When the smoke cleared that awful Sunday morning there were 2,400 people killed, 300 aircraft damaged or destroyed, and 18 destroyed ships. The Japanese naval force that attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was unobserved until it was too late and when it was finally observed it was too late. US Knowledge on the Attack on Pearl Harborĭid the US Government really know about the attack on Pearl Harbor? And if they did, did they try to cover up the knowledge? Everyone has been taught that the attack on Pearl Harbor was a sneak attack without warning that was orchestrated by the Japanese Empire. Navy's caption: The battleship USS ARIZONA sinking after being hit by Japanese air attack on Dec. Ewing (Hawaii: Admiral Nimitz Center, 1985).Naval photograph documenting the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii which initiated US participation in World War II. It refers to the book title Nimitz, Reflections on Pearl Harbor, by William H. This anonymous essay is widely distributed on the Web. There is a reason that our national motto is In God We Trust. We desperately needed a leader that could see silver linings in the midst of the clouds of dejection, despair, and defeat. President Roosevelt had chosen the right man for the right job. But anyway you look at it–Admiral Nimitz was able to see a silver lining in a situation and circumstance where everyone else saw only despair and defeatism. In jest, I might suggest that because Admiral Nimitz was a Texan, born and raised in Fredericksburg, Texas - he was a born optimist.
It is still an inspiration as I reflect upon it. I’ve never forgotten what I read in that little book. That’s why I say the Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could make or God was taking care of America. One attack plane could have strafed those tanks and destroyed our fuel supply. And I already have crews ashore anxious to man those ships.Įvery drop of fuel in the Pacific theater of war is in top of the ground storage tanks five miles away over that hill. One tug can pull them over to the dry docks, and we can have them repaired and at sea by the time we could have towed them to America. If they had destroyed our dry docks, we would have had to tow every one of those ships to America to be repaired.Īs it is now, the ships are in shallow water and can be raised. When the Japanese saw all those battleships lined in a row, they got so carried away sinking those battleships, they never once bombed our dry docks opposite those ships. If those same ships had been lured to sea and been sunk–we would have lost 38,000 men instead of 3,800. Nine out of every ten crewmen of those ships were ashore on leave. Shocked and surprised, the young helmsman asked, “What do mean by saying the Japanese made the three biggest mistakes an attack force ever made?” Nimitz explained: Big sunken battleships and navy vessels cluttered the waters everywhere you looked.Īs the tour boat returned to dock, the young helmsman of the boat asked, “Well Admiral, what do you think after seeing all this destruction?” Admiral Nimitz’s reply shocked everyone within the sound of his voice.Īdmiral Nimitz said, “The Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could ever make, or God was taking care of America. Nimitz was given a boat tour of the destruction wrought on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. There was such a spirit of despair, dejection, and defeat–you would have thought the Japanese had already won the war. He landed at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve, 1941. He told Admiral Nimitz that he (Nimitz) would now be the Commander of the Pacific Fleet.Īdmiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. When he answered the phone, it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the phone. He was paged and told there was a phone call for him. Sunday, December 7th, 1941–Admiral Chester Nimitz was attending a concert in Washington D.C. In the gift shop, I purchased a small book entitled, “Reflections on Pearl Harbor” by Admiral Chester Nimitz. I went into a small gift shop to kill time. We just missed a ferry and had to wait thirty minutes. Tour boats ferry people out to the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii every thirty minutes.
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