81 Years Ago Today: The Attack on Pearl Harbor

“and if any conclusion was reached, it was that there are no simple lessons in history, that it is human nature that repeats itself, not history.”
― John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945

TODAY in History: The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Here are a few quotes and images from that historic day.

The Arizona. Nearly half the casualties were men on this ship.

“At 1:23pm Zeros were approaching Pearl Harbor where it was 7:53am. At that moment the flight commander radioed Admiral Nagumo TORA, TORA, TORA@ The repeated code word, meaning "tiger," stood for 'We have succeeded in surprise attack'." Two minutes later torpedo bombers began diving on Battleship Row.”
― John Toland, Infamy: Pearl Harbor and its Aftermath

I remember when I was young reading one of John Toland's books about the attack on Pearl Harbor. I found it mesmerizing, couldn't put it down. The December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor killed 2,403. 

The West Virginia

“It is easier to start a war than end one.”
― John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945

Related Links

Beyond Pearl Harbor: Things You Didn't Know

Pearl Harbor Day Reflections 

The Japanese Relocation During WW2: Executive Order 9066 Revisited

"The first to present his case seems right, 
till another comes forward and questions him."
--Proverbs 18:16

Photo by Hello I'm Nik on Unsplash

It's practically a given that there are two sides to every story. This is why we need to re-examine our basic beliefs now and then, because much of what we have accepted as fact is nothing more than conclusions drawn from hearing only one side of a story.

This blog post aims to suggest that our harsh criticism of the Japanese "internment camp" program during World War Two may be unwarranted. 

In 2018 I wrote a blog post addressing Executive Order 9066, calling it "one more cause for shame" as Americans. On the surface, this conclusion seems reasonable. Upon deeper investigation, a strong case can be made that the real events that occurred reveal a remarkable degree of compassion and generosity of spirit and little to be entirely ashamed of.

James Nickel, a friend from California, suggested I look into this further and by doing so I learned much that I hadn't previously understood or known about. What follows are notes gleaned from Dwight D. Murphey's essay "The Relocation of the Japanese-Americans During World War II."

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To re-think any issue or learn about it in depth requires a commitment of time. What follows are some of the primary facts of which I was unaware, shedding new light on what had previously been in shadow.

For continuity sake I will follow Murphey's outline. First, what actually happened? Then second, why was it done and was it really necessary?

EdNote: The complete article is 25 pages in length with 96 footnotes. What follows is an attempt to represent fairly the findings of Mr. Murphey's research. 

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What actually happened?

Click to enlarge. Public domain.

Immigration laws at the beginning of the 20th century permitted Japanese to freely immigrate to this country. This became restricted after 1908 and was cut off completely in 1924. The 1940 U.S. Census showed that there were 126,946 persons of Japanese origin in this country, 79,642 born here and thereby considered U.S. citizens.

As tensions escalated with Japan near the end of the 1930s, American intelligence agencies had begun compiling a list of people whom they considered dangerous in the event of a war with Japan. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. arrested and incarcerated 3000.

Two months after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the establishment of military areas where all people could be excluded. This was extended to all parts of the West Coast in which no Japanese were then permitted to reside. 

This is what led to the creation of camps where the Japanese would be moved. The evacuees were moved to location centers further East. Here are some of the things I learned from reading the Murphey essay.

1. The centers were run by Japanese Americans, not some kind of U.S. Gestapo. 

2. The centers were not surrounded by barbed wire, like a prison camp. They had stores, movies, activities...

3. The college-aged children continued their education, and 4300 were attending more than 300 universities around the country by the war's end.  

4. Only one of the relocation centers became an actual internment camp. This was used for the small minority of Japanese Americans.

5. The centers were intended as places where people could stay until they found other places around the country to relocate to. In 1943, 16,000 left the centers and in 1944 18,500 more left to begin anew in other parts of the country.

6. Extensive efforts were made by the army to safeguard the property of those who were evacuated. Similarly, neighbors and friends helped take care of their properties until they returned. (At the end of this blog post is a letter to the editor expressing gratitude for the kindnesses they received in this difficult time.)

Why did this happen? Was it really necessary?

