On Sunday, December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor. On Monday, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan by a nearly-unanimous vote in the House of Representatives. On Tuesday, December 9, the Gallup poll revealed that, following the Japanese attack, only 45% of Americans supported the idea of the United States entering the European war against Nazi Germany.
All week, I've been remembering my dear Great Uncle Arthur Wynant, one of the last two surviving Pearl Harbor survivors in Shasta County, CA, at the time of his death in July 2017. He was such a dear man, and I loved him very much.
TC. We just buried my brother John on Friday and the family gathered. My 26 yr old nephew Colin,your great fan and reader of your books ( which I send him), was there. He told me he loves the way you combine the personal stories with the historical facts. This writing today is the kind of thing he enjoys best about your Substack. So he says thank you!!
My uncle was a seaman on the USS Arizona. A young enlisted sailor like so many others who could not have anticipated his death would be part of a much larger story. His body was unrecoverable. The Memorial is stunningly beautiful. Thank you for this piece that helps put much in perspective, fine points of history I did not know!!!
Thanks Tom for this informative and thought provoking read. It set me off on a little quest after triggering a memory about British and American attempts to kick the Natzis in their ball bearing production facilities in 1943.
I hope I'm not treading on any toes by sharing here the links to items I found and read of those efforts, the stark costs and the outstanding sacrifices they describe. I only hope some of you find these three articles about the US Army Air Force as uplifting as I did. Especially the last, which caps off the information given in the first two.
Then the professional military strategists in the Wehrmacht saw a two-front war that would eventually defeat Germany, just like in the Great War in 1917-18. Time was not on their side and there were no real plans for material allocations and production priorities in place.
The closest they got was an order by Hitler on December 3, 1941, to emphasize mass production capability rather than "overall individual quality" of what was produced. That was also the memo that instituted concentration camp prisoners being put to work in the defense industry.
I just returned from Pearl Harbor with Virginia high school students who performed in remembrance. This is a terrific summary/synthesis of those fateful days and 'the rest of the story.' Sharing!
I’ve been saying for awhile that Japan saved us from the fascist takeover that so many seemed to want. Michael Lewis was on C-span while back talking about the American companies that supported Hitler and the degree of their involvement. Then there was the Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939? Quite a crowd. FDR had a fight on his hands. As do we. I think we dodged a bullet then, thanks to Japan??? What will it take to unite us now.
A strange irony of the period was Ford's war effort mass production at the Ford Willow Run plant in Michigan, while Ford himself was such a fan of nazism. At one point they were cranking out one B-24 Liberator and hour. (My father, a thin, wiry man) ended up as a nose gunner in one of them in Okinawa and the Philippines. Ford hired "little people" to build the noses and front ends of those bombers.)
Which is why the Ford Bd of Directors pushed Henry Ford out of the company in 1941 when he refused to participate in the industrial mobilization. When Henry Ford II took over as CEO, he got to discover the old man's politics weren't the only dodgy thing, when he examined the books.
It was the battlecruiser HMS Repulse that was sunk off Singapore along with HMS Prince of Wales. HMS Renown served in the Atlantic, survived the war and was scrapped in 1948.
This was a very good primer on "the great game" that was going on at the highest levels of government.
All week, I've been remembering my dear Great Uncle Arthur Wynant, one of the last two surviving Pearl Harbor survivors in Shasta County, CA, at the time of his death in July 2017. He was such a dear man, and I loved him very much.
Thank you for the summary of those days....
TC. We just buried my brother John on Friday and the family gathered. My 26 yr old nephew Colin,your great fan and reader of your books ( which I send him), was there. He told me he loves the way you combine the personal stories with the historical facts. This writing today is the kind of thing he enjoys best about your Substack. So he says thank you!!
My uncle was a seaman on the USS Arizona. A young enlisted sailor like so many others who could not have anticipated his death would be part of a much larger story. His body was unrecoverable. The Memorial is stunningly beautiful. Thank you for this piece that helps put much in perspective, fine points of history I did not know!!!
Thanks Tom for this informative and thought provoking read. It set me off on a little quest after triggering a memory about British and American attempts to kick the Natzis in their ball bearing production facilities in 1943.
I hope I'm not treading on any toes by sharing here the links to items I found and read of those efforts, the stark costs and the outstanding sacrifices they describe. I only hope some of you find these three articles about the US Army Air Force as uplifting as I did. Especially the last, which caps off the information given in the first two.
Schweinfurt–Regensburg Raid: August 17, 1943 https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/schweinfurt-regensburg-raid-august-17-1943
Black Thursday https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/black-thursday-october-14-1943-second-schweinfurt-bombing-raid
The "Bloody 100th" Bomb Group https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/bloody-100th-bomb-group
Then the professional military strategists in the Wehrmacht saw a two-front war that would eventually defeat Germany, just like in the Great War in 1917-18. Time was not on their side and there were no real plans for material allocations and production priorities in place.
The closest they got was an order by Hitler on December 3, 1941, to emphasize mass production capability rather than "overall individual quality" of what was produced. That was also the memo that instituted concentration camp prisoners being put to work in the defense industry.
And there are those who are lighting fuses again. Arrogance and miscalculation know no boundaries.
I just returned from Pearl Harbor with Virginia high school students who performed in remembrance. This is a terrific summary/synthesis of those fateful days and 'the rest of the story.' Sharing!
I’ve been saying for awhile that Japan saved us from the fascist takeover that so many seemed to want. Michael Lewis was on C-span while back talking about the American companies that supported Hitler and the degree of their involvement. Then there was the Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden in 1939? Quite a crowd. FDR had a fight on his hands. As do we. I think we dodged a bullet then, thanks to Japan??? What will it take to unite us now.
Rachel Maddow's excellent new book "Prequel" gives very good coverage to that little-know (or majorly-excised) period.
A strange irony of the period was Ford's war effort mass production at the Ford Willow Run plant in Michigan, while Ford himself was such a fan of nazism. At one point they were cranking out one B-24 Liberator and hour. (My father, a thin, wiry man) ended up as a nose gunner in one of them in Okinawa and the Philippines. Ford hired "little people" to build the noses and front ends of those bombers.)
Which is why the Ford Bd of Directors pushed Henry Ford out of the company in 1941 when he refused to participate in the industrial mobilization. When Henry Ford II took over as CEO, he got to discover the old man's politics weren't the only dodgy thing, when he examined the books.
Masterful.
Thanks!
Yes, it's like one fine crash course in WWII history. Sharing with family members who seem to think the world began with 9/11.
My prep.school education.in the
60s was sorely lacking in the history of the events just b4 my birth...
May 45
It was the battlecruiser HMS Repulse that was sunk off Singapore along with HMS Prince of Wales. HMS Renown served in the Atlantic, survived the war and was scrapped in 1948.
This was a very good primer on "the great game" that was going on at the highest levels of government.
Thanks for the light Sunday reading lol. Well done!
TC-A very good explanation of how/why the war progressed-Thanks!
Tom your writing and knowledge of history is amazing and you have contributed greatly to enriching my life 🌹Marsha
Thank you.