WILL MEN AND WOMEN BE DRAFTED? Not for combat, of course, but Brig. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey says that "we undoubtedly are soon going to consider the registration of women" between 18 and 65 for war work -- taking the place of men on assembly lines, working in civil defense, or doing noncombatant jobs in the military. According to the Associated Press, General Hershey envisions that 20,000,000 women could be put into national service this way. When you read things like this, you realize what an unprecedented situation we’re in.
As reported by Samuel W. Bell in the New York Herald Tribune, the current draft bill is sweeping enough. All men between 18 and 65 must register. All men between 18 and 45 are subject to military service in the land or naval forces. That’s a potential of 10,000,000 men available for military duty and another 30,000,000 who could be inducted for non-combat service. That’s what the War Department’s put before Congress, and there’s no doubt it’ll pass, of course.
Plus the Senate approved $10,572,350,000 in war appropriations Friday -- a figure so massive that the Chicago Tribune followed it with an exclamation mark in their front-page banner headline.
After a year of fitful attempts at "preparedness," we’re finally taking the job seriously. And it only took a direct, immediate threat to our national survival to get us to do it.
WE’RE HOLDING ON IN THE PACIFIC. The Administration says that Guam, which was guarded by a scant 550 American soldiers, is "probably" lost. But our troops are holding on at Wake Island, at Midway, and in the Philippines. In fact, the brightest spot at the moment appears to be the latter, where according to Saturday’s headlines, U.S. and native Philippine troops repulsed three Japanese landing attempts on Luzon. Enemy parachutists have landed at two other locations on northern Luzon, but neither is considered a major threat to Manila. And there are good tidings on the sea -- Navy planes have sunk two Japanese battleships off Luzon, and Dutch submariners have reportedly sunk four Japanese transport ships off Malaya, killing 4,000 of the enemy.
Still no official word on the toll from the Hawaii attack, though. The newspapers seem to be blacking out the story since Wednesday, but the rumor mill is going full steam. Does the Administration realize the adverse consequences of blacking out critical news? When will we hear some hard facts?
THE GERMAN CENTER COLLAPSES. That’s what it sounds like, anyway. A week ago the Nazis announced they had given up attempting to take Moscow until next spring, and would dig in their current positions for the winter. I didn’t give it much credence, and in any case, it’s become academic whether Berlin really meant it or not -- the Russians have no intention of letting the Germans rest in place. Rest in peace, maybe. This is how the Washington Post reports the latest Red claims --
""Russia announced the utter defeat of a crumbling German army of 750,000 men on the Moscow front . . . with 85,000 Germans killed and 23 of an original 51 divisions either smashed, routed, surrounded, or retreating. A special communique reported German troops in flight along both flanks of the encirclement front on the frozen Moscow plain. Red Cossack detachments were said to be slashing through the German lines, isolating division after division and leaving them behind for battles of annihilation to come."
Soviet claims have sometimes been as extravagant as Nazi boasts, but it’s hard to believe that Stalin’s regime would be crowing on this large a scale unless there was something to it. And coupled with the German defeat at Rostov, Axis morale on the Eastern Front has to be falling through the cellar about now.
MORE AIR RAID ALARMS, STILL NO PLANES. Four consecutive nights of alerts in southern California. But the main focus is still on San Francisco, which went through what the Associated Press calls a "weird wartime blackout" Friday night. Once again, no bombs fell, but from the A.P. dispatch it sounds like mayhem out there --
"Unidentified airplanes roared low over the city during the two hours and thirty-four minutes of total darkness. Unverified reports said flares were dropped in the financial district and into the ocean, but police were inclined to discount them. Dogs howled in all parts of the city and many accidents were reported. 'People were running around like wild,' declared Elmer Combs, booking steward at Central Emergency Hospital. 'A lot of people came in that we couldn’t even begin to handle. There were accidents from all kinds of things -- autos, streetcars, streetcars sliding down hills. Some people blew their tops.'"
A modest proposal -- why bother with comprehensive blackouts at all? There was a story in the New York Herald Tribune yesterday quoting Samuel O. Hibben, the director of applied lighting for Westinghouse. He said that a blackout of all the street lights in New York City would be "more deadly than bombs" and that blackout-induced traffic accidents in London last year killed more people than raids. Yes, Mr. Hibben says, turn out the advertising signs and home and business lights. But darkening the streets would lead to "confusion, death, and destruction." Judging from what’s happening on the West Coast, it sounds like he knows what he's talking about.
Meanwhile, the Herald Tribune also reported that Emil Davies, a British official who headed the London County Council during the worst of last year’s blitz, says it’s "likely" there were be German nuisance raids on New York City. The story says German pilots might "do what they did over England: drop their load of bombs over New York, fly on for some 300 miles, bail out and give themselves up as war prisoners." I still think the West Coast is where we have to worry most about getting raided, but East Coast raids are probably more plausible than I thought.
Thursday, December 14, 2017
Monday, December 11, 2017
Thursday, December 11, 1941
"THE NEWS HAS ALL BEEN BAD." In his Tuesday night talk, President Roosevelt made no attempt to sugar-coat the extent of our defeat. While rejecting Japanese claims that they held mastery over the Pacific in the wake of the Hawaii attack, he told the largest radio audience in the history of the U.S. that more bad news will come --
"We have suffered a serious setback in Hawaii. Our forces in the Philippines, which include the brave people of that commonwealth, are taking punishment, but are defending themselves vigorously. The reports from Guam and Wake and Midway Islands are still confused, but we must be prepared for the announcement that all these three outposts have been seized."
The main action involving U.S. forces appears to be in the Philippines right now. According to John G. Norris in this morning’s Washington Post, the War Department admits to a successful Japanese landing on the main island of Luzon, after American troops repelled an earlier attempt on the west coast of Luzon with "apparent heavy enemy losses." This new landing is considered strategically unimportant, but if Japan does succeed in gaining a foothold on Luzon’s west coast, "they would then be in a position to fight down the narrow coastal plain to the Lingayen Gulf." So, that’s the area to watch in the next few days.
WHAT ABOUT GERMANY AND ITALY? (II). We’re still not "officially" at war with Hitler or Mussolini, however much that matters. Both sides are acting like there’s a state of war, and the Germans might be getting ready to make it official in any event -- the Associated Press quotes a Swedish source in Berlin as reporting the Reichstag will meet later this morning (Eastern time) "to hear a government declaration reaffirming German-Japanese solidarity under the tripartite act." There is another possibility, though -- does Hitler, instead of declaring war himself, want to goad the U.S. into declaring war first, for propaganda purposes?
