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."