The context for this decision needs consideration. The U.S. fleet, our first line of defense, had been nearly destroyed. And invasion fleet from Japan could have arrived on our shores unimpeded. A Japanese submarine shelled an oil field in California in February. Five Japanese planes flew over L.A. 

In hindsight it could be argued that the evacuation was not necessary. Looked at another way, California and the Northwest were quite vulnerable. The water supply could be sabotaged as could the power grid. A "systematic campaign of incendiarism" could do massive damage.

Those who argue that the relocation was unnecessary, Murphey demonstrates, are either unaware of the facts or deny them. U.S. codebreakers identified hundreds of communications dealing with U.S. espionage activities. 

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In addition to encouraging me to review Dwight Murphey's essay, James sent me several clippings from the local newspaper including the letter to the editor below. He accompanied the clippings with this note:

"I recognize the disconnect most people have with WWII and the relocation camps. You have to live in that season to grasp what was going on, as you note. I think the newspaper articles from the Reedley Exponent show that the majority of the townspeople sought to help the local Japanese, their neighbors, in any way they could given the exigences of the times."

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A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
The Reedley Exponent
20 August 1942

To the good people of Reedley, California

We wish to thank you one and all in behalf of ourselves as well as for many Japanese evacuees who had made their home amongst you for regretfully such a short period of time.

What has prompted me to write this letter of appreciation to you good residents of Reedley is that you were so kind and tolerant towards us in this time of unrest and turmoil. Of course it is understood that we residents of California have naught to do with this war, yet being Japanese of Americans of Japanese ancestry we do not feel happy that the two countries closest to our hearts are at war and feel that we may have been at fault for the outburst of this deplorable international complication.

However, while our sojourn in Reedley the residents of Reedley, the good people on whose property we resided, the civic authorities as well as the federal officials (by which I mean the postoffice officials at Reedley) whose patience we sorely tried with our innumerable questions, all to these good people we wish to thank you for your sympathy and understanding you had shown us.

One does not realize what a friendly smile means to a stranger who, not knowing the attitude of the people of such community, are compelled to usurp their have, until and unless one finds themselves in a similar predicament. And such a kindly attitude was shown me and to many others, not on one but on many occasions and for which we wish to thank you from the depths of our hearts.

May God bless you all for your friendliness to us bewildered evacuees, and may His teachings continue to flourish in your good community.

Dr. & Mrs. F. T. Inukai

Related Links

My blog post addressing Executive Order 9066

Introduction to the Dwight D. Murphey Rebuttal

The Dispossession of the American Indian and Other Key Issues in American History  (Dwight Murphey's essay on the Japanese American relocation is found in this book.)

Final Note: This is not an attempt to whitewash all that happened. It is, however, an attempt to suggest that the current narrative that is most pervasive does not present an accurate picture of what occurred and why.

Serious Labor Shortages Are Threat to Economic Recovery

Help Wanted. Now Hiring. It seems like everywhere I go I see signs announcing the need for workers to fill vacancies.

As it turns out this appears to be a national problem, not just a Northland issue. Nearly every restaurant is short of help here. A friend who owns 11 fast food restaurants between Duluth and the Twin Cities normally employs 350, but has to keep things running with 250 employees. Panera Bread has put up a sign that says they're limiting hours because of the shortage of help.

The government's good intentions in providing financial help above and beyond regular unemployment has, for many, become a disincentive for returning to the workplace.

In addition to labor shortages we have materials shortages, partially caused by labor shortages in this arena. According to a Bloomberg article, Biden's infrastructure plan could be hamstrung by the lack of qualified workers to execute this ambitious dream. Currently the U.S. manufacturing industry has 500,000 positions unfilled.

The great irony here is that this massive infrastructure push has as one of its aims to provide Americans with more jobs. But with the shortages in materials, we may end up outsourcing to other countries, benefiting others rather than those we're supposed to be helping. Lumber (now up five-fold) aluminum, copper and cement prices are high due to tariffs, so building homes has become exceedingly expensive. (EdNote: We have lots of copper inside the U.S. borders, but have made it near impossible to mine it.)

An article at CNN.com begins with this telling Q & A: "Chicken, lumber, microchips, gas, steel, metals, chlorine and ketchup packets: What do they all have in common? They're all (nearly) impossible to find."