Perhaps that’s why President Roosevelt used this particular wording in his radio speech Tuesday night -- "Remember always that Germany and Italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the United States at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with Britain or Russia." He could well have mentioned that the Reich’s campaigns against Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, Norway, Greece, Russia, etc., never showed a regard for such diplomatic niceties as a declaration.
Associated Press wires between Berlin and Switzerland were cut Wednesday night, and American newsmen in Germany have been placed under house arrest. Apparently this is retaliation for the F.B.I.’s roundup of Axis newspapermen. All German and Italian nationals are now considered enemy aliens, just as Japanese nationals are.
AIR RAID ALARMS IN NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES. The two air raid alarms in New York City yesterday are now said to be "a gigantic war-time misunderstanding." Writes John G. Rogers in the New York Herald Tribune -- "Official sources, annoyed by the indifference with which the city’s millions confronted the bright face of danger, disclosed that there were never any planes bearing down on New York. They explained that a series of accidents translated a rumor into a crisis which electrified those responsible for the defense of the world’s largest city." According to C.B.S., the alert was sparked by a single telephone call from a civilian, asking air force authorities about a rumor enemy planes were two hours away. So, nobody was hurt, but the "raid" did break up a meatloaf luncheon held for a group of newly enrolled air-raid wardens.
Much more serious are the air raid alarms on the West Coast. One broadcast report says that the Army ordered Los Angeles radio stations off the air Tuesday night due to an alarm. General DeWitt, the 4th Army commander, warned San Franciscans in stark terms after their two air raid alerts Monday night that "death and destruction are likely to come to this city any moment." He’s even madder about civilian apathy than New York’s authorities are, and at a civil defense council meeting he even seemed to hope that the Japanese might drop some bombs --
"The people of San Francisco do not seem to appreciate that we are at war in every sense. . . . Unless definite and stern action is taken to correct last night’s deficiency, a great deal of destruction will come. Those planes were over our community . . . for a definite period. They were enemy planes. I mean Japanese planes. They were tracked out to sea. Why bombs were not dropped I do not know. It might have been better if some bombs had dropped to awaken this city."
That’s going a little too far, but in any case the West Coast could definitely get some bombs soon.
One creepy note of possible confirmation in this morning’s Washington Post – "the War Department . . . reported that Fifth Columnists had lit signal fires on the Pacific Coast."
WHAT TO DO WHEN THE SIRENS SOUND. Good advice, from the front page of yesterday’s New York Herald Tribune --
"In Case of an Alarm. Above all, keep calm. Don’t create a panic. Get off the streets but don’t run – walk. If within five minutes of home go there. If at home stay there. Home is the safest place. Don’t mingle with crowds. If more than five minutes from home seek shelter in the center portions of nearest building. Avoid top and lower stories of buildings. Stay away from windows and outside walls. Avoid elevators. Motorists should park cars and seek shelter. Stay out of subways. They are not safe. Put out lights. Avoid use of the telephone. Stay calm."
"In Case of a Raid. Shut off all gas ranges, heaters, and furnaces. Turn off pilot lights. Fill bathtub and buckets for use of firemen if mains break. Go to room with fewest windows and lie down. Keep radio turned on. Leave at least one window open. If incendiary bombs fall, spray water on them. Never use splash or stream of water, as the bomb will explode. Bomb will burn fifteen minutes if left alone, only two minutes if sprayed. Don’t use a chemical fire extinguisher on bombs. Co-operate with air-raid wardens. Obey instructions. Above all, keep calm."
PEGLER SALUTES THE PRESIDENT. One of the fiercest and barb-worded critics of the Administration, columnist Westbrook Pegler, took his hat off to the President yesterday in a piece titled "Roosevelt Was Right" --
"No American has more angrily detested and suspected most of the internal operations of the New Deal, but no American more admires now the tenacious bravery of President Roosevelt in his war policy than this author of many criticisms of the Roosevelt Administration. Long before the war began with the sneak-punch invasion of Catholic Poland, the President had made his own decision that Adolph Hitler was determined to see the German nation loose, armed beyond the poor, dumb power of Britain’s military men or the best of ours to imagine, in a campaign to enslave Europe and conquer the United States. Having made up his mind on the basis of plain evidence, Mr. Roosevelt determined that this country must fight for its life against Hitler and Japan and set about creating a war psychology in the American people so that we would not be caught entirely unprepared spiritually or entirely unarmed. In the earlier phases of his preparations he stood almost alone, and it may be remembered that his dramatic Chicago speech about a quarantine for aggressors was savagely denounced . . . . As the war developed, Mr. Roosevelt was accused of surrendering his own country to the British for Britain’s own sake and the cry of war-monger, raised from Berlin, where this war was made, was taken up by many of the President’s own people at home. . . . But all the way from the hour when he first realized that war with Hitler was inevitable down to the moment when Hitler’s ally in the Pacific suddenly bombed a sleeping American city, Mr. Roosevelt stood by his conviction, often under conditions which would have made a weaker man give ground and look for excuses."
"We have suffered a serious setback in Hawaii. Our forces in the Philippines, which include the brave people of that commonwealth, are taking punishment, but are defending themselves vigorously. The reports from Guam and Wake and Midway Islands are still confused, but we must be prepared for the announcement that all these three outposts have been seized."
The main action involving U.S. forces appears to be in the Philippines right now. According to John G. Norris in this morning’s Washington Post, the War Department admits to a successful Japanese landing on the main island of Luzon, after American troops repelled an earlier attempt on the west coast of Luzon with "apparent heavy enemy losses." This new landing is considered strategically unimportant, but if Japan does succeed in gaining a foothold on Luzon’s west coast, "they would then be in a position to fight down the narrow coastal plain to the Lingayen Gulf." So, that’s the area to watch in the next few days.
WHAT ABOUT GERMANY AND ITALY? (II). We’re still not "officially" at war with Hitler or Mussolini, however much that matters. Both sides are acting like there’s a state of war, and the Germans might be getting ready to make it official in any event -- the Associated Press quotes a Swedish source in Berlin as reporting the Reichstag will meet later this morning (Eastern time) "to hear a government declaration reaffirming German-Japanese solidarity under the tripartite act." There is another possibility, though -- does Hitler, instead of declaring war himself, want to goad the U.S. into declaring war first, for propaganda purposes?
Perhaps that’s why President Roosevelt used this particular wording in his radio speech Tuesday night -- "Remember always that Germany and Italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the United States at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with Britain or Russia." He could well have mentioned that the Reich’s campaigns against Czecho-Slovakia, Poland, Norway, Greece, Russia, etc., never showed a regard for such diplomatic niceties as a declaration.
