Born December 7, 1923, my father was eighteen years old on that day which will live in infamy: December 7, 1941.
When Dad learned that several thousand fellow Americans had been killed in Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, he knew what he had to do. Leaving behind a wife and baby son (me), he joined the Navy.
Two men would play key roles in those years during which my father served. One was Isoroku Yamamoto, Admiral of the Japanese fleet that pounced on the unaware and unprepared Americans at Pearl Harbor.
A seasoned warrior, Yamamoto knew that delivering an overwhelmingly effective first blow often leads to rapid conclusion of conflict.
But something about the foe that he had struck with such devastation troubled the admiral. He suspected that rather than hasten surrender, his strike would galvanize into action not only America’s military, but also her people. Voicing his trepidation, he said, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
Much of this resolve started with a brilliant naval strategist: Admiral Chester Nimitz. On the night of December 7, 1941, he was enjoying a concert when President Roosevelt sent word to him that the Pacific fleet docked at Pearl Harbor had almost been annihilated.
Departing immediately for Hawaii, Nimitz arrived to find scenes of unimaginable destruction, despair, and worst of all, a pervasive sense of defeat.
As newly appointed admiral of the Pacific Fleet, Nimitz formulated a plan to rapidly restore the navy’s fighting capability and use it to pursue the attacker across the Pacific, island by island, battle by battle, and return a blow to Yamamoto’s homeland that would dwarf his blow on American soil.
Nimitz observed three mistakes Yamamoto made. Timing was the first.
Since it was a Sunday morning, most of the crewmen had been granted passes the day before and were not on board their ships. Had Yamamoto forced the Americans to meet him in battle at sea, Nimitz estimated the loss of lives might have been ten times greater: more like 40,000 than approximately 4,000.
Yamamoto’s next catastrophic error was his failure to destroy the navy’s repair facilities on shore. Had he done so, the damaged ships would have had to be towed to America’s west coast for repair.
With the dry docks intact, tugs could raise them from the shallow sea bottom and tow them ashore. Round-the-clock repair crews would have them seaworthy in the time it would have taken to have them towed to California.
Finally, Nimitz observed that if the Japanese Zero fighter planes had strafed the navy’s fuel storage tanks, all of which were above ground, no fuel would have been left to power the rebuilt ships.
Admiral Nimitz turned these mistakes into a springboard for action and fulfilled his nation’s resolve not only to recover from the vicious attack, but also to defeat Japan. He had no doubt — nor did Yamamoto — what America would prove to be: a giant awakened.
Jimmy Reed is an Oxford, Mississippi resident, Ole Miss and Delta State University alumnus, Vietnam Era Army Veteran, former Mississippi Delta cotton farmer and ginner, author, and retired college teacher.
This story is a selection from Jimmy Reed’s latest book, entitled The Jaybird Tales.
Copies, including personalized autographs, can be reserved by notifying the author via email (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).
