A Sweet-East Bad Bikini Bikini Let me take you You will see. You are listening to the Hour of the Time. I'm William Cooper. Ladies and gentlemen, this morning, December 7, 1995, commemorates the 54th anniversary of the Japanese infamous attack upon the United States at Pearl Harbor and Skokio Barracks, Hawaii. Tonight, we begin in January 1941 and relive that year, culminating with that attack and the declaration of war upon Japan by the United States of America. On the 20th day of January 1941, the cold breezes along Washington, D.C.'s Pennsylvania Avenue carried the scent of fresh-cut lumber and new coats of paint. Workmen had constructed temporary but historic grandstands for the thousands of people who were there to see something that had never happened before in American history. A president was to be sworn in for a third time. I, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to Delano Slead, that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will, to the bust of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God. I'll see you next time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Peace. Thank you. Thank you. So, part of the revolution, let us stay to the democracy. We shall send you in ever-increasing numbers ships, planes, tanks, guns. That is our purpose and our pledge. At that moment, it's doubtful that anyone remembered or cared that January 20th was the anniversary of a treaty signed in 1887 with the independent nation of Hawaii. Giving the United States a lease on a naval base in a place called Pearl Harbor. Classical music in the European tradition always had a place in American culture, but never set a stage. Americans preferred music for humming in the shower, for crooning in a rumble seat, for dancing, and for listening, while busy doing other things besides listening. But in 1941, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and some other unlikely names were on the hit parade. Thank you so very much, ladies and gentlemen. Our theme song, adapted from the Tchaikovsky Pheonic and serve on D-Fat Minor. Tonight, we love them. D-Fat Minor Hats saçрет How are you going to start my trip? We Posster to help start a trip? I'm good. I'm true. Just as Bizet had his day in 1941 with the Les Brown Band, one of Ludwig von Beethoven's sonatas was added to Glenn Miller's songbook. More was involved in this than appreciation for the masters. The American Society of Composers and Publishers, ASCAP, was on strike, demanding royalty payments for the use of their music on radio. The networks responded by forming their own music licensing company, BMI, Broadcast Music Incorporated, and by banning ASCAP music from the air. With a big gap to fill, the strike lasted for ten months. Radio turned to music imported from Latin America and music in the public domain. I dream of Jeannie with the light brown hair. Stephen Foss's I Dream of Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair was played so many times that students at UCLA burn Jeannie in effigy. Of all the classics revived in 1941, none was more justified by the times than Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, at least the first and foremost. Foremosts that sounded like the dot, dot, dot, dash of Morse code that stood for the letter V, V for victory. This is Edward Brown. With those four notes, the BBC in London began broadcast to the continent. People on the continent drew the V in paint or chalk, or traced it in the dust, wherever their oppressors were certain to see it. In the United States, there were Vs in lights on Broadway and many public buildings. Guests announced their arrival with the V. Radio announced news reports with the V. Jewelry stores offered diamond-studded Vs. And restaurants laid down the silverware in a V. Ships founded the call to victory as they left American harbor, carrying the supplies to help England live. In the first months of 1941, German U-boats, the great gray sharks of the Atlantic, were sinking British cargo vessels three times faster than shipyards could replace them. Lost cargoes meant shortages of everything, including tea. But the British didn't fall apart as Hitler hoped. They would make do. And it helped them to know that German civilians were feeling the pinch from the R.A.M. But the shortage of weapons was one problem the British home front couldn't solve. We must be the great arsenal of democracy. For us, this is an emergency as serious as war itself. This is Frank Warren. President Roosevelt's solution to Britain's depleted stock of munitions and money was a political masterstroke called lend-lease. The United States would lend to the British what they needed with repayment to be made in kind after the war. Although Britain would pay dearly in gold and in empire possessions, General Hugh Johnson, a former New Dealer, attacked lend-lease as a reckless giveaway of resources needed for America's defense. There is a committee in this country called Defend America by Aiding the Allies. Since there are no longer any allies, that means defend America by defending England. There is another committee called Defend