Associated Press wires between Berlin and Switzerland were cut Wednesday night, and American newsmen in Germany have been placed under house arrest. Apparently this is retaliation for the F.B.I.’s roundup of Axis newspapermen. All German and Italian nationals are now considered enemy aliens, just as Japanese nationals are.
AIR RAID ALARMS IN NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES. The two air raid alarms in New York City yesterday are now said to be "a gigantic war-time misunderstanding." Writes John G. Rogers in the New York Herald Tribune -- "Official sources, annoyed by the indifference with which the city’s millions confronted the bright face of danger, disclosed that there were never any planes bearing down on New York. They explained that a series of accidents translated a rumor into a crisis which electrified those responsible for the defense of the world’s largest city." According to C.B.S., the alert was sparked by a single telephone call from a civilian, asking air force authorities about a rumor enemy planes were two hours away. So, nobody was hurt, but the "raid" did break up a meatloaf luncheon held for a group of newly enrolled air-raid wardens.
Much more serious are the air raid alarms on the West Coast. One broadcast report says that the Army ordered Los Angeles radio stations off the air Tuesday night due to an alarm. General DeWitt, the 4th Army commander, warned San Franciscans in stark terms after their two air raid alerts Monday night that "death and destruction are likely to come to this city any moment." He’s even madder about civilian apathy than New York’s authorities are, and at a civil defense council meeting he even seemed to hope that the Japanese might drop some bombs --
"The people of San Francisco do not seem to appreciate that we are at war in every sense. . . . Unless definite and stern action is taken to correct last night’s deficiency, a great deal of destruction will come. Those planes were over our community . . . for a definite period. They were enemy planes. I mean Japanese planes. They were tracked out to sea. Why bombs were not dropped I do not know. It might have been better if some bombs had dropped to awaken this city."
That’s going a little too far, but in any case the West Coast could definitely get some bombs soon.
One creepy note of possible confirmation in this morning’s Washington Post – "the War Department . . . reported that Fifth Columnists had lit signal fires on the Pacific Coast."
WHAT TO DO WHEN THE SIRENS SOUND. Good advice, from the front page of yesterday’s New York Herald Tribune --
"In Case of an Alarm. Above all, keep calm. Don’t create a panic. Get off the streets but don’t run – walk. If within five minutes of home go there. If at home stay there. Home is the safest place. Don’t mingle with crowds. If more than five minutes from home seek shelter in the center portions of nearest building. Avoid top and lower stories of buildings. Stay away from windows and outside walls. Avoid elevators. Motorists should park cars and seek shelter. Stay out of subways. They are not safe. Put out lights. Avoid use of the telephone. Stay calm."
"In Case of a Raid. Shut off all gas ranges, heaters, and furnaces. Turn off pilot lights. Fill bathtub and buckets for use of firemen if mains break. Go to room with fewest windows and lie down. Keep radio turned on. Leave at least one window open. If incendiary bombs fall, spray water on them. Never use splash or stream of water, as the bomb will explode. Bomb will burn fifteen minutes if left alone, only two minutes if sprayed. Don’t use a chemical fire extinguisher on bombs. Co-operate with air-raid wardens. Obey instructions. Above all, keep calm."
PEGLER SALUTES THE PRESIDENT. One of the fiercest and barb-worded critics of the Administration, columnist Westbrook Pegler, took his hat off to the President yesterday in a piece titled "Roosevelt Was Right" --
"No American has more angrily detested and suspected most of the internal operations of the New Deal, but no American more admires now the tenacious bravery of President Roosevelt in his war policy than this author of many criticisms of the Roosevelt Administration. Long before the war began with the sneak-punch invasion of Catholic Poland, the President had made his own decision that Adolph Hitler was determined to see the German nation loose, armed beyond the poor, dumb power of Britain’s military men or the best of ours to imagine, in a campaign to enslave Europe and conquer the United States. Having made up his mind on the basis of plain evidence, Mr. Roosevelt determined that this country must fight for its life against Hitler and Japan and set about creating a war psychology in the American people so that we would not be caught entirely unprepared spiritually or entirely unarmed. In the earlier phases of his preparations he stood almost alone, and it may be remembered that his dramatic Chicago speech about a quarantine for aggressors was savagely denounced . . . . As the war developed, Mr. Roosevelt was accused of surrendering his own country to the British for Britain’s own sake and the cry of war-monger, raised from Berlin, where this war was made, was taken up by many of the President’s own people at home. . . . But all the way from the hour when he first realized that war with Hitler was inevitable down to the moment when Hitler’s ally in the Pacific suddenly bombed a sleeping American city, Mr. Roosevelt stood by his conviction, often under conditions which would have made a weaker man give ground and look for excuses."
Saturday, December 9, 2017
Tuesday, December 9, 1941
ROOSEVELT TO SPEAK TONIGHT. In case you haven’t yet heard, President Roosevelt will address the nation tonight at 10 o’clock Eastern time.
"HOSTILE PLANES" NEAR SAN FRANCISCO? The Associated Press quotes Brigadier General William Ryan of the 4th Interceptor Command as saying a "large number" of unidentified planes approached San Francisco from the sea last night, coming as far as the Golden Gate and then turning southwest. The air-raid sirens sounded in San Francisco, amidst a tremendous amount of confusion as authorities alternately said the alert was merely a test, then claimed a real raid had been expected. There’s no proof the mystery planes were Japanese bombers, but General Ryan said, "They weren’t army planes, they weren’t navy planes, and you can be sure they weren’t civilian planes."
If they were Japanese planes, that’s pretty alarming for any number of reasons. San Francisco is 2,408 miles west of Honolulu, and the presence of a sizeable number of Japanese bombers in the area would suggest that Japanese carriers feel comfortable to roam the Pacific virtually at will. Of course, Tokyo’s overall offensive has already shown a massive Japanese capability to press their military strength over a vast area. They’ve attacked Thailand (which according to reports has already surrendered), Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, Borneo, the Philippines (six separate air attacks), Hawaii, Guam, Midway, and Wake.
The Japanese war machine is no joke. This fight will go on for a long time.
"INFAMY." I have never heard the President speak with such righteous indignance as he did in the joint session yesterday. His voice turned contemptuous as he recounted the peace talks with Nomura and Kurusu -- negotiations which took place as the warlords of Tokyo cynically planned, "many days or even weeks ago," the massive offensive which has now lit the fires of war throughout the Far East. Congress didn’t need any further encouragement to declare war. The two branches of government set records for efficiency -- the President spoke for about six minutes, then the Senate and House passed the war resolutions within 51 minutes of the President’s address. The Senate voted 82-0, the House 388-1. Let Miss Rankin’s dissenting vote be treated with the lack of interest it was shown by the morning papers, which generally relegated it to the inside pages.
