It Was Our World War Too

Pearl Harbor

There was mounting tension between Japan and the United States in the late thirties and into the forties. Japan wanted to gain control of the oil and other assets in Southeast Asia. They wanted to negotiate terms beneficial to their expansion plans.

Observing the actions of the Japanese, both commercially and militarily, Roosevelt froze all Japanese assets in the United States.

Japan’s response was cold and unfriendly. Roosevelt responded saying continued aggression would result in the United States taking action.

Hitler had promised to overturn the Peace Treaty of Versailles and expand German borders to meet the needs of his plans for Germany. He became chancellor of Germany and established himself as dictator.

Early in 1938, Hitler had annexed Austria. Later that year he took control of the western border area of Czechoslovakia.

Less than six months later he seized the remainder of the country. These were areas the Kolesa family were very familiar with. When Yugoslavia was taken over in 1941, the Zivic family became personally concerned. The roots of the Rogers and Pester families are located deep in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and France, and they too followed events leading to the war very closely.

Meanwhile, the Japanese war council, with Emperor Hirohito present, was making plans for the attack on Pearl Harbor. On August 6, 1941, Japan asked the United States to lift the trade embargo and “talk.” Japan continued its aggressive action, and Roosevelt halted exports of iron and steel to Japan on September 26th. The next day Germany and Italy signed an economic and military alliance with Japan, creating the Axis.

Japan’s Imperial Headquarters issued plans on November 5th for an attack against Pearl Harbor. The strike force set forth on November 26th. On December 1st, in a meeting with Emperor Hirohito again present, the war council voted to begin hostilities. Their embassies in Washington began destroying secret documents relating to their plans.

By far, the most important event that took place during 1941 was the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan, resulting in the declaration of war by the United States on Japan, Germany, and Italy. The Allied Forces invaded North Africa. France fell to Germany. The declaration of war didn’t change the lives of high school students overnight. Our classes went on as usual and I still passed papers. We read the newspapers and listened to the radio more intently.

Pearl Harbor is an inlet of the island of Oahu, Hawaii, located just a few miles from Honolulu.

The United States gained use of the harbor in 1887. They annexed the islands in 1898, making the harbor usable for servicing our largest ships.

In Asia, Japan’s army had remained strong. General Tojo Hideki directed the war against China. He was appointed prime minister of Japan to direct their war against the United States.

President Roosevelt stood firm on United States policy, and Japan scheduled their attack on Pearl Harbor. They knew our Navy was a big obstacle in their plans. Newly appointed Premier Tojo was finalizing Japan’s secret plans to attack the United States fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor. They thought the best plan for success was to surprise the United States with a highly secret air and submarine attack.

A few of the residents of the United States were awake for several hours on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, as information became available about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Tom Schrier, Bud Ramsey, and I had previously made plans to go to Staunton Sunday as a follow-up visit to our “Beat Staunton” escapade, because the students and faculty had been so nice to us when we agreed to clean up our artistic work prior to our annual football rivalry.

Tom’s sister’s car wasn’t available, so we hitched a ride to Staunton. We visited for several hours at the high school. Then we started walking toward home. After passing the city-limit sign, we began to try to catch a ride to Edwardsville.

The first vehicle that came down the road was a pickup truck. The driver, a few years older than we were, stopped and invited us to ride with him. Bud jumped in the back and Tom and I sat in front.

The driver asked if we had heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Of course we hadn’t, so he told us what he heard on the radio that morning. We spent the next hour, with Bud’s head sticking in the window, discussing the attack. The driver said he was out for a ride to clear his head and think about the attack and how it might affect him. He took us all the way to Edwardsville and to each of our homes.

I was greeted at the door by a crying mother who was concerned about her four sons, her brothers and their children, and about Dad’s family and their children. Anita’s dad told her about the bombing at their breakfast table.

A few minutes before 8:00 a.m., Pearl Harbor time, on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, Japanese carrier-based airplanes struck our Navy fleet at Pearl Harbor. The raid that included our air bases in the immediate area lasted less than two hours. We had eight battleships in the harbor, seven of which were either sunk or badly damaged. Ten other ships were damaged or sunk.

Almost 200 of our aircraft were destroyed and over 150 were damaged. The Japanese lost twenty-nine aircraft and six submarines.

More than 2,400 of our soldiers, sailors, and Marines were killed during the 100-minute attack.

The United States declared war on Japan the next day, December 8th. Germany and Italy declared war on the United States on December 11th.

As members of the Edwardsville High School classes of ’42 and ’43, Anita and I were kept informed about current events by reports from our teachers; our deans, J. J. Love and Elsie Sloan; and our principal, D. R. Blodgett. Several seniors had volunteered for military service and had left before the United States declared war on Germany, Italy, and Japan. Mr. Don Lercher, a science teacher, had enlisted in the Army and did not return for the fall term.

Our military technicians had broken the Japanese diplomatic code that morning and knew an attack was imminent. A message was sent immediately from Washington, but it did not arrive until after the attack had started.

Tojo anticipated the United States would declare war on Japan. However, he was confident that Japan would be successful and the United States would not survive.

President and Commander-in-Chief Roosevelt didn’t agree. He called December 7th “a date which will live in infamy.”

