December 1941 (22 page)

Hitler, though, was greatly occupied with the Russian Front, and went on radio in Berlin to announce he was throwing 1.5 million fresh troops, as well as one thousand big guns and eight thousand tanks, into the fight against Stalin. “It now appears that the Red capital now faces its hour of greatest peril.”
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The tenacity of Germany led Senator Burton Wheeler of Montana to predict that FDR would send at least a “token army” to England, “if the war lasts.”
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The Russian winter had now registered 31 degrees below zero, even as the Third Reich was marching once again toward Moscow, though the Russians were heavily bombing German truck columns. Hitler was caught in the very pincer he wanted to avoid, with British bombers walloping Berlin every night from the West and a protracted struggle against the Russians in the East. Still, the predicament did not stop Germany from sinking five British ships—including a submarine—in the first few days of December just off the coast of England.
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Hitler was frankly hoping his Japanese allies would push their invasion of China harder and cross through to Russia, creating a two-front war for Stalin. Nazi Germany had already taken 600,000 Russian troops prisoners of war, and had moved them to camps inside of Germany, where they were treated poorly, at least as compared to the treatment afforded British POWs. Germany claimed they had, all told, taken 3 million Russian troops prisoner.
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The Germans and Russians traded charges of atrocities committed against their soldiers by the other side.
⁷⁹
The
New York Times
reported of “cannibalism” among the Soviet prisoners, according to the International Red Cross.
⁸⁰
The Third Reich put many of their prisoners to work in their war industry. “In the great armament plants in Saxony opened for a glimpse to the foreign press, thousands of non-Germans [labor] . . . over roaring abrasive machines . . . then trudge off to their barracks quarters, within the confines of the factory. Besides the silent Poles wearing a purple and yellow letter ‘P' on their chests, sit those other former British allies, Croats of former Yugoslavia.”
⁸¹

Churchill's government had to imprison one of their own, Adm. Sir Barry Domvile and his wife, Lady Domvile, accused Nazi sympathizers. Lady Margaret Domvile was a German national and her husband had, in 1937, journeyed to the Third Reich as a hunting guest of Heinrich Himmler, head of the odious Secret Police. Though retired, the admiral had once headed the office of British Naval Intelligence. The couple were both active in “the Link,” an Anglo-German group. Domvile had twice been a guest of Hitler's, including a visit to Salzburg, just one month before the war began. Admiral Domvile was incarcerated in Brixton Prison, along with his son, and Lady Domvile was held in Holloway Prison.
⁸²

As a new professional football league was contemplated, the NFL's regular season was scheduled to end December 7. The Washington Redskins, 1941 also-rans and patsies to the Bears in the 1940 Championship game, losing 73–0, the most lopsided game in league history, were scheduled to play a meaningless game at Griffiths Field at 1:00 p.m. against the Philadelphia Eagles.
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Starting at quarterback for the Eagles was Jack Banta, a college star whom the Redskins had drafted and then treated badly, and now Banta was aiming for revenge.
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Redskins fans were in no way fanatical about their team. The town was simply too transient; the owner, George Preston Marshall, too odious; the team too spotty; but it was a pleasant way to pass a Sunday afternoon for the high and mighty of Washington, including government officials, military brass, and the like.

Also a bit undependable was the forty-seven-year-old ditzy socialite Tommy Manville of New York City, who just days after marrying twenty-two-year-old (asbestos) heiress Bonita Edwards found himself divorcing his fifth wife. For his troubles, Manville agreed to pay his wife a $200,000 settlement, not including alimony for their two-week marriage.
⁸⁵
Just as their May-December marriage had been covered in all the papers, so was their May-December divorce.

Rita Hayworth, dubbed “The Love Goddess” by drooling newspaper columnists, was the top of the heap, flavor of the month, toast of the town actress and celebrity in December of 1941. Her photos and articles appeared everywhere, and readers of family newspapers learned all there was to learn, including her weight, which was 118 lbs.; her height, which was 5'6”; and her measurements, which were 35-25-35.
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Charles J. Pietsch of the Gideons met with the chaplain of the navy, Robert D. Workman, in Washington to present him with a Bible to give to the president. Pietsch was the Gideons' representative from Hawaii.
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The weather across the East Coast, which had been unseasonably warm, all of a sudden turned much chillier, especially in Washington, where administration officials also braced for the worst in the Far East. “Certain extremely well-informed American officials are . . . convinced that Japan will start a fight in the near future.”
⁸⁸
Golfers had been on the links well into winter in the East because of the mild temperatures, but now they retreated to their favorite 19th hole.

A correspondent for the
New York Herald Tribune
, Wilfred Fleisher, who had spent several years in Japan, bluntly told a group in Washington that the United States and Japan were “at the end of negotiations.”
⁸⁹
Indeed, most headlines across the country said war between Great Britain and Japan was imminent in the Pacific.

But the “World Golden Rule Foundation” called for a week of “Self-Denial and Generosity” and designated the next seven days for seven occupied countries, beginning on the seventh, which had been proclaimed to be “Chinese Day.”
⁹⁰

A more authoritative source, a Chinese diplomat, Dr. Wel Tao-Ming, said Japan was running a “bluff.”
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Dr. Tao-Ming said Japan's expansionist policies had reached the end of their supply lines, and while the island nation had harbored dreams of controlling access to natural resources it did not possess, they had pursued their course out of weakness and not strength. “My personal opinion . . . is that the Tojo Cabinet is a bluff. . . . In our struggle of more than four years, we have drained them, both militarily and economically, to such an extent that they have neither war materials nor man power left to launch into an adventure on a grand scale in other zones.”
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Japan had hundreds of daily newspapers, most of which strongly reflected the policies of the government of Gen. Hideki Tojo. Of the deteriorating situation in the Far East one Japanese paper said, “Japan might be forced to abandon her peaceful endeavors.” With all the arrogance he could muster, a member of the Tojo Cabinet declaimed, “We watch tensely to see whether Mr. Roosevelt or Mr. Churchill will commit on an epochal crime and further extend the world upheaval.”
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CHAPTER 7
THE SEVENTH OF DECEMBER

“Extra! War!”