America First. That is my ticket. Senator Burton Wheeler, a leading isolationist, denounced lend-lease as another step in FDR's plans that would, and I quote, plow under every fourth American boy. We're so close to war that on January 30, 1941, the War Department announced that they were seeking bids on 1,500,000 caskets for your sons and for mine. But lend-lease had some prominent supporters, too, including Wendell Wilkie, who went to London to see Prime Minister Churchill. Churchill's appeals, heard in the United States on the eve of the lend-lease vote in Congress, helped carry the day. The other day, President Roosevelt gave his appointment in the late presidential election a letter of introduction to me. And he wrote out a verse in his own handwriting from Longfellow, Sail on, O ship of state. Sail on, O union, strong and great. Humanity, with all its fears, with all the hopes of future years, is hanging breathless on my feet. What is the answer that I shall give in your name to this great man? Give us the tools and we will see the job. The end of the year written's ordeal would continue, but spirits were lifted in the spring when Germany's three best U-boat commanders and the great battleship Bismarck were sunk and lifted, too, by confidence that lend-lease was the beginning of the end of the last fiction of American neutrality. From the America of 1941, the view of Japan was as vague as the Pacific mists that seemed to hold Japan's islands suspended and disconnected from 20th century Earth, a place of shogun warlords and samurai swordsmen and the people who lowered their necks obediently for the blade. American schoolchildren knew that Admiral Perry had opened Japan to trade and Western ways through technology to increase wealth. But another lesson Japan learned from Western example was the use of power to create empire. After wars against China and Russia and alliance with the West in World War I, Japan emerged as Lord of the Far East until economic depression in the 1920s shattered its sense of security. The army seized the moment, purged and murdered its way to power, and began its quest for empire by invading Manchuria in 1931 and by controlling the Chinese coast. Japan's force was set. It would look to its needs in targets of opportunity to the south in the Pacific. in the West and the U.S. If ever there was a sound that could melt iron, not to mention lovers, it was the sound Harry James got out of a trumpet. It's easy to hear why his recording of You Made Me Love You was one of the biggest hits of 1941. One of the few sure things that year was that every time that Jimmy Dorsey took his band and vocalists Bob Eberle and Helen O'Connell into a recording studio, he'd come out with a bestseller. I've never loved anyone the way I love you. How could I, when I was born to be just you? Cuando se quiere de verdad, como te quiero yo a ti. How could I, when I was born to be just you? How could I, when I was born to be just you? How could I, when I was born to be just you? How could I, when I was born to be just you? How could I, when I was born to be just you? How could I be just you? How could I be just you? How could I be just you? How could I, when I was born to be just you? How could I be just you? best year the record industry ever had. 1941 was the best year a lot of Americans ever had. Mobilization fed the economy with paychecks that went straight from the assembly line to retail stores. Department stores had their best year since the 1920s. With coffee selling for 22 cents a pound, eggs at 28 cents a dozen, and sirloin steak at 35 cents a pound, most people had money enough to buy what they needed and to splurge on what they wanted, like a cruise to Rio at carnival time for $395. The most prominent profile afloat as the year went on was not the legal swan, but the ugly duckling, the tubby, ungainly liberty ships that American shipyards were building in record time and plopping into the ocean, first by the dozens, then by the hundreds, to carry the cargo that would help England survive. Those liberty ships and hundreds of other freighters and tankers, the ones that escaped the German U-boats, formed a bridge across the Atlantic, returning to the United States, carrying as ballast in their holds, stone rubble from England's devastated cities. It did not go to waste. Example? Tons of stone from bombed out Bristol became the foundation for part of New York City's East River Drive. The shepherd will send his sheep, the valley will bloom again, and Johnny will go to sleep in his old little room again. There'll be blue beds over, the white cliffs of over. Tomorrow, just you wait and see. February 1941, Washington. Japan's Admiral Nomura arrives as the new ambassador to the United States. At issue is President Roosevelt's economic pressure on Japan to withdraw from China. March 1941, Berlin. Hitler concealed from Japan his plan to invade the Soviet Union. He urges Japan to seize Singapore, to damage Britain, and to intimidate the United States into remaining neutral. He urges Japan to surveillance creativity. The German people who recognize the whole area