President Roosevelt ordered an investigation to determine responsibility for the extent of the damage. The report concluded there were errors of judgment on the parts of the commanding officers, but no dereliction of duty was involved.

After the war ended, the question was raised again and Congress held a full public investigation regarding the question of responsibility. The report of the bipartisan congressional committee generally confirmed the original decision that there were errors of judgment and not of dereliction of duty.

Hoping to take advantage of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Germany launched a U-boat offensive along the east coast of the United States during January 1942.

Anticipating the possible need for activating the Merchant Marine, funding was approved in the late 1930s for building 5,000 merchant ships, most of which would be armed. The Merchant Marine worked closely with the Navy and Coast Guard. Merchant Marine losses during World War II were 674 ships, either sunk or badly damaged.

Nellie Cunningham had a birthday and her sister, Alvera, gave her a party. It was held at the Turner Hall. It was midwinter and very cold. There was a lot of snow on the ground. Everyone Alvera knew was invited.

Anita and I and Bud Ramsey had special invitations. Alvera didn’t know how many to plan for because it was so cold; however, a big crowd came. They enjoyed the refreshments, the games, and the singing of the Happy Birthday song.

We were all friends so we talked a lot. Nellie asked Anita if she had written any letters to me recently.

After the party was over, Alvera, Anita, Bud, and I teamed up and were going to walk Alvera home. We were good friends and made a compatible foursome. Bud decided to pair off with Alvera, and that placed me with Anita.

We were having a conversation about the party and about Alvera and Bud when Anita decided to act like she fainted. She fell down in the snow. That was somewhat of an indication of how our friendship had developed. We felt comfortable doing weird things like that without being thought of as weird.

I saw through her pretense and just stood there looking at her. After a few seconds she asked, “Aren’t you going to help me up?” I replied, “No.” She did sound a bit agitated. Was it real or was she acting?

If she was really mad, it appeared as if our relationship wasn’t going anywhere that day. Then she struggled up out of the snow and started to run away. I ran after her and she let me catch her. We stopped and laughed, started a snowball fight, then fell down and wrestled in the snow.

We got up and reached for each other. That reach turned into a hug. Our first hug.

We didn’t see Bud or Alvera anymore that day. I walked Anita home as we talked. Before saying goodbye, we decided the day was a success and our friendship had progressed a significant amount.

I left after our second hug. This could be the start of something big.

Japan was trying to take advantage of the results of their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. We were busy trying to head off any possibility of their doing so.

Edwardsville High School students were busying ourselves, trying to raise our grade-point averages, finish term papers, and make plans for promotion or graduation.

Two weeks after Pearl Harbor, General MacArthur was appointed commander of all United States ground forces in the Pacific.

His first task was to plan the defense of the Bataan Peninsula.

As part of Premier Tojo’s plan to control the entire Pacific Ocean and China, Japan took control of British Hong Kong and the islands of Gilbert, Guam, and Wake before the end of the year 1941.

They had also invaded British Burma, Malaya, Borneo, and the American-held Philippines. Tojo thought the war was going as planned.

He decided to expand their front to include Midway, the Aleutians, and the Solomon Islands, along with southern New Guinea.

Wake Island was a stopping and refueling point for commercial airline flights between the United States and the Orient. We had a naval air base and a submarine base there, garrisoned by Marines.

On December 7th, concurrent with the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces invaded Wake Island. The Marines were able to hold the island until December 23rd.

The Battle of the Coral Sea took place from May 4th through May 8th. Our aircraft carriers Lexington and Yorktown were sent to sink the Japanese carrier Shoho.

A major battle ensued. The Japanese lost two aircraft carriers, two destroyers, and numerous other ships, and almost 100 airplanes.

The battle for Midway Island—actually two small islands, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, thus its name—was an important part of Japan’s plans to take Hawaii.

That, combined with a foothold in the Aleutians, would give them a basic advantage for their planned invasion of the United States and Canada. We had an aircraft-refueling facility on Midway.

The Japanese put their navy to the test in their effort to capture Midway. The battle didn’t involve infantry.

The two-day battle, June 4–6, was between the Japanese navy and the United States Navy, supported by aircraft from their carriers and our carriers and our planes from Midway.

The Japanese suffered a major defeat, losing four aircraft carriers, two cruisers, and three destroyers.

We lost the carrier Yorktown and one destroyer. Both of us lost numerous aircraft along with the personnel manning the ships and planes.

I had a basic idea of how big an aircraft carrier was and, to a lesser degree, the size of cruisers and destroyers.

To visualize five aircraft carriers—four of theirs, one of ours—a total of six cruisers and destroyers, along with hundreds of aircraft lying at the bottom of the ocean near Midway, with the personnel involved, tested my ability to comprehend the tragedy.

During World War I, Selective Service was used by the United States to strengthen its Army.

In 1940, when faced with the prospect of war, Congress passed the Selective Training Act.

With our declaration of war against Japan, Germany, and Italy in 1941, the act was modified to rapidly build our military strength by more than a million servicemen.

The subject of our possible involvement in the war was acknowledged, but Anita and I didn’t grasp its reality yet.