It’s interesting to note that the war resolution was not a "declaration of war" in the straightforward sense. Senator George and several other Congressmen agitated Sunday evening for a resolution that didn’t "declare" war, but instead acknowledged an already-existing "state of war" provoked by Japan’s attack. This, they reasoned, would put the blame for the war where it belongs. Judging from the President’s words, that’s what they got -- a declaration stating simply that "since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan . . . a state of war has existed."
HOW BAD IN HAWAII? It sounds worse by the hour. Both the New York Herald Tribune and Chicago Tribune cite anonymous sources as putting U.S. casualties at Pearl Harbor far higher than what the White House has told us so far -- 1,500 dead and another 1,500 wounded. The Chicago Tribune story, by Walter Trohan, says that according to "unimpeachable sources" the Japanese raiders sunk or disabled six capital ships, an aircraft carrier, and "numerous" support vessels. Another source says told Mr. Trohan that the U.S. "clearly has lost its margin of superiority in the Pacific" in the wake of the raid. "Washington officials" say it’s the "greatest reverse of its kind in history."
Already, amidst the cries for national unity, there are calls for an investigation. Edward T. Folliard writes in this morning’s Washington Post that there’s been at least one call to court martial the Army and Navy commandants in Hawaii. "No one can tell me they weren’t sound asleep," one Congressman said. The chairmen of the House and Senate Naval Affairs Committees, Senator Walsh and Representative Vinson, have called upon the Navy Department to explain how the Japanese struck some 3,500 miles from their home bases without being detected.
I want to hear those answers too -- but wouldn’t Tokyo want most of all to hear about our military weaknesses? This kind of inquiry can wait.
HOW WE COULD LOSE THE WAR. Walter Lippmann’s column in the New York Herald Tribune this morning reminds us that the stakes of this war are the survival of America itself --
"Overnight we have, it is true, become at long last a united people. Yet that alone will not avail us unless we also become an awakened people -- wide awake to the stark truth that the very existence of the Nation, the lives, the liberties and the fortunes of all of us, are in the balance. We are not facing a feeble and contemptible little enemy on the distant shores of Asia but the most carefully prepared, highly organized, and shrewdly directed combination which has ever set out to conquer the world. This is not a separate little war in the Pacific between Japan and the United States. This is the world war in the complete and literal sense of the words -- a war which can only end in our victory or our defeat. If it ends in our defeat, let no one imagine that we shall be treated mercifully, or generously, or honorably. Let no one imagine that the price of defeat is anything less than invasion and occupation upon the North American continent itself -- if ever the bastions of British and American sea power are conquered. The planes which bombed Hawaii could just as easily have bombed San Francisco or Panama if the fleet did not bar the way. The troops which have been landed in Malaya could -- if American and British command of the seas were lost -- be landed in Brazil or Alaska. We are fighting as the British are fighting, as the Russians are fighting, as the Chinese are fighting, for our own survival. Only by opening our eyes to this grim fact can we cast off the deadly delusion that behind the protection of our oceans we could sit around waiting and arguing whether we chose or did not choose to move until our own soil was violated. If we do not purge ourselves absolutely of this delusion, we can lose this war."
One would hope that we realize this by now. But I remember the Congressional debate last year on whether to fortify our outpost on Guam, how the isolationists railed at spending defense dollars on something that was sure to "provoke" Japan. After all, they reasoned, Guam was so far away from U.S. shores, and as Colonel Lindbergh told us again and again, what more do we need than the wide expanses of the Atlantic and the Pacific to protect us?
Yesterday Guam fell to the Japanese. Tokyo says it did so without resistance. Let us never again cede territory, or surrender a battlefield, in order to prop up a delusion.
THREE CHEERS FOR THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE. In a front-page editorial Monday, America’s most rabidly isolationist newspaper offered a message that extremist Roosevelt-haters need very badly to hear right now --
"War has been forced on America by an insane clique of Japanese militarists who apparently see the desperate conflict into which they have led their country as the only thing that can prolong their power. Thus the thing we have all feared, that so many of us have worked with all our hearts to avert, has happened. That is all that counts. It has happened. America faces war through no volition of any American. Recriminations are useless and we doubt that they will be indulged in. Certainly not by us. All that matters today is that we are in the war and the nation must face that simple fact. All of us, from this day forth, have only one task. That is to strike with all our might to protect and preserve the American freedom that we all hold dear."
"HOSTILE PLANES" NEAR SAN FRANCISCO? The Associated Press quotes Brigadier General William Ryan of the 4th Interceptor Command as saying a "large number" of unidentified planes approached San Francisco from the sea last night, coming as far as the Golden Gate and then turning southwest. The air-raid sirens sounded in San Francisco, amidst a tremendous amount of confusion as authorities alternately said the alert was merely a test, then claimed a real raid had been expected. There’s no proof the mystery planes were Japanese bombers, but General Ryan said, "They weren’t army planes, they weren’t navy planes, and you can be sure they weren’t civilian planes."
If they were Japanese planes, that’s pretty alarming for any number of reasons. San Francisco is 2,408 miles west of Honolulu, and the presence of a sizeable number of Japanese bombers in the area would suggest that Japanese carriers feel comfortable to roam the Pacific virtually at will. Of course, Tokyo’s overall offensive has already shown a massive Japanese capability to press their military strength over a vast area. They’ve attacked Thailand (which according to reports has already surrendered), Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, Borneo, the Philippines (six separate air attacks), Hawaii, Guam, Midway, and Wake.
The Japanese war machine is no joke. This fight will go on for a long time.
"INFAMY." I have never heard the President speak with such righteous indignance as he did in the joint session yesterday. His voice turned contemptuous as he recounted the peace talks with Nomura and Kurusu -- negotiations which took place as the warlords of Tokyo cynically planned, "many days or even weeks ago," the massive offensive which has now lit the fires of war throughout the Far East. Congress didn’t need any further encouragement to declare war. The two branches of government set records for efficiency -- the President spoke for about six minutes, then the Senate and House passed the war resolutions within 51 minutes of the President’s address. The Senate voted 82-0, the House 388-1. Let Miss Rankin’s dissenting vote be treated with the lack of interest it was shown by the morning papers, which generally relegated it to the inside pages.
It’s interesting to note that the war resolution was not a "declaration of war" in the straightforward sense. Senator George and several other Congressmen agitated Sunday evening for a resolution that didn’t "declare" war, but instead acknowledged an already-existing "state of war" provoked by Japan’s attack. This, they reasoned, would put the blame for the war where it belongs. Judging from the President’s words, that’s what they got -- a declaration stating simply that "since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan . . . a state of war has existed."
