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Pearl Harbor - Part 14: The Message

At 5:00am on December 7, 1941, U.S. Intelligence intercepts the final part of the Tokyo's instructions to Ambassador Nomura.

Both Nomura and the Americans race to translate it, but are puzzled by what they find.

There is no clear declaration of war, only more accusations against the United States, and the cryptic sentence:

"The Japanese Government regrets to have to notify the American Government that in view of the attitude of the American Government it cannot but consider that it is impossible to reach an agreement through further negotiations."

Nomura has instructions to deliver the full message to Secretary of State Cordell Hull at exactly 1pm Washington time, but his staff is having difficulty decoding it, and he will not make his appointment.

To the Army Intelligence analysts reading part 14 of the message, the wording is ominous enough to upchannel what they had.

Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall informs President Roosevelt, then orders warnings to be sent out to the U.S. military commanders in Hawaii and the Philippines to be on alert for a possible attack.

The warnings, however, do not arrive on time.

Shortly before 3:45am, the watch of the minesweeper U.S.S. Condor operating off Oahu spots something in the water glittering in the moonlight.

Condor radios to a nearby destroyer, U.S.S. Ward, to report the periscope of an unidentified submarine two miles off shore, and closing in on the entrance to Pearl Harbor......

Pearl Harbor - Part 15: Enemy Contact

Following sightings of unidentified submarines in the area, the destroyer USS Ward takes up patrol near the entrance to Pearl Harbor.

Around 6.30am, an American ship reports to the Ward that it has seen the conning tower of a sub racing for the harbor, and Ward moves to intercept it.

When they arrive on the scene, the crew of the Ward spot the sub shadowing the freighter USS Antares as it passes through the submarine nets surrounding Pearl Harbor.

The sub is a 78-foot-long Type A Kō-hyōteki-class midget submarine with a crew of two, armed with two Type 97 torpedoes, one of five subs deployed by the Japanese with orders to attempt to force their way into the harbor during the attack.

A Catalina patrol plane swoops low over the sub and drops smoke markers over its location, and the Ward takes over.

Gunners on board the Ward target the sub, and her captain, Lieutenant Commander William Outerbridge, orders the crew to open fire.

Rounds from the Ward's guns strike the conning tower, and the sub slips beneath the surface. While the Antares continues onward into the harbor, Ward begins dropping depth charges.

The holes in the sub's conning tower dump gallons of seawater into the small vessel. When it hits the batteries, the chemical reaction releases deadly chlorine gas, which fills the sub as it falls to the seafloor 1,200 feet below.

Neither crewman survives.

USS Ward then sends a message back to Pearl:

We have attacked, fired upon and dropped

depth charges upon submarine operating in

defensive sea area.

But the message is slow to be upchannelled, and does not reach the ears of Admiral Kimmel for several hours.

No alert is issued.

Meanwhile, as Ward engages the submarine outside Pearl Harbor, the Japanese carrier task force north of Oahu has turned into the wind, and the first wave of aircraft is launching into the morning sky.

Pearl Harbor - Part 16: Incoming

The U.S. Army radar site at Kahuku Point on northern Oahu is little more than a toy at this point. The trained radarmen have not yet arrived, so the post is manned by inexperienced young troops who are feeling out the equipment.

The radar post only is manned from 4am to 8am, but today the two operators get orders to shut it down early, just before 7am.

But one of them, George Elliott, wants more time on the machine, and so keeps it open.

At 7.02am, Elliott picks up a massive reading - aircraft 137 miles off Oahu and coming in fast from the north.

Elliott calls the information station at nearby Fort Shafter and leaves a message for the Officer of the Day.

A few minutes later, Lieutenant Kermit Tyler calls Elliott back and tells him, "Don't worry about it."

But there is more to Tyler's story. He knows a flight of B-17s is expected from that direction at around that time, but that movement is classified so he cannot tell that to Elliott.

Like Elliott, Tyler is unfamiliar with the radar system - he is a fighter pilot with the 78th Pursuit Squadron who has been rotated into the radar unit to gain experience. Tyler is not to blame for ignoring the blip.