of its emissions of one is fewer than half elements of one it still obeying me To see the young earth what doís go up to your parties? The disreg спис, who should know And recover from what sentence would be, What do you say to everybody? Would you prefer this, What do you say to God? And where do you and August have minute addresses such things... It's all the war, it's all the war. Joseph Stalin, everyone agreed, was as cunning as a fox. With the West hostile to Russia, he went along with the schemes of Germany and Japan so he could extend his borders and defenses. He prepared for war, but wasn't ready for it. In June 1941, the Germans, Romanians, Hungarians, and Finns came at Stalin three million strong, and the old fox found that he had outfoxed himself. His purge of the army in the 1930s left him with too many incompetent cronies, leading men who were poorly trained, equipped, and deployed. Throughout the summer, Russian armies retreated, destroying everything as they fell back. Millions of Russians were dead and captured. By the fall, Laid's army was besieging Leningrad. Von Rundstedt's army had occupied the Ukraine, and Vox's army was in sight of the spires of the Kremlin. Upon the Sir, Paul Nagé, Paul conta sipping the Kremlin, over a pod, ever tolered 하나 on the side of the Kremlin. The K residency was on the father's of the Kremlin. From the Kremlin. 여기에 Éilikjets in the Kremlin, He placed one of shorter guns k kantories and the Kremlin, and he placed three more years later on the voyage of the Kremlin. As Turns were adamant across the Kremlin. Behind him could now give me a trepan Times Kremlin. At the Happy 이으 Außerdem, king of Indonesia and Warrior后 an areasver per world. Inliamo of Pete's coming far from the very first time this game, H The Stanley crew said since he just asked, Shots of рассказ women to see a Bahtja happened. There is in effect nature. In 1941, Glenn Miller's Song of the Volga Boatman was popular in the United States, but Russians weren't. Senator Harry S. Truman probably spoke for a lot of people when he said he hoped the Germans would kill a lot of Russians, and vice versa. But any enemy of Hitler's was an ally, at least for the time being. With strong public support, Roosevelt and Churchill promised Stalin all aid possible. Little was available, and it was late getting there. The year wasn't without us to welcome distractions from war news. Furl Away, written by Eddie O'Carroll, became the fifth horse since 1919 to win racing's Triple Crown. Furl Away pulls away. Porter's cap is in second place, but it's Furl Away winning the race by six points. The internationally famous Detroit strong bomber. Always a great credit to his chosen profession. And the race he represents, the heavyweight champion of the world, Joe Lewis. Joe Lewis, the heavyweight boxing champ since 1937, had seven title fights in 1941 and won them all, six by knockouts. Ted Williams hit 4-0-6 for the Red Sox. The Yankees beat the Dodgers in the World Series, led by Joe DiMaggio. He set a record during the season by hitting safely in 56 consecutive games. In the loss column in 1941 was the death of Lou Gehrig, two years after his farewells, the Yankees. Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. And Babe Ruth, the greatest Yankee of them all, wasn't in baseball anymore, but showed that he was still a heavy hitter. But Babe bought $100,000 worth of defense bombs. July 1941, Washington. The United States, having broken Japan's top-secret probe, knows of the country's decision to establish bases in Indochina, even at the risk of war. July 26th. President Roosevelt freezes all Japanese assets in the United States. The Dutch government, in exile in London, canceled delivery of oil to Japan from the Dutch East Indies. August 6th. With 90% of its oil cut and with trade almost at a standstill, Japan offers to compromise. But the president and secretary of state, Cordell Hull, insist on total Japanese withdrawal from China and Indochina. There was a time in 1941 when millions of young Americans were worried about the Lone Ranger. He'd been wounded seriously and could barely manage whispered instructions to his faithful Indian companion, Tonto. What those young fans didn't know was that an auto accident had taken the life of 32-year-old actor Earl Grazer, the voice of the Lone Ranger. But then came the episode when the masked man, restored to health in the person of actor Brace Beamer, was again leading the fight for law and order in the early western United States. I warned you, sir. I warned you, sir. All right, sir. He's here, sir. Bring the United States Marvel. Yes, I heard everything that was said. And kids all over the country who never noticed the change were again running through schoolyards, slapping their thighs to the hoofbeat rhythms of the great horse, Silver. August 9, 1941. La Centra Bay, Newfoundland. Roosevelt and Churchill hold a shipboard meeting. They warned Japan that attacks on British or Dutch possessions in the Pacific would mean war with the United States. Japan's Prime Minister Kanoya's later request for a meeting with FDR is