A New York Times article this past week is titled "How the World Ran Out of Everything." It explains how the evolution of "Just In Time" manufacturing and sales systems resulted in businesses minimizing inventories. The concept of J-I-T is fine when all is good. It reduces waste, and reduces the amount of space you need to store things, which also reduces costs. It's efficient. 

But when the entire system experiences a major hiccup -- like our unplanned year-long pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, these efficient systems can be disrupted in ways many businesses could never have imagined. That appears to be what we are now experiencing, at a time when we believed everything was opening up with clear sailing ahead.

Once again, Andy Grove has been proven right. His book Only the Paranoid Survive details all the forces that businesses must juggle and manage. He then asks, "What happens when one of these forces -- government regulations, consumer demand, raw materials, labor, financial impacts, legal matters, etc. -- hits us with an unexpected 10X tsunami?"  

For businesses that survive this will be remembered as the year of the wake up call. 

The weird thing is that politicians and think tanks will undoubtedly spend gobs of money and time piecing together a strategy designed to ensure that it never happens again. Alas, these things can never be so easily predicted. It will surely come in a manner that was unforeseen. Like Pearl Harbor. Like 9-11. Like the Housing Crisis. Like the Pandemic. It will be original. It will be different next time.

Something to think about. 

Beyond Pearl Harbor: Things You Probably Didn't Know About the Day of Infamy

Bombing of Pearl Harbor. Photo: U.S. Navy. Public domain.

The USS West Virginia was struck by 6 torpedoes and 2 bombs.

On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japan launched a sneak attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, as part of a plan to eliminate any potential challenge to Japanese conquests in Asia.*

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The Japanese attack force—which included six aircraft carriers and 420 planes—sailed from Hitokappu Bay in the Kurile Islands, on a 3,500 mile voyage to a staging area 230 miles off the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

The attack killed 2,403 service members and wounded 1,178 more, and sank or destroyed six U.S. ships,. They also destroyed 169 U.S. Navy and Army Air Corps planes.*

More than half the fatalities were on the USS Arizona . 

THERE ARE a lot of things that happened that are seldom noted when we remember this historic event. That same day, the Japanese followed up with assaults on the Philippines, Guam, Midway Island and the Wake Islands. They also attacked the British colonies of Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong. Soon after they invaded Thailand. Within months all of these were conquered, the Japanese flag flying over all.

Most history books describe the assault on these Southwest Pacific islands as taking place the next day. The history books state that they were bombed and attacked on December 8. This is because the International Date Line is West of Hawaii. The Japanese, according to their history books, place the attack on Pearl Harbor as having occurred on December 8.

10 Peso Note in Philippines. Colonies had U.S. notables on their money.

What I also find interesting is that in our contemporary minds, we consider the attack on Hawaii an attack on the United States when in reality Hawaii was no more a state than the Philippines, Guam or the Wake Islands. In fact, all of these island territories had been colonies of the United States at one time. Because the term "colony" was out of favor and politically incorrect, we began calling them territories.. (Hawaii became a state in 1959.) Not only did Japan attack all of these, the Japanese soon overran these others completely.

16 million Filipinos, who saluted the U.S. flag and called FDR their commander-in-chief, were no longer free. You can see whose face is on their 10-peso bill (above), reminding them who holds the cards.

Losses at Wake Island. (National Archives)

The bombing of American airfields made us unable to defend these territories and by Christmas the U.S. abandoned Manila to the Japanese with the colony easily overrun. Within a couple days of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. forces in Guam and the Wake Islands had already surrendered after their planes were destroyed while still on the ground.

President Roosevelt's "Day of Infamy" speech to the nation downplayed the losses of the Western Pacific, and up-played the significance of Hawaii. Even though the colony was 3/4s Asian and Pacific Islanders, FDR elevated the status of Hawaii by calling it an "American island." His intent was to end our nation's isolationist stance. He could now, with the support of the people, enter the war.

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Related Links
* Pearl Harbor Facts
The Infamy Speech by FDR
Some of the information in this blog post comes from the introduction to Daniel Immerwahr's How to Hide an Empire.