Elliott continues monitoring the incoming formation until 7.39am, when 183 Japanese planes enter the mountain ranges of Oahu, and disperse to their targets.

Pearl Harbor - Part 17: "This Is No Drill"

At 7.43am, Japanese planes appear in the skies over Pearl Harbor and NAS Ford Island, and begin their attack.

Dive bombers drop their bombs into the hangars on Ford Island, blowing them to pieces and catching ground crews completely off guard.

Torpedo planes enter the harbor and begin targeting the ships on Battleship Row, launching their specially altered torpedoes that smash into the American ships below the waterline.

As air raid warnings begin sounding, more dive bombers enter the fight and target the battleships in the harbor, inflicting heavy damage and killing hundreds of sailors still sleeping in their racks below.

As the horror begins to unfold inside Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes fill the skies over Wheeler Field....

Pearl Harbor - Part 18: "Caught on the Ground"

Around the time USS Ward is engaging the Japanese submarine outside of Pearl Harbor, two Army Air Corps fighter pilots, Lieutenants George Welch and Kenneth Taylor, return to their quarters at Wheeler Field after a night out, and collapse into bed still dressed in their tuxedos.

They're not asleep long when an explosion rocks them out of their beds.

Approaching from the east and the west, Japanese planes fill the skies over Wheeler, with fighters strafing the U.S. planes on the ground and dive bombers targeting the hangars.

The first bombs fall between the hangars, right into the tents where the new recruits are sleeping, killing many of them.

Bombs rip through Hangars 1 and 3, and the enlisted barracks is destroyed.

Seeing no resistance, Japanese fighters swoop in and shoot up all the planes on the ground they can find.

With Wheeler burning and most of its aircraft destroyed, the Japanese planes fly on to their next target, Marine Corps Air Station Ewa.

Welch and Taylor, seeing a lull, grab a phone and call their groundcrews at Hale'iwa Fighter Strip, tell them what is happening, and order their planes fueled and armed.

They then jump into Taylor's Buick and race toward Hale'iwa while Japanese planes shoot at them.

As 1pm comes and goes in Washington, Ambassador Nomura still has not finished decoding the 14th part of Tokyo's message to the United States.

Pearl Harbor - Part 19: The Battleships

At 7.55am, USS Arizona's air raid siren sounds as Japanese torpedo planes and dive bombers fill the skies over Pearl Harbor.

Arizona is struck by several bombs, each causing minor damage. But a few minutes into the attack, another bomb breaks through Arizona's deck armor, causing a massive explosion in the forward magazines that rocks the ship and rips through the area below decks, killing more than a thousand men.

Arizona's superstructure begins collapsing, and the ship begins sinking into the harbor.

Nearby, Japanese torpedoes slam into USS Oklahoma, blasting through its hull, and causing it to capsize, trapping hundreds of sailors below decks.

Bombs strike USS Maryland causing light damage, and crewmen from USS Oklahoma reach the Maryland to help her gunners shoot back at the attack planes.

USS California also is hit by torpedos, and sinks slowly over the next few days.

While USS Nevada's crew get her engines ready to go, a Japanese torpedo bomber scores a broadside hit on the ship as Nevada's gunners shoot the plane out of the sky.

Damaged below the waterline, Nevada is able to maneuver herself through the harbor while her gunners continue taking a heavy toll on the Japanese planes.

Targeted again during the next wave of the attack, Nevada manages to ground herself off Hospital Point, thereby avoiding sinking in the harbor and blocking the channel.

USS Pennsylvania is in drydock and suffers only minor damage.

Torpedoes strike USS West Virginia and she sinks in shallow water.

Moored next to the West Virginia, USS Tennessee is trapped by damaged ships and is struck by several bombs. As Oklahoma capsizes, she wedges Tennessee into the dock and locks her there, but the Tennessee does not sink.

Chaos engulfs the harbor as smaller ships try to maneuver and fight back, taking heavy damage.