denied. September 6, Tokyo. In view of the U.S. position, Japan's military leaders demand full mobilization for war. October 16, Prime Minister Kanoya, failing to make diplomatic progress with the United States, is forced to resign. He's replaced by the most radical of the war hawks, General Hideki Tojo. I'll be with you in apple blossom time. I'll be with you in apple blossom time. I'll be with you in apple blossom time. I'll be with you in apple blossom time. To change your name tomorrow. There was a lot of name changing in 1941. The marriage rate was up. The birth rate was up. The hands on women's skirts were up. Flashier jewelry, brighter colors, and more revealing clothes caught everyone's eye, if not everyone's approval. There were zoot suits with a drape shape and a neat pleat. After a decade of austerity, it seemed time to step out and move up. Even with back orders for tanks and planes, Detroit still hoped to sell 5 million new cars. From big business came complaints about the cost of retooling for defense and worries about a possible bust after the boom. From Capitol Hill came loud cries that so much military equipment was being sent to England that American soldiers were training with broomsticks instead of rifles and sitting inside cardboard boxes pretending to be in tanks. From Senator Truman came charges of waste in defense contracts. The White House came up with more public money for the defense economy and assumed full authority over production priorities and schedules. Mobilization was on track and picking up speed. Movie audiences in 1941 saw Joan Fontaine and Cary Grant in suspicion. She won an Oscar. So did How Green Was My Valley from 20th Century Fox. The New York film critics gave their Best Picture award to Orson Welles' masterpiece Citizen Kane. Ronald Reagan and Ann Sheridan were two of the stars in Warner's King's Row. Remember once you came down to Elroy's Eye House and you and parents and I played on the race? I was an awful little perfect that you were back then. Yes, I was. But you teased me. You tried to get fresh. I was an awful kid, I guess. Yes, you were. But I think I got mad mostly that day because Harris was there. I liked him a whole lot better than I did you. Then. You're sure of it now. What do you think? When a girl likes the way I do about you, she means it. It's because I want to. Because I like you better than anybody in the world. She is in the world. Nothing is serious to us in the whole world, is it? Hey! Hey! I wanted wings. That 1941 movie featured Ray Moland, William Holden, Wayne Morris, and Brian Donnery. But the real stars were the flying fortresses, the B-17s. It was the first time Americans got a good look at them. For the Navy Air Corps, Errol Flynn and Fred McMurray flew together in dive bomber. Her own power was a Yank in the RAF. Ronald Reagan flew bombers to Britain in international squadron. Phil Silvers was in the Navy, and Bob Hope was caught in the draft. It was all unabashed, and enlistments went up after every showing. So did the ire of the isolations. Every agency of mass communication has been, and is being, utilized to excite the passions and the emotions of the American people. Are we Americans to eternally dedicate ourselves and our children to the preservation of the British Empire? That was Senator Burton Wheeler again. He accused Hollywood of warmongering, and he described the movie Sergeant York, about the pacifist-turned-hero of World War I, Alvin York, as pure propaganda. He began an investigation. Hollywood's lawyer was Wendell Wilkie. Senator Gerald Nye thought it worthy of note that some of Hollywood's most powerful men, including Goldwyn, Mayer, Zanuck, and Zuccor, were foreign-born Jews. And there was Colonel Charles Lindbergh. I am advised to speak guardedly on the subject of the war, and that to be effective, what one says must meet with general approval. Yet right or wrong, I prefer to say what I believe, or not to speak at all. Lindbergh told an America First rally that the greatest agitators for U.S. involvement in Europe's war were, quote, the British, the Roosevelt administration, and the Jews, end of quote. His explanation that the war would only make matters worse for Jews in Europe and in the USA did not soften the outraged reaction. The president found the remark disgraceful. Lindbergh resigned his commission in the Army Air Corps Reserve. The city of Charlotte, North Carolina, changed the name of Lindbergh Drive to Avon Terrace, symbolizing the fall from public grace of the man who had been idolized as the greatest living hero of the 20th century. In February 1940, Heinrich Himmler, head of Hitler's SS, approved a site in Poland as suitable for a slave labor camp. Four months later, the gates of Auschwitz opened, and millions of people were brought inside to suffer and die. June 1941, the collaborationist government of France at Vichy, led by Marshal Philippe Pétain, announced the arrest of some 12,000 Jews on charges of plotting against German-French interests. Many of the 12,000, and many more later, would just disappear. For the last time I saw Paris, her heart