HOW BAD IN HAWAII? It sounds worse by the hour. Both the New York Herald Tribune and Chicago Tribune cite anonymous sources as putting U.S. casualties at Pearl Harbor far higher than what the White House has told us so far -- 1,500 dead and another 1,500 wounded. The Chicago Tribune story, by Walter Trohan, says that according to "unimpeachable sources" the Japanese raiders sunk or disabled six capital ships, an aircraft carrier, and "numerous" support vessels. Another source says told Mr. Trohan that the U.S. "clearly has lost its margin of superiority in the Pacific" in the wake of the raid. "Washington officials" say it’s the "greatest reverse of its kind in history."
Already, amidst the cries for national unity, there are calls for an investigation. Edward T. Folliard writes in this morning’s Washington Post that there’s been at least one call to court martial the Army and Navy commandants in Hawaii. "No one can tell me they weren’t sound asleep," one Congressman said. The chairmen of the House and Senate Naval Affairs Committees, Senator Walsh and Representative Vinson, have called upon the Navy Department to explain how the Japanese struck some 3,500 miles from their home bases without being detected.
I want to hear those answers too -- but wouldn’t Tokyo want most of all to hear about our military weaknesses? This kind of inquiry can wait.
HOW WE COULD LOSE THE WAR. Walter Lippmann’s column in the New York Herald Tribune this morning reminds us that the stakes of this war are the survival of America itself --
"Overnight we have, it is true, become at long last a united people. Yet that alone will not avail us unless we also become an awakened people -- wide awake to the stark truth that the very existence of the Nation, the lives, the liberties and the fortunes of all of us, are in the balance. We are not facing a feeble and contemptible little enemy on the distant shores of Asia but the most carefully prepared, highly organized, and shrewdly directed combination which has ever set out to conquer the world. This is not a separate little war in the Pacific between Japan and the United States. This is the world war in the complete and literal sense of the words -- a war which can only end in our victory or our defeat. If it ends in our defeat, let no one imagine that we shall be treated mercifully, or generously, or honorably. Let no one imagine that the price of defeat is anything less than invasion and occupation upon the North American continent itself -- if ever the bastions of British and American sea power are conquered. The planes which bombed Hawaii could just as easily have bombed San Francisco or Panama if the fleet did not bar the way. The troops which have been landed in Malaya could -- if American and British command of the seas were lost -- be landed in Brazil or Alaska. We are fighting as the British are fighting, as the Russians are fighting, as the Chinese are fighting, for our own survival. Only by opening our eyes to this grim fact can we cast off the deadly delusion that behind the protection of our oceans we could sit around waiting and arguing whether we chose or did not choose to move until our own soil was violated. If we do not purge ourselves absolutely of this delusion, we can lose this war."
One would hope that we realize this by now. But I remember the Congressional debate last year on whether to fortify our outpost on Guam, how the isolationists railed at spending defense dollars on something that was sure to "provoke" Japan. After all, they reasoned, Guam was so far away from U.S. shores, and as Colonel Lindbergh told us again and again, what more do we need than the wide expanses of the Atlantic and the Pacific to protect us?
Yesterday Guam fell to the Japanese. Tokyo says it did so without resistance. Let us never again cede territory, or surrender a battlefield, in order to prop up a delusion.
THREE CHEERS FOR THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE. In a front-page editorial Monday, America’s most rabidly isolationist newspaper offered a message that extremist Roosevelt-haters need very badly to hear right now --
"War has been forced on America by an insane clique of Japanese militarists who apparently see the desperate conflict into which they have led their country as the only thing that can prolong their power. Thus the thing we have all feared, that so many of us have worked with all our hearts to avert, has happened. That is all that counts. It has happened. America faces war through no volition of any American. Recriminations are useless and we doubt that they will be indulged in. Certainly not by us. All that matters today is that we are in the war and the nation must face that simple fact. All of us, from this day forth, have only one task. That is to strike with all our might to protect and preserve the American freedom that we all hold dear."
Thursday, December 7, 2017
Sunday, December 7, 1941 (afternoon)
THE AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR. So much for the guesswork this past week over whether a Japanese strike in the South Pacific would lead to a U.S. declaration of war, a "war of nerves," or something in-between. In one brash, audacious, and villainous move, Tokyo has made things crystal-clear. America is now at war -- not an undeclared war such as the one we’ve been fighting with Nazi vessels in the Atlantic, but an all-out war of survival. Whether Congress votes a declaration of war or acknowledges a "state of war" or does nothing, it does not matter now. What matters is that the Japanese Empire has cold-bloodedly decided to try and kill us. To save ourselves, we must kill the Japanese Empire. It’s as simple as that.
H.V. Kaltenborn’s mid-afternoon commentary on the N.B.C.-Red network offered some reassuring words -- "You may rest assured that both our army and particularly our navy and our air force were not caught by surprise by this attack. They knew what they might have to expect and they were ready for anything that might happen. They have been ready for along time." I so hope that’s true. But all I know is my first response was -- Hawaii?? There’s been a lot of press speculation about where the Japanese might strike -- Thailand, Burma, the Dutch East Indies, Siberia. But not Pearl Harbor.
BOMBING RAID OR PRELUDE TO INVASION? It’s hard to say for sure yet. Here’s what we do know, taken from a bulletin broadcast on N.B.C. a little while ago, and compiled by reporters for the Honolulu Advertiser --
The first group of planes attacked Ford Island at Pearl Harbor. Japanese planes attacked Hickam Field and Wheeler Field as well. Bellows Field "bombed very heavily." At Pearl, three ships were attacked -- the Oklahoma was set afire. All lines of communications down. No statement from the Navy Department yet. Civilians are to stay off the streets. After attacking the airfields, several squadrons of planes came in from the south over Diamond Head, dropping bombs and incendiary bombs on Honolulu. One bomb fell in front of the governor’s mansion, another near the Honolulu Advertiser. "Heavy bombing" in two residential districts. A direct bomb hit on a barrack at Hickam Field killed 350 men.
As grim as this sounds, other reports are are even more worrying. One N.B.C. bulletin says that "parachute troops" have been sighted off Harbor Point. An unverified report from a United Press correspondent in Honolulu says that "cannon fire" could be heard from a "foreign warship" sighted off Pearl Harbor. Another N.B.C. bulletin this afternoon says "at least one enemy aircraft carrier" is participating in a "naval engagement" near Pearl. All this suggests that Tokyo has more in mind than a quick strike against the U.S. Navy -- they plan to seize the islands and complete the destructive work their air raiders have begun.
On the other hand, I’ve only heard one direct eyewitness report of the raid, which came from KGO in Honolulu via a telephone line to N.B.C.-Red. The correspondent, whose name I didn’t catch, described the raid as "very severe," almost three hours in duration, but said "the navy and army appear to have the air and sea under control." Let’s hope and pray that's the case.