By 8.30am, Pearl Harbor, Ford Island, and Hickam Field are burning, and another wave of Japanese planes is on the way.

Some of the messages sent out from Hawaii as the attack was in progress.

Pearl Harbor - Part 20: Hale'iwa Fights Back

With the major U.S. military airfields all over Oahu burning, the small, primative airstrip at Hale'iwa on the north end of the island is one of the few still able to put planes in the sky.

Fighters from the 47th Pursuit Squadron had been on temporary duty at Hale'iwa Field for gunnery training, and when the attack begins U.S. pilots race for the airstrip where ground crews have their planes fueled and armed.

Throughout the morning, American fighter pilots land at Hale'iwa Field to rearm and refuel before rejoining the air battle over Pearl Harbor.

Seeing the danger, Japanese planes continuously strafe the airstrip with machinegun fire trying to knock the ground crews out of action, but when that fails, they detach a flight of heavier fighter-bombers from the main attack to pound Hale'iwa to dust and stop the American counterattack.

But the bombers are intercepted en route by an American fighter that shoots one down and chases the others away, saving the handful of men still working furiously to keep their planes in the fight.

Between them, five pilots flying from Hale'iwa Field shoot down 9 Japanese planes, and all five are awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Among the ground crew at Hale'iwa Field on December 7th was my grandfather, who got the P-40s ready for Lts. Welch and Taylor.

Pearl Harbor - Part 21: The Second Wave

At 8:54am the second wave of Japanese planes appears in the skies over Pearl Harbor, and begins their attack.

As dive bombers target USS Nevada, several break off and go after the destroyer USS Shaw.

The Shaw, locked in a floating dry dock, is struck by three bombs that smash into the ship's forward sections, igniting fires that threaten to engulf the ship.

The Shaw's fire control teams battle the inferno, but very quickly lose control of the blaze as the flames work their way forward to the ammunition magazine.

At 9:25 the order is given to abandon ship.

Five minutes later, the fire hits the magazine.

The explosion blows the front of the ship off and kill 24 of her crew.

The catastrophic explosion of USS Shaw is photographed from several angles, and becomes one of the most enduring images of the day.

As rescuers work to pull Shaw's survivors from the water, the shreiks of sirens, the crash of explosions, and the cries of the wounded fill the air, but the skies above Oahu begin to grow quiet.

Pearl Harbor - Part 22: Damage Control

At around 9.45am, the Japanese planes leave Hawaiian airspace and returned to their carriers.

Fires all over Oahu are burning out of control.

Wheeler, Hickam, Ewa, Ford Island, and other airfields have been badly damaged, with around 50% of the U.S. military aircraft on Oahu destroyed.

The 35 men at Hale'iwa Field all manage to escape the day unharmed, but with Wheeler so badly damaged they have nowhere to go, and the 47th Pursuit Squadron will remain in place there until February.

Pearl Harbor is a mass of smoke and fire, with scores of warships damaged, burning, beached, or sinking.

Sailors trapped in capsized ships wait as rescuers try to cut through the hulls to reach them.

Too many drown before they can be located.

Bodies, many badly burned, float in the harbor and are pulled to shore.

Every medical facility on the island is overflowing with casualties.

The Americans are in shock.

2,335 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines are dead - nearly half of them killed on board USS Arizona.

68 civilians have been killed.

1,178 people are wounded.

All eight of the American battleships are damaged; five have sunk. Three destroyers, three cruisers, and assorted other vessels are gone.

The Japanese have lost twenty-seven planes, along with all five of their midget submarines.

One Japanese sailor is captured alive.

At 2.20pm Washington time, around 90 minutes after the attack began, Japanese Ambassador Kichisaburō Nomura finally has translated the 14th part of Tokyo's message to the United States, and sadly delivers the entire message to Secretary of State Cordell Hull.

Hull reads a few pages, then says to Nomura,

"In all my fifty years of public service I have never seen a document that was more crowded with infamous falsehoods and distortions - infamous falsehoods and distortions on a scale so huge that I never imagined until today that any Government on this planet was capable of uttering them."