was warm and gay. No matter how they change her, I'll remember her that way. November 5, 1941, Washington. Secret Japanese messages intercepted by the United States set the end of November as the deadline for diplomatic progress. Roosevelt and Hull repeat their demand for Japanese withdrawal from China and Indo-Kindes. November 15, San Francisco. Japan's envoy to Berlin, Saburo Kurusu, arrives in the United States to assist Ambassador Nomura in efforts to start talks with Secretary Hall. You all know how difficult my mission is, but I'll do all I can to make it a respectful one for the sake of two countries, Japan and the United States. November 18, Tokyo. Twenty Japanese warships and submarines sail from their home ports to scout the waters between Japan and Hawaii. Good-bye, dear. I'll be back in a year Cause I'm in the Army now Don't I look handsome Dressed up like this Stop your time and give your little soldier a kiss They may send me out to the old Philippines But, sweetheart, you'll still be the girl of my dreams Cause if I'm here I'll be back in a year Don't forget that I love you That song about 1940s happy-go-lucky recruits became obsolete in 1941. The Congress, by the narrowest of margins, approved an extension of the draft and lengthened the tour of duty from 12 months to 30. Wait, so was... Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! While many Americans were worried about what impact army life would have on their sons and on society, they were shocked to learn that army doctors were rejecting 40% of the men they examined as unfit for duty. They had poor eyesight, bad teeth, deformities of the limbs, diseases of the heart, mental and nervous disorders. They were the products of the Great Depression, victims of malnutrition, and many of the veterans of the Dust Bowl and Oakey Migrations who made it to the army's chow lines were eating three meals a day for the first time in their lives. My brothers and my sisters, they are stranded on this road, a hot and dusty road that a million feet have trod. Landmore took my home and he drove me from my door, and I ain't got no home in this world anymore. Woody Guthrie, who sang of the Depression's lost souls, would sing again about lives sacrificed in events so large that they become the collective losses of history with no personal meaning. On October 31st, U-boat 552 put a torpedo into the side of the U.S. destroyer Reuben James. It went up in a ball of fire. When Woody Guthrie sang about the Reuben James, it did not recall a fact of war or that a ship had been lost, but that men had been lost. One hundred men went down to their dark, watery grave. When that good ship went down, only 44 were saved. It was the last day of October that they saved 44 from the cold, icy waters by the cold, icy shore. Tell me, what were their names? Did you have a friend on the roof and chain? What were their names? Tell me, what were their names? Did you have a friend on the roof and chain? What were their names? Did you have a friend on the roof and chain? What were their names? Tell me, what were their names? Did you have a friend on the roof and chain? November 20th, 1941, Tokyo. Japan proposes an interim settlement of the China question, pending further negotiations. The idea is rejected by Washington. November 26th, a carrier task force steams out of Japanese ports. November 27th, Washington. The White House still monitoring Japan's secret communications, alerts all U.S. Pacific commanders that hostilities appear imminent. November 29th, Tokyo. Japan officially rejects the U.S. condition for negotiations. November 30th, Borneo. British intelligence reports on progress of a Japanese task force and suspects the targets will be Malaysia and the Dutch East Indies. Another task force steaming toward Hawaii goes undetected. December 2nd, Singapore. The British battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Rapulse arrive in port. Intended as a warning to Japan, it is much too little and much too late. December 2nd, Tokyo. Japanese naval headquarters informs its commanders at sea that talks with Washington have broken down. All attacks as planned will be carried out. December 6th, the White House. President Roosevelt sends a personal message to the emperor himself, imploring him to preserve the peace. The Japanese cabinet is surprised by this breach of protocol. There is no reply. December 7th, 1941. 6 a.m. Airplane engines start up on the decks of six Japanese aircraft carriers. Within 15 minutes, more than 180 warplanes are in the air. Soon, radio broadcasts from Hawaii will be heard on cockpit radios. Pearl Harbor is less than 90 minutes away. The Japanese-san airplane engines start up on the decks of the Japanese aircraft carriers. Sunday, December 7th, 1941. 