San Francisco Chronicle

“Japs Attack Manila, Far East Crisis Explodes”

Marysville Daily Forum—Extra!

“War! Oahu Bombed by Japanese Planes”

Honolulu Star-Bulletin 1st Extra

“U.S. at War! Japan Bombs Hawaii, Manila”

Washington Post Extra

“Navy Is Superior to Any Says Knox”

New York Times

S
unday in America was a day for relaxing whether you followed the fourth commandment or not. It was a day for church, for family meals, for reading the newspapers, listening to the radio, going for long walks, for afternoon naps, for working in the yard and visiting with neighbors.

Sunday, December 7 was different.

Ten days earlier, on November 27, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Harold R. Stark and Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army Gen. George C. Marshall authored a two-page memo stamped “Secret” for their commander in chief, “Subject: Far Eastern Situation.”
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“If the current negotiations end without agreement,” they wrote, “Japan may attack: the Burma Road; Thailand; Malaya; the Netherlands East Indies; the Philippines; the Russian Maritime Provinces.” The memo then went on to discount why the Japanese would attack most of the cited strategic locations. “There is little probability of an immediate Japanese attack on the Maritime Provinces. . . . The magnitude of the effort required will militate against direct attack against Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies until the threat exercised by United States forces in Luzon is removed. Attack on the Burma Road would, however, be difficult and might fail. Occupation of Thailand gains a limited strategic advantage as a preliminary to operations against Malaya or the Netherlands East Indies, might relieve internal political pressure, and to a lesser extent, external economic pressure. The most essential thing now, from the United States viewpoint, was to gain time. Considerable Navy and Army reinforcements have been rushed to the Philippines but the desirable strength has not yet been reached. Of great and immediate concern is the safety of the Army convoy now near Guam, and the Marine Corps' convoy just leaving Shanghai. Ground forces to a total of 21,000 are due to sail from the United States by December 8, 1941, and it is important that this troop reinforcement reach the Philippines before hostilities commence.”
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“Precipitance of military action on our part should be avoided so long as consistent with national policy. The longer the delay, the more positive becomes the assurance of retention of these Islands as a naval and air base. Japanese action to the south of Formosa will be hindered and perhaps seriously blocked as long as we hold the Philippine Islands.”
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“After consultation with each other, United States, British, and Dutch military authorities in the Far East agreed that joint military counteraction against Japan should be undertaken only in case Japan attacks or directly threatens the territory or mandated territory of the United States. . . .”
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“It is recommended that: prior to the completion of the Philippine reinforcement, military, counter-action be considered only if Japan attacks or directly threatens United States, British, or Dutch territory . . . in case of a Japanese advance into Thailand, Japan be warned by the United States . . . that advance beyond the lines indicated may lead to war; prior to such warning no joint military opposition be undertaken.”
⁵

Significantly, no mention was made by Stark or Marshall of any other American military installation in the Pacific region, including Hawaii.

Adm. Husband E. Kimmel, newly installed commander of the Pacific Fleet in Hawaii, had obsessed for months about a Japanese naval attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor located on the south side of the island of Oahu, up a narrow and well-protected channel.
⁶

A navy report had been given to him detailing how the Japanese could pull off such an attack on the base. The report said the Japanese would attack on a weekend and would not declare war first. Outside of those in the “war gaming” sections of the military, no one in or outside of government had given the notion of an audacious daytime bombing on a weekend even a passing thought. There had been only one blackout drill on Oahu in May the year before to simulate response in an attack.
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An extraordinary Sunday meeting was requested by the Japanese embassy in Washington with Secretary of State Cordell Hull. The meeting was set for 1:00 p.m. (EST). It would be 7:30 a.m. in Honolulu. In 1941, Hawaii was in its own “half time zone.” Tokyo had already reassigned some of their Washington envoys back to Japan.

Just one day before, Hull had told reporters that he anticipated no further meetings with his Japanese counterparts.
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Privately, Hull had already told Henry Stimson, “I have washed my hands of it and now it is in the hands of you and [Frank] Knox—the Army and the Navy.”
⁹

Most American newspapers Sunday morning were by and large quiet when it came to the Pacific crisis. The
Honolulu Advertiser
was covering local news involving housing issues, a display by the Shriners, and the typical international war news coming from Russia, Germany, and England.
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There was also a special feature on where children could see Santa Claus—from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. that day—in front of a fake fireplace in the lobby of the newspaper.
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Another front-page story reported on the newly formed “Razor Blades for Britain Committee in Hawaii,” which was taking up a collection because blades could no longer be purchased in England as all steel was being devoted to their war effort. “All razor blade donations . . . must be new,” the story cautioned.
¹²

Inside, stories and features favorably reviewed the movie
A Yank in the R.A.F
.; announced clipper tours between Hawaii, the West Coast, Midway, Wake Island, and the Philippines; and detailed the ongoing prostitution problems in Hawaii. On page seven was a feature, “Week's War Review.” The column opened saying, “A critical week of war news was highlighted by heightening tension in the Pacific, but no new developments towards war.”
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