Ambassador Nomura does not reply, but instead lowers his head, and quietly leaves the room.

Pearl Harbor - Part 23: Reports

By the time the warning message from Army Chief of Staff George Marshall reaches Admiral Kimmel at Pearl Harbor, the attack is over, and Kimmel is watching in horror as the U.S. Pacific Fleet burns before his eyes.

Signal stations all over the Pacific have by now received the official, frantic communiqué:

AIR RAID PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NO DRILL

Half a world away, many Americans are just coming home from church or are finishing lunch, unaware of what has happened.

The first civilian word of the attack comes from a reporter at an NBC affiliate in Honolulu, who telephones his headquarters in New York to report that an aerial battle is taking place over Pearl Harbor.

Then the news begins trickling out....

Radio programs make tentative announcements....

Wire services begin picking up the story....

Neighbors start phoning each other or stopping by....

Throughout countless little towns and big cities all over North America, people begin hearing the news of a terrible disaster.

And the news is getting worse: Wake Island and the Philippines have been attacked, and the Japanese fleets are on the move in the Pacific.

All over the country, military families are hit the hardest. On their farm in a small town in rural New Hampshire, my great-grandparents have no way of knowing whether their son is dead or alive, and only can wait helplessly for a letter from him, or a telegram from the War Department.

All that afternoon, Americans are glued to their radios. Churches reopen that night as people flock in to pray.

For so many of their generation, this is the defining day of their lives.

Pearl Harbor - Part 24: Memory

More than 50 years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, my grandfather, George McBain, was asked to speak to a local high school about his experiences in the Second World War.

He wrote out several pages of notes, then went and spoke at the school.

My grandmother told me that it ripped him up so badly inside that he broke down in front of the class, and never again accepted an invitation to speak about the war.

I learned later that his talk brought many in that class to tears, because they could see that he was still carrying the pain and the anger from the war, especially from December 7th.

Like so many others of his generation, my grandfather - Papa, as we called him - rarely spoke about World War 2.

After years of uncomfortable silences and dodging our questions, my brothers and I figured out that there were too many things he didn't want us to know, and too many things he just wanted to leave in the past.

So until my grandmother gave me his handwritten notes from that talk, I had no idea where he was or what he had done on December 7, 1941.

I knew he was in Hawaii, and I knew he was stationed at Wheeler Army Airfield, but I had no idea that he was actually one of the small group of men at Hale'iwa Fighter Strip who helped launch the counterattack, and I did not know that he was on the groundcrew for the famous pilots Welch and Taylor, and that he had gotten their planes fueled, armed, and ready to fly for them that morning.

His notes were a treasure trove of information on where he was throughout the war, but one line he wrote about December 7th continues to hit me right in the heart each time I read it:

"I do not know how many service men were

killed during the raids but I do know there

were many missing faces."

This line, more than anything else, puts December 7th into perspective for me. For me, and for my family, it's not about facts, numbers, or abstractions.

For me it's about someone I loved and respected, and the things he did, and the things he saw, and the things he carried with him the rest of his life. It's about the friends he lost, and the youth he left behind during his four years at war in the Pacific.

My grandfather passed away before I learned what I know now about his service. I still have so many unanswered questions, but I suppose I'll have to content myself with never knowing those details he kept buried inside of him all those years.

Am I proud of him? Yes, of course I am. But that certainly isn't because of what I've learned about him since he passed.

The fact is that, before I got this image of him as the young man who dodged bombs and bullets and did incredible things, I knew him as my grandpa, who held me on his lap when I was little, who taught me the intricacies of skills like woodworking and sarcasm, and who gave me the gift of a family name that is still remembered and deeply respected in his community.

Being a hero is less about the deeds you do in life, and more about the testimony your life leaves behind for those who follow you.

So remember Pearl Harbor, but not for the fact that it happened, but rather because it happened to real people, people who were loved and missed, and whose lives and families were impacted, from that morning all the way down to this day.