We Are At War.

Edwardsville Intelligencer (Edwardsville, Illinois) Dec 9, 1941

We Are At War.

(An Editorial)

Japan’s unprovoked and unannounced attack upon the United States removed any remaining doubt about this nation’s position in the world conflict.

We are at war. While it was Japan who attacked us, the other Axis partners, Germany and Italy, are equally our enemies. There is no longer reason for pretense. The United States is in the war and there is no question about who the enemies are.

Japan’s savage attack upon unsuspecting Hawaii is exactly what we should expect from the Axis nations. Germany always strikes first and then announces intentions. Italy stepped into the war with an attack upon France when France was prostrate. Japan’s every move against China has followed the same pattern.

Japan’s method of procedure did bring about united determination in this country to devote all energy to the production of the war. It is reprehensible to us that a nation should make an attack at the very moment its envoys were seemingly engaged in peace negotiations.

Hemisphere solidarity seems assured. The Latin-American nations will give valuable aid, economically, and in furnishing bases and patrols.

We must steel ourselves for a real fight. Japan will not be a push-over. She has been preparing for this conflict for years. The fighting will be on her side of the Pacific, a decided advantage.

We will suffer serious losses. They must be expected. This is real war — grim, relentless war. No quarter will be asked or expected.

The United States faces a tremendous responsibility in the now world-encircling clash between totalitarian and Democratic ideas. We must continue to supply Great Britain, Russia and China, and in addition give our own fighting forces every support.

Our so-called “defense effort” has been little more than half-hearted. Now we must forget all our nationalistic differences, put aside all thought of personal advantage, ignore partisanship and put every effort behind the President and the military forces on the sea, in the air and in the field.

Nothing must be permitted to stand in the way of our prime purpose.

We have a war to win.

Edwardsville Intelligencer (Edwardsville, Illinois) Dec 8, 1941

Edwardsville Intelligencer (Edwardsville, Illinois) Dec 8, 1941

Edwardsville Intelligencer (Edwardsville, Illinois) Dec 9, 1941

Pearl Harbor Pays Homeage To Victims Of 1941 Attack

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TEN YEARS AFTER the treacherous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the scars are gone — but not the memory of “the day that will live in infamy.” In the photo at top, made on Dec. 7, 1941, the battleship California hit by two torpedoes and several aerial bombs, is wrapped in flames as it sinks. In the background other vessels are fire-swept. At bottom is the same locale as it looks today after extensive salvage and reconstruction operations. We now have a peace treaty with Japan and our one-time enemy is our ally. (International)

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Sunken Ship Is Tomb For 1,000

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — Pearl Harbor pays homage today to the men who died in the sneak attack that plunged America into World War II.

At 7:55 a.m. — 10 years to the minute after the first Japanese raiders struck — three chaplains will pray for the dead.

These include 13,000 buried in the National Cemetery and another 1,000 still trapped in the steel tomb of the sunken battleship Arizona.

Barkley, Chapman There

Vice President Alben W. Barkley and Interior Secretary Oscar Chapman will preside at a ceremony. In the wooden office buildings of the Naval Base a few men who remember when the Japanese attacked will go on working.

A few miles away a launch will chug across the harbor to a flagpole rising from the Arizona’s hulk.

Today Pearl Harbor echoes to the sound of war practice, 10 years after 360 Japanese planes streaked out of the northwest and pounced on the helpless outpost.

Not far from the spot where the Japs turned “Battleship Row” into an inferno, the battleship Iowa fires shells onto a target island to sharpen its gunners for combat.

Submarines Busy

Eighteen hours a day gray submarines slip through the breakers and try to elude practicing pilots overhead.

At Hickman Field, where sitting American planes were strafed and blasted, big military transports rumble in and out. They carry 110 pounds of war supplies a minute to Korea.

The big workshops of the sprawling Naval Base hum with the chatter of riveting machines and the clang of hammers — activity brought about by the need to speed men, ships and ammunition to the Korean war front.