MAYBE TOKYO’S NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS? I can’t recall ever listening-in to Upton Close before. He’s a "Far Eastern expert" for N.B.C., and judging by his comments on the Pearl Harbor bombing, he’s also flakier than a coconut pie. I don’t know his political leanings, but his comments today are drawn deep from the well of crackpot isolationism.
His theory, as broadcast this afternoon -- the Japanese government is innocent of complicity in the attack, which was launched by rogue elements in the Japanese Navy, assisted by Nazi conspirators who are trying to embroil the U.S. and Japan in war. His evidence -- he spoke by telephone to the Japanese consul-general in San Francisco, who denied knowing anything about plans for the attack! Well? What more proof do you need? Obviously, Tokyo was in the dark about this.
Here’s a transcription of his comments, from acetate --
"I suppose that if the attack on Honolulu had been made in such force as to destroy the American naval base there, we might believe that the Japanese government is behind it as a matter of policy. But you notice that the news gives us every assurance that it is far from destroyed, and that the only thing left there now as a result of the first attack are a few parachute troops wandering around on the sand somewhere on the north end of Oahu Island. They will soon be pulled in the bag and we’ll find out who sent them. It is possible, my friends, that this is a coup engineered by German influences and with the aid of German vessels in the Pacific. . . . engineered by a small portion of the Japanese navy that has gone fanatic and decided to precipitate war."
Shortly after this, Mr. Close left the surface of the Earth --
"Still again, it is possible that this is a coup engineered by the group in Japan that wants the group that wants war kicked out of office. And that when the thing is brought home to the Tokyo government, it might be possible for the Tokyo government to repudiate the action, call upon the nation to repair the injury to America, by agreeing to American terms, and precipitating a complete revolution in the government in Tokyo. All these things are possible."
In other words, the Pearl Harbor attack could lead to peace. But only if the Roosevelt Administration doesn’t overreact to it. After all, Mr. Close surmised, Secretary of State Hull’s nastiness might have caused the Japanese to strike in the first place. Yes, that’s what he said --
"You’ll notice, we are told, that Mr. Hull burst out in true Tennessee language and told the Japanese that their reply was ‘crowded with infamous falsehoods and distortions.’ I have been in many a Japanese brawl, I am sorry to say, and I have seen many an argument with Japanese that would have ended just an argument, suddenly burst into violence because something was said by one of the so-called 'white' people in the brawl that suddenly lashed across the Japanese face. Now, it is possible that the Japanese completely lost face and descended to the status of being willing to engage in a violent brawl as a result of this answer, although it might be that this answer and Secretary Hull’s message came at the same time. But it sounds like one of those Japanese arguments that suddenly descends into violence."
Then, finally, Mr. Close offered what he called San Francisco’s man-in-the-street response to the Japanese attack -- "If they did it on purpose, they have certainly got guts." Somehow I doubt that’s what the cabbies in San Fran are saying this afternoon.
And even if somehow, it turned out that the Pearl Harbor attack was a military decision, and not a political one, does it matter? This is clearly a major raid, not some kids tossing a string of firecrackers on Grandpa’s front porch. If "rogue" military elements in Japan have the capability to launch a major attack involving large forces of the Japanese military, that gives them the status of a government. Of course, General Tojo’s cabinet is not exactly composed of pacifists, and the idea that the current Tokyo regime would oppose such an attack is ludicrous in the first place -- not to mention contrary to Tojo’s own recent comments.
N.B.C. listeners deserve better on this critical day than this kind of hooey.
H.V. Kaltenborn’s mid-afternoon commentary on the N.B.C.-Red network offered some reassuring words -- "You may rest assured that both our army and particularly our navy and our air force were not caught by surprise by this attack. They knew what they might have to expect and they were ready for anything that might happen. They have been ready for along time." I so hope that’s true. But all I know is my first response was -- Hawaii?? There’s been a lot of press speculation about where the Japanese might strike -- Thailand, Burma, the Dutch East Indies, Siberia. But not Pearl Harbor.
BOMBING RAID OR PRELUDE TO INVASION? It’s hard to say for sure yet. Here’s what we do know, taken from a bulletin broadcast on N.B.C. a little while ago, and compiled by reporters for the Honolulu Advertiser --
The first group of planes attacked Ford Island at Pearl Harbor. Japanese planes attacked Hickam Field and Wheeler Field as well. Bellows Field "bombed very heavily." At Pearl, three ships were attacked -- the Oklahoma was set afire. All lines of communications down. No statement from the Navy Department yet. Civilians are to stay off the streets. After attacking the airfields, several squadrons of planes came in from the south over Diamond Head, dropping bombs and incendiary bombs on Honolulu. One bomb fell in front of the governor’s mansion, another near the Honolulu Advertiser. "Heavy bombing" in two residential districts. A direct bomb hit on a barrack at Hickam Field killed 350 men.
As grim as this sounds, other reports are are even more worrying. One N.B.C. bulletin says that "parachute troops" have been sighted off Harbor Point. An unverified report from a United Press correspondent in Honolulu says that "cannon fire" could be heard from a "foreign warship" sighted off Pearl Harbor. Another N.B.C. bulletin this afternoon says "at least one enemy aircraft carrier" is participating in a "naval engagement" near Pearl. All this suggests that Tokyo has more in mind than a quick strike against the U.S. Navy -- they plan to seize the islands and complete the destructive work their air raiders have begun.
On the other hand, I’ve only heard one direct eyewitness report of the raid, which came from KGO in Honolulu via a telephone line to N.B.C.-Red. The correspondent, whose name I didn’t catch, described the raid as "very severe," almost three hours in duration, but said "the navy and army appear to have the air and sea under control." Let’s hope and pray that's the case.
MAYBE TOKYO’S NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS? I can’t recall ever listening-in to Upton Close before. He’s a "Far Eastern expert" for N.B.C., and judging by his comments on the Pearl Harbor bombing, he’s also flakier than a coconut pie. I don’t know his political leanings, but his comments today are drawn deep from the well of crackpot isolationism.
His theory, as broadcast this afternoon -- the Japanese government is innocent of complicity in the attack, which was launched by rogue elements in the Japanese Navy, assisted by Nazi conspirators who are trying to embroil the U.S. and Japan in war. His evidence -- he spoke by telephone to the Japanese consul-general in San Francisco, who denied knowing anything about plans for the attack! Well? What more proof do you need? Obviously, Tokyo was in the dark about this.