6 a.m. Hawaii-ton. Mustard-colored warplanes with red suns on their wingtips take off from six Japanese aircraft carriers. Their target, about 90 minutes away, is the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. For years, there had been speculation that in the event of war in the Pacific, Pearl Harbor would be a primary target. For weeks prior to that December Sunday, Pacific commanders had been warned to be on the alert. For days, there had been confirmed reports of Japanese military movements. And even in the last hours and minutes before those planes reached their target, there were signs of an enemy's approach. But despite that, when the first of the mustard-colored planes appeared overhead, the men and ships of Pearl Harbor were asleep and at ease. At 9.30 a.m. on December 6th of 1941, the first 13 parts of a 14-part message from the Japanese government to its embassy in Washington is intercepted by magic. That was the nickname for the system American cryptographers used to break Japan's secret code. The message signals a breakdown in Japanese-American diplomacy. And when President Roosevelt leaves it, he says, this means war. By midnight, the president has drafted a speech calling for a declaration of war if Japan attacks British or Dutch possessions in the Pacific, which are considered likely targets. FDR leaves his second-floor study in his wheelchair and retires to his bedroom for the night. At the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, it's five and a half hours early, 6.30 p.m. Everyone at Pearl Harbor is supposed to be on war alert. But there had been a false alarm about Japanese military movements the week before. And the two top commanders at Pearl Harbor, Admiral Huffman Kimmel and General Walter Short, interpret intelligence reports from Washington as warning against sabotage, not invasion. Small boats are bringing sailors ashore from their ships in the harbor. Soldiers are drifting away from Scofield barracks. In Honolulu and at other waterfront hangouts, another rousing Saturday night is beginning. At midnight, less than ten miles from Honolulu flight lights, Japanese submarines, like mammals of the sea, give birth to several midget soldiers. They'll try to sneak into Pearl Harbor when the anti-submarine nets are open for American vessels. In Washington, it is now 5.30 a.m., Sunday, December 7th. At the Japanese embassy on Massachusetts Avenue, a staff member spends the night waiting for the 14th part of the message that Ambassadors Nomura and Kurusu are to present to the U.S. government. The magic codebreakers are also waiting in their offices on Constitution Avenue, just a few blocks away. 7.30 a.m. The transmission from Tokyo begins. The message, stating Japan's regrets that further negotiations with the U.S. would be futile, is taken to the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Harold Stark. It is now about 3 a.m., Hawaii's time. Some 200 miles north of Oahu Island, aboard six Japanese aircraft carriers, more than 300 warplanes are being serviced and loaded with bombs and torpedoes. Their crews are awakened. The first pilot to be roused is Mitsuo Fuchida, 38 years old, hero of the China War, flight commander for the attack on Pearl Harbor. Another transmission from Tokyo to its embassy. The 14-park message that was transmitted earlier is to be delivered to Secretary of State Cordell Hull at precisely 1 p.m. Admiral Stark and intelligence officers note that at 1 p.m. Washington time, Pearl Harbor will be the only American base in the Pacific where the sun will have risen. No new war alert is issued. Colonel Bratton, chief of the magic section, puts in a call to Fort Myers, Virginia, just outside Washington, to inform General George Marshall, the Army chief of staff, about the Japanese message. But the general can't be reached. He's out on his customary Sunday morning horseback ride. It's about 11 a.m. before General Marshall returns to his quarters. Later, after seeing the Japanese message, he prepares a warning to be sent to all Pacific commanders. Significance of the hour set by the Japanese is not known, but accordingly, be on the alert. It is now 6 a.m. in Hawaii. Flight commander Fuchida ties a hakimaki around his flying helmet, a white scarf centered with a bright red sound. With his radio operator, he climbs into the cockpit of his plane, waits for the signal, and when it's given, rises into a brightening sky. In Hawaii, it is 6.30. In Washington, it's 12 noon. At the Japanese embassy, Ambassadors Nomura and Kurusu watch the clock anxiously. Urgent business had not been expected on a Sunday. Most of the embassy staff is gone for the weekend. Translation of Tokyo's message will not be ready by 1 o'clock, and the ambassadors asked the State Department for an hour's delay. The Army's signal service to Hawaii is hampered by atmospherics. It's decided to send General Marshall's warning as a telegram to San Francisco for relay to Hawaii by radio. The U.S. destroyer war sparked a Japanese submarine trying to sneak into Pearl Harbor. Commander William Otterbridge orders an attack with death charges. Navy headquarters is notified. But unconfirmed submarine sightings have been so common that no importance is given to the report from the war. It is now 7 a.m. Private George Elliott and Joseph Lockhart are on a routine training exercise at a radar station on the northern end of Oahu Island. A massive blitz flickers on the screen. When this is