Plan B Forum

Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The United States was at peace with that nation, and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu, the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And, while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.
Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.
Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island.
And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has therefore undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.
As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense, that always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.

No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory.

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.

With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.

Remembering December 7th

There was this guy once. His past, according to some, was somewhat questionable. He was a pretty tough guy by all accounts. He probably drank too much, and smoked too much, swore too much, and might even have fooled around on his wife in foreign ports. I don't know - but I wouldn't be surprised. I never knew him, he was dead long before I went to sea, but I know the type and I've met a thousand like him.

His name was Edwin J. Hill, Chief Warrant Officer, United States Navy - and on the morning of December 7th, 1941 he was the Chief Boatswain of USS Nevada, moored at battleship row off Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

You all know what happened on that Sunday. It was about quarter to eight, fifteen minutes to muster and watch turnover. Church services were just finishing up. The ships were in holiday routine. Sailors and Marines had slept in, enjoying a day off from their hectic training schedule, enjoying their tour in paradise. By most accounts, on that beautiful peaceful morning, Hill was somewhere topside, on the main deck of the Nevada. Nobody knows for sure what he was doing, but having been a Warrant myself I imagine he was shooting the breeze with his shipmates, enjoying a cup of mess deck coffee, checking the mooring lines, and generally doing what salty old Warrants Officers do - when the first wave of Japanese bombers and torpedo planes came roaring down out of the Kole Kole Pass.

There were seven battleships moored in a line off Ford Island, Battleship Row, and an eighth one, USS Pennsylvania, in dry dock at the Naval Yard. Of all those vessels, Nevada was in a unique position, moored at the end of the row, berth 7. Unlike her mighty sisters, Nevada was not nested (moored alongside another vessel), and, as luck and engineering drills would have it, she had several of her boilers on-line and so was the only battlewagon capable of getting underway. Chief Warrant Officer Hill, as Nevada's Boatswain and a 29 year veteran of Naval service, certainly knew this. And he must have known that there is nothing, nothing, more vulnerable than a warship tied to the quay, and he surely knew that the only hope Nevada had was to get underway, make for sea, unmask her batteries and fight back.

Read the rest of the story here: http://www.stonekettle.com/2007/12/reme ... r-7th.html

(Jim Wright of Stonekettle Station says, "Of all the things I've written, this is my favorite. This is the story I used to tell to new Navy Chiefs, so they would know who they were.")

GREAT story Econo, I followed the link and read the whole article...

Thanks for posting that.