Here’s a transcription of his comments, from acetate --
"I suppose that if the attack on Honolulu had been made in such force as to destroy the American naval base there, we might believe that the Japanese government is behind it as a matter of policy. But you notice that the news gives us every assurance that it is far from destroyed, and that the only thing left there now as a result of the first attack are a few parachute troops wandering around on the sand somewhere on the north end of Oahu Island. They will soon be pulled in the bag and we’ll find out who sent them. It is possible, my friends, that this is a coup engineered by German influences and with the aid of German vessels in the Pacific. . . . engineered by a small portion of the Japanese navy that has gone fanatic and decided to precipitate war."
Shortly after this, Mr. Close left the surface of the Earth --
"Still again, it is possible that this is a coup engineered by the group in Japan that wants the group that wants war kicked out of office. And that when the thing is brought home to the Tokyo government, it might be possible for the Tokyo government to repudiate the action, call upon the nation to repair the injury to America, by agreeing to American terms, and precipitating a complete revolution in the government in Tokyo. All these things are possible."
In other words, the Pearl Harbor attack could lead to peace. But only if the Roosevelt Administration doesn’t overreact to it. After all, Mr. Close surmised, Secretary of State Hull’s nastiness might have caused the Japanese to strike in the first place. Yes, that’s what he said --
"You’ll notice, we are told, that Mr. Hull burst out in true Tennessee language and told the Japanese that their reply was ‘crowded with infamous falsehoods and distortions.’ I have been in many a Japanese brawl, I am sorry to say, and I have seen many an argument with Japanese that would have ended just an argument, suddenly burst into violence because something was said by one of the so-called 'white' people in the brawl that suddenly lashed across the Japanese face. Now, it is possible that the Japanese completely lost face and descended to the status of being willing to engage in a violent brawl as a result of this answer, although it might be that this answer and Secretary Hull’s message came at the same time. But it sounds like one of those Japanese arguments that suddenly descends into violence."
Then, finally, Mr. Close offered what he called San Francisco’s man-in-the-street response to the Japanese attack -- "If they did it on purpose, they have certainly got guts." Somehow I doubt that’s what the cabbies in San Fran are saying this afternoon.
And even if somehow, it turned out that the Pearl Harbor attack was a military decision, and not a political one, does it matter? This is clearly a major raid, not some kids tossing a string of firecrackers on Grandpa’s front porch. If "rogue" military elements in Japan have the capability to launch a major attack involving large forces of the Japanese military, that gives them the status of a government. Of course, General Tojo’s cabinet is not exactly composed of pacifists, and the idea that the current Tokyo regime would oppose such an attack is ludicrous in the first place -- not to mention contrary to Tojo’s own recent comments.
N.B.C. listeners deserve better on this critical day than this kind of hooey.
Sunday, December 7, 1941
AN EVENTFUL WEEK-END. Until this morning it looked like the big news of the week-end would be Britain’s declaration of war on Finland (along with the Nazi satellite states of Rumania and Bulgaria). Then came word of President Roosevelt’s dramatic appeal to Japan’s Emperor Hirohito, which James M. Minifie of the New York Herald Tribune calls "a last-minute bid for peace." Mr. Minifie’s account describes just how tense things have gotten in the South Pacific --
"The President took this dramatic action as information came in that Japanese troops were moving while the British prepared to meet them by ordering their fighting men in Singapore to action stations and the American authorities in Manila decreed the immediate evacuation of non-essential civilians from the Philippine capital."
Mr. Minifie writes that the State Department puts the number of Japanese troops in Indo-China now at 125,000. According to the Chicago Tribune, the Administration also has gotten wind of "two heavily escorted Japanese convoys" sailing from Indo-China into the Gulf of Siam -- presumably heading for landing points in Thailand.
And if this wasn’t enough cause for worry, the Associated Press reports this morning that a new Nazi assault on Moscow, comprising some 1,500,000 men, has put the Soviet capital in her "direst peril" yet. Both sides are making their usual extravagant claims and counter-claims. One thing that is not in dispute is that the fighting is taking place in temperatures of thirty below zero.
A HOT ONE FROM TOKYO. The Tojo government has replied to President Roosevelt’s inquiry about Tokyo’s big buildup in Indo-China. According to the Japanese, it’s merely a "precautionary measure" in response to Chinese troop movements. I can’t even imagine the most fire-breathing America Firster buying that, and Secretary Hull doesn’t even consider it worthy of rebuttal. According to the Washington Post – the Secretary, "in what appeared to be an understatement of the official view in Washington, said in response to a press conference question on the Japanese explanation that he had no feelings on the matter now which he had not had before the note was delivered."
THE TRIBUNE PRINTS SECRET DEFENSE DOCUMENTS. Last Thursday, while the rest of the press was focused on the deteriorating state of affairs in the Pacific, the Chicago Tribune claimed a whale of an exclusive -- the publication of what they grandeloquently called "F.D.R.’s Secret War Plans." These documents are said to "reveal" that the President plans a massive U.S. Army of ten million men, including a five-million-strong American Expeditionary Force which would sail to Europe and seize the entire continent. Since then successive Tribune front pages have crowed about its "history making" revelations.
But it looks like there’s less here than meets the eye. While the Tribune may have hoped its scoop would be "history making," it didn't stop the House from voting $8,000,000,000 in supplemental defense appropriations the following day (by a vote of 309-5). And according to Secretary Stimson, the Tribune’s "exclusive" is really a secret War Department study on the feasibility of such an offensive, one of the many such studies the government undertakes on what the military might face in a war. But while not a statement of actual U.S. policy, its contents still could be useful to our potential enemies. For that reason, according to the Secretary, the Tribune was "wanting in loyalty and patriotism" for publishing this document.
"Wanting in loyalty and patriotism." Gosh, somebody else has noticed.
"WE FACE A WORLD WAR." Mark Sullivan’s column today looks at the need for an A.E.F.-style commitment to send troops abroad in event of war --
"At the moment this is written we are extremely close to war with Japan. If that comes -- thus it is thought by many -- it will be wholly a war for our naval and air forces, not for our soldiers. They think there will be no need for soldiers of the United States to fight outside the limits laid down in the Draft Act: the Western Hemisphere, together with our territories and possessions including the Philippine Islands. But can we be sure? If we should fight Japan it would be greatly to our advantage if our air force could have bases at Vladivostok and elsewhere in Russian Siberia. If we have such bases it would be desirable to have soldiers there to guard them. It might even be desirable to have a considerable Army in Siberia. Also, if we are at war with Japan, Britain will be united with us. Prime Minister Churchill has said that Britain would be at war with Japan within an hour after the United States is. With the United States and Britain united in a war with Japan, a most important base of operations would be Singapore on the Malay Peninsula, occupied by Britain. It might readily become desirable for us to have an armed force at Singapore, either supplanting the British force or in place of the British force. Wholehearted cooperation between ourselves and Britain in a war with Japan might call upon us to provide practically all the necessary soldiers in Singapore, releasing British soldiers for service where Britain needs them sorely, in Europe and Africa."