On the hill above the harbor unbelieving islanders scrambled to see the columns of black smoke Dec. 7, 1941, trade winds ripple the green grass on the cemetery graves. To the Hawaiians, it is the “Hill of Sacrifice.”

The Chronicle Telegram (Elyria, Ohio) Dec 7, 1951

Jap Attack – Who Was Asleep?

Fitchburg Sentinel (Fitchburg, Massachusetts) Dec 8, 1941

Who Was Asleep?

It is very much of a temptation to raise voices in denunciation of those who were to blame for the failure to be ready for the Japanese attack on Hawaii. But those who denounce are using hindsight. Who heard the news without a great shock of surprise? To tell the truth, none of us. So none of us have any right to pick up the first stone.

The fact is that the failure to see what was coming at Hawaii was only part of the failure to see the whole pattern of events as they were being drawn for many years. We have all been blind to what was going on right under our eyes, all but a few leaders and thinkers. And when they raised warning voices they were ignored or hooted down as war-mongers. The outbreak of Japan is not the result of Germany’s campaign of aggression. The Japanese ambition to dominate the east and drive us out dates back long before Hitler or Mussolini were heard of; in fact, it was the fact that the western democracies were not fearless enough to stop Japan’s first break that tipped off the dictators that it was safe to go ahead.

The Yellow Peril has existed on our back door for a great many years; it has only been held in check by the knowledge that we were the stronger. There has been no question at all that when the time was ripe and Japan felt strong enough, we would have to fight or get out of the Pacific. Volumes have been written about this. The pattern has always been clear. There was no excuse for not knowing it. It is true that we have had years of peace with Japan, but the Japanese smile has always been a hypocritical one, and masked a hatred and contempt that only waited for opportunity to come out in the open.

The strength that Japan needed to oppose us was to come through the domination of China. And we played right into her hands. We watched Japan eating into China, and even when the aggression became so raw that it shocked us, all we did was shake a finger at Japan and speak words of reproof. Then when the final assault on China came, it horrified us but still it did not make us think. We gave moral support to China, but gave immoral and stupid support to Japan by selling her the sinews of war. We know now that only the almost miraculous appearance on the scene of Chang Kai Shek prevented Japan from making good her conquest — leaving her ready to face us as soon as the digestive process was complete.

We were all blind. The blame cannot be placed on any leader or any political party. Any party that proposed an aggressive attitude toward Japan would not have been given support. Only three years ago, congress refused to allow Guam to be fortified for fear of hurting Japan’s feelings. That was the general attitude.

The Japanese plan was plain enough. In fact, they frequently flung it in our faces that the new order demanded that white men get out of the Pacific. It’s been stewing for a long time. The European war and the unexpected strength of China has brought it to a boil a little sooner than Japan wished, but it is a dish that Japan a long time ago planned to shove down our throats. That we did not foresee the attack on Pearl Harbor is not so surprising. We have been asleep a long time.

The Kingsport Times (Kingsport, Tennessee) Dec 22, 1941

The Kingsport Time (Kingsport, Tennessee) Dec 22, 1941

Pearl Harbor: A Day of Infamy

San Antonio Express (San Antonio, Texas)

JAPS BUTCHER AMERICANS

Hundreds Believed Killed When Waves of Dive Bombers Swoop Down Upon Hawaii

Roosevelt Summons Congress

Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada)

Two U.S. Battleships Sunk

WAR!

The Zanesville Signal (Zanesville, Ohio)

President Speaks Briefly; Calls Yesterday a Day Of Infamy For America

Nazis May Declare War on U.S., Tokyo Reports

Mason City Globe-Gazette (Mason City, Iowa)

England Goes To War:  Calls Japs “Wanton”

Japs Claim Supremacy in Pacific

The Gettysburg Times (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)

Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor The Declares War on U.S.

Uncle Sam’s Forces Are Fighting On Land, Sea And In Air To Halt Invasion Of Bases By Nipponese