targets. The Zeros, having swept down Oahu’s west coast, prepared to strafe and bedevil. Their job as escorts was done, and they instantly shifted into gear as fighter planes.

Below, sailors preparing for the 8 a.m. hoisting of the colors aboard the great ships saw the torpedo bombers screaming earthward. They saw the lethal shells in the water, incoming. A bomb exploded in the bay. The torpedoes sped toward the ships. At 7:58, the alarm went out: "Air raid, Pearl Harbor. This is not drill!" Within minutes the West Virginia, Nevada, Oklahoma and California had been struck by torpedoes.

Victor Delano, the son of a Navy captain and a distant cousin of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was an ensign below decks on the West Virginia. He remembers, "The torpedoes demolished the whole side of the ship. We could hear the people on the other side of the water tight bulkheads. They were screaming. There was nothing we could do." Delano made his way topside and viewed armageddon: the port side of the ship demolished, fires raging everywhere. "Captain [Mervyn] Bennion had just been severely wounded — hit by shrapnel that had ripped his whole interior. I was told to do whatever I could for him. I got him to a better spot. I got a first-aid kit. They were supposed to have morphine in it, but that was a drug and we weren't at war, so they hadn't authorized morphine. I soaked a cloth in ether and tried to make him more comfortable." Bennion's wound will prove fatal.

As Delano says, the U.S. wasn't at war — wasn't really in a state of readiness for war — and the element of surprise had been complete. Pilots at Hickam Field dashed for their planes as Zeroes swooped down, strafing. Sailors on the ships scrambled to their battle stations and wrestled with machinery they had never used in desperation or anger. "I got to the .50-caliber machine guns," says Raymond Emory, who was a Seaman on the Honolulu. "The ammunition box was locked. I didn't know who had the keys and didn't care anyway. I just had to get the damn thing opened. I used a dog wrench, a piece of pipe, to break the box open. After we got the box open and the machine guns manned, we fired at anything that came close."

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