A LOOK BACK AT 1942. Time magazine had a double-page subscription advertisement in last week’s issue, listing some of the major events of next year that Time’s writers and editors will report on. And they include some good tidings on the war (which the Time-sters seem to think America will be fighting by then) --
February 12, 1942 - Uprising of Zagreb. Here began the armed disorders which swept the Nazis from the Balkans."
"April 14, 1942 -- Isle of Dordrecht. Here Britain began a successful invasion of the continent."
"May 11, 1942 -- Over the Great Deep of Japan. A U.S. fleet under Admiral Stark here defeated the flower of the Japanese Navy."
"May 21, 1942 -- Battle of Bornholm. Where a small British fleet wiped out the Nazi navy in 27 minutes."
"November 5, 1942 - Santos, Brazil. Here the exiled Benito Mussolini broadcast Hitler’s secret plans to the world."
"November 23, 1942 - Berchtesgaden. Adolf Hitler deposed by Goering. Riots in Berlin, Munich, Mannheim."
Time isn’t claiming to have a working crystal ball. "But it would be much more amazing still," the ad reads, "if the decisive year ahead failed to produce stories even stranger, news even more historic, discoveries and inventions and achievements even more significant than those [described here.]"
Well, let’s hope that at least a couple of Time’s imagined events really do come to pass.
"The President took this dramatic action as information came in that Japanese troops were moving while the British prepared to meet them by ordering their fighting men in Singapore to action stations and the American authorities in Manila decreed the immediate evacuation of non-essential civilians from the Philippine capital."
Mr. Minifie writes that the State Department puts the number of Japanese troops in Indo-China now at 125,000. According to the Chicago Tribune, the Administration also has gotten wind of "two heavily escorted Japanese convoys" sailing from Indo-China into the Gulf of Siam -- presumably heading for landing points in Thailand.
And if this wasn’t enough cause for worry, the Associated Press reports this morning that a new Nazi assault on Moscow, comprising some 1,500,000 men, has put the Soviet capital in her "direst peril" yet. Both sides are making their usual extravagant claims and counter-claims. One thing that is not in dispute is that the fighting is taking place in temperatures of thirty below zero.
A HOT ONE FROM TOKYO. The Tojo government has replied to President Roosevelt’s inquiry about Tokyo’s big buildup in Indo-China. According to the Japanese, it’s merely a "precautionary measure" in response to Chinese troop movements. I can’t even imagine the most fire-breathing America Firster buying that, and Secretary Hull doesn’t even consider it worthy of rebuttal. According to the Washington Post – the Secretary, "in what appeared to be an understatement of the official view in Washington, said in response to a press conference question on the Japanese explanation that he had no feelings on the matter now which he had not had before the note was delivered."
THE TRIBUNE PRINTS SECRET DEFENSE DOCUMENTS. Last Thursday, while the rest of the press was focused on the deteriorating state of affairs in the Pacific, the Chicago Tribune claimed a whale of an exclusive -- the publication of what they grandeloquently called "F.D.R.’s Secret War Plans." These documents are said to "reveal" that the President plans a massive U.S. Army of ten million men, including a five-million-strong American Expeditionary Force which would sail to Europe and seize the entire continent. Since then successive Tribune front pages have crowed about its "history making" revelations.
But it looks like there’s less here than meets the eye. While the Tribune may have hoped its scoop would be "history making," it didn't stop the House from voting $8,000,000,000 in supplemental defense appropriations the following day (by a vote of 309-5). And according to Secretary Stimson, the Tribune’s "exclusive" is really a secret War Department study on the feasibility of such an offensive, one of the many such studies the government undertakes on what the military might face in a war. But while not a statement of actual U.S. policy, its contents still could be useful to our potential enemies. For that reason, according to the Secretary, the Tribune was "wanting in loyalty and patriotism" for publishing this document.
"Wanting in loyalty and patriotism." Gosh, somebody else has noticed.
"WE FACE A WORLD WAR." Mark Sullivan’s column today looks at the need for an A.E.F.-style commitment to send troops abroad in event of war --
"At the moment this is written we are extremely close to war with Japan. If that comes -- thus it is thought by many -- it will be wholly a war for our naval and air forces, not for our soldiers. They think there will be no need for soldiers of the United States to fight outside the limits laid down in the Draft Act: the Western Hemisphere, together with our territories and possessions including the Philippine Islands. But can we be sure? If we should fight Japan it would be greatly to our advantage if our air force could have bases at Vladivostok and elsewhere in Russian Siberia. If we have such bases it would be desirable to have soldiers there to guard them. It might even be desirable to have a considerable Army in Siberia. Also, if we are at war with Japan, Britain will be united with us. Prime Minister Churchill has said that Britain would be at war with Japan within an hour after the United States is. With the United States and Britain united in a war with Japan, a most important base of operations would be Singapore on the Malay Peninsula, occupied by Britain. It might readily become desirable for us to have an armed force at Singapore, either supplanting the British force or in place of the British force. Wholehearted cooperation between ourselves and Britain in a war with Japan might call upon us to provide practically all the necessary soldiers in Singapore, releasing British soldiers for service where Britain needs them sorely, in Europe and Africa."
A LOOK BACK AT 1942. Time magazine had a double-page subscription advertisement in last week’s issue, listing some of the major events of next year that Time’s writers and editors will report on. And they include some good tidings on the war (which the Time-sters seem to think America will be fighting by then) --
February 12, 1942 - Uprising of Zagreb. Here began the armed disorders which swept the Nazis from the Balkans."
"April 14, 1942 -- Isle of Dordrecht. Here Britain began a successful invasion of the continent."
"May 11, 1942 -- Over the Great Deep of Japan. A U.S. fleet under Admiral Stark here defeated the flower of the Japanese Navy."
"May 21, 1942 -- Battle of Bornholm. Where a small British fleet wiped out the Nazi navy in 27 minutes."
"November 5, 1942 - Santos, Brazil. Here the exiled Benito Mussolini broadcast Hitler’s secret plans to the world."
"November 23, 1942 - Berchtesgaden. Adolf Hitler deposed by Goering. Riots in Berlin, Munich, Mannheim."
Time isn’t claiming to have a working crystal ball. "But it would be much more amazing still," the ad reads, "if the decisive year ahead failed to produce stories even stranger, news even more historic, discoveries and inventions and achievements even more significant than those [described here.]"
Well, let’s hope that at least a couple of Time’s imagined events really do come to pass.
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