Remembering Pearl Harbor
By Steve Herring
Published in News on December 7, 2016 10:32 AM
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Dr. Roy Heidicker, 4th Fighter Wing historian, center, answers questions Monday night at Wayne Community College following his lecture on the Pearl Harbor attack. In the background is a slide showing a survivor from the USS Arizona in front of a memorial wall at the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The Empire of Japan accomplished its mission in the early morning hours of Dec. 7, 1941.
After moving a massive fleet that included six aircraft carriers undetected across the vast Pacific Ocean, it staged a devastating surprise attack that all but crippled the U.S. Pacific Fleet berthed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
But that invasion 75 years ago today also sowed the seeds of Japan's own destruction and set the U.S. on the path to becoming a superpower, said Dr. Roy Heidicker, 4th Fighter Wing historian.
Speaking Monday night to a standing-room-only crowd at Wayne Community College, Heidicker provided the historical backdrop leading up to the attack.
He provided details as well of the attack and its aftermath during a program sponsored by the Foundation of Wayne Community College.
"In FDR's speech the day after Pearl Harbor, you probably all have heard it -- 'date which will live in infamy,'" Heidicker said. "He initially said world history -- 'a date which will live in world history.'
"He crossed that out and said infamy, and that is why Pearl Harbor was such a huge mistake ultimately for the Japanese because we are not going to accept anything but total victory."
The Japanese took an isolationist country that was sitting out World War II and brought it in immediately motivated and determined to do whatever it took to defeat Japan, Heidicker said.
Heidicker also touched on conspiracy theories that President Franklin Roosevelt, desperate to bring the country into World War II, had allowed the attack to happen.
"Two days from today, the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor -- that is the moment that we went from being the 16th most powerful nation in the world, not very powerful, to a superpower," Heidicker said. "It is a very significant event in the history of the world."
For the U.S., Pearl Harbor was not all bad, he said.
The attack took a toll on the country's battleships that prior to the war were the Navy's big guns, he said.
However, the U.S. aircraft carriers, which were out at sea, were not damaged, and in the Pacific Theater carriers and submarines, not battleships, carried the battle, Heidicker said.
The country could better afford to lose battleships than carriers, he said.
"Did we pay a price to enter World War II?" he said. "Yeah. Eight battleships, 2,403 dead. It would have been worse if they had caught us at sea."
Heidicker discounted conspiracy theories that Roosevelt had allowed the attack in order to draw the U.S. into the war.
"Now this is the big question when we talk about Pearl Harbor -- conspiracy," he said. "Did we know? I have read a lot. I have studied a lot."
Intelligence operations told the country a lot, but not everything, he said.
"There were gaps," he said. "We knew an attack was coming, but the belief was it would be in the western Pacific. Everything dictated they are not coming to Hawaii.
"FDR needed to get us into the war. But first and foremost he was a Navy guy. Loved the Navy. There is no way he is going to allow the Pacific Fleet to be destroyed to get us into World War II."
Even before World War II was starting in Europe, Japan had embarked on a military conquest invading Manchuria in 1931, he said.
In 1937 a brutal war erupted between Japan and China followed by the Japanese invasion of French Indochina in 1940.
Also in 1940, Roosevelt moved the Pacific Fleet to Pearl Harbor thinking that would curb Japanese aggression, he said.
The U.S. embargoed oil exports to Japan in July 1941.
"This is crucial," Heidicker said. "You can't run a military in World War II without fuel."
Roosevelt also warned Japan that the U.S. would act if it did not stop its military operations.
But to Japan such a move to back off would result in a loss of prestige and face which is very important to the Japanese, Heidicker said.
"So that is not an option to them," he said. "So what does Japan want to do? They want to neutralize the U.S. Fleet so Japan can expand into the southern resource area so they can get the oil and other resources they can't get from us anymore."
Japan's objective is not to conquer the U.S., he said.
Rather it is to destroy sufficient elements of the U.S. Fleet to give Japan the opportunity to complete its expansion and buy time for it to consolidate its position and build up its naval strength even further, he said.
And in doing so undermine U.S. morale, so America would allow Japan to expand by forcing the U.S. to the peace table, Heidicker said.
The U.S. had cracked the Japanese military code prior to the attack and was reading dispatches before the Japanese diplomats were, he said.
The U.S. knew an attack was coming, but thought it would be in the western Pacific, he said.
A complacent and isolationist U.S. misread numerous clues in the weeks leading up to the attack, Heidicker said.
Also playing a role were American arrogance and racism that Japan was a Third World culture that lacked the wherewithal to be a threat, he said.
The Japanese were guilty of racism as well -- their bushido (way of the warrior) code had them convinced they were far superior to the Americans.
But like the U.S., Japan miscalculated, he said. The Japanese had sought a knockout blow at Pearl Harbor.
Its leaders wrongly thought that a quick decisive blow would take the fight out of the Americans and force the isolationist America to the bargaining table, Heidicker said.
The attack was "brilliant and audacious," but ultimately doomed Japan and galvanized America, producing what is now called the "Greatest Generation," he said.