reported, a duty officer at Fort Shepter assumes that the blitz are a flight of B-17 due in that morning from the mainland. Elliott and Lockhart are told to shut down the station and report for church parade. It is now 7.30 a.m. Commander Fuchida's first wave of attack planes approaches Oahu as the warning cable from General Marshall is arriving in the Honolulu telegraph office. It's too early for regular telegraph service on the island and the message had not been marked urgent. So it is typed up and given, along with other cables, to a delivery boy who puts them in his motorbike pouch and tests out on his rounds. It's now 7.40 a.m. Aboard the battleship Tennessee, birthed at Borgs Island in Pearl Harbor, a marine detachment is assembled on the fan tail for morning colors. To their backs are the battleships Arizona and Nevada. To West Virginia is moored alongside. Up ahead in battleship row are the California, the Oklahoma, and the Maryland. The battleship Pennsylvania is nearby and dried off. At Wheeler and Hickenfield, American fighter planes and bombers are parked in tight clusters to guard against sabotage. Also for security purposes, the ammunition for most anti-aircraft guns is under lock and key. Most military personnel are away from their posts. Many men are still sleeping or hanging around the mess halls. It's now 7.55 a.m. Sunday, December 7, 1941, 7.55 a.m. The U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Japanese warplanes, launched from carriers and led by Mitsuo Fuchida, sweep along the western coast of Oahu Island and turn at its southern edge. Fuchida tells his radio operator, notify all planes. Begin the attack. The battleship Tennessee is hit with a torpedo. A bomb falls into a funnel on the Arizona, exploding the forward magazine, breaking the ship's spine and throwing scores of men through the air. Admiral Isaac Kidd and more than 1,000 men are trapped on board as the Arizona begins to settle to the harbor bottom. Navy and Marine gun crews hold fast against strafing and incendiary bombs. A Japanese dive bomber is hit and disintegrates. Another plane crashes on Ford's island. The pilot runs from the wreckage and dies on a Marine's bayonet. Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Torpedoes break open the West Virginia. Her decks are ablaze and her captain, Mervin Benyon, lies mortally wounded on the bridge. There are great clouds of smoke rising from Hicken and Wheelerfield. Planes are being destroyed on the ground. Runways are littered with burning wreckage. The flight of unarmed B-17s from the mainland flies into fire from Japanese fighters and anti-aircraft fire from the ground. One of the flying fortresses is burning and going down. The rest scatter and land and crash lands at Hickam and Wheeler. Heavy smoke is rolling up from the Pennsylvania and two destroyers at her bow. The California is burning, shrouded in smoke and hosting support. The Nevada, hit by torpedoes, gets underway and is run aground to keep her from sinking. The California barracks are running everywhere. Many of them half-dressed, scrambling for rifle and machine gun ammunition. Fireing from the tops of trucks and from barracks roofs, a Japanese plane strafe the quadrangle. An only enlisted man, James Jones, rushes out of a metal as another fighter with red stun guns on its wings makes a pass. Jones can see the pilot's Hachimaki headband. He can see the pilot's smile and wave as the plane sweeps by. The soldiers are ready to kick off now. They've just scored. Ace Parker did it. John Stubborn and Boyz lead the Giants 7-0. Here's the whistle. Merle Condon comes up. He boosts it. It's the long one down to around the three-yard line. We interrupt this broadcast to bring you this important bulletin from the United Press. Flash, Washington. The White House announces Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. At the same moment that many Americans are hearing first word of the attack, Japan's envoys, Kurusu and Nomura, are entering the office of Secretary of State Home. Power has kept the ambassadors waiting for 15 minutes while discussing with President Roosevelt by phone the events at Pearl. Nomura presents the message from Tokyo and apologizes for not delivering it at 1 p.m. as he'd been instructed. The secretary asks him, why 1 o'clock? And Nomura says, I don't know. Hull glances over the document and pretends to read it. He knows what's in it. He's already seen the intercepted version. He knows the reason for the 1 o'clock deadline. In Japan's manner of meticulous protocol, the war warning was to have preceded hostilities by 30 minutes. Hull says nothing about Pearl Harbor. The president has told him not to. Grimly, he denounces the Japanese document as being crowded with infamous falsehoods and distortions, and brusquely sends the ambassadors away. We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin. The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, by air, President Roosevelt has just announced. The attack also was made on all naval and military activities on the principal island of Oahu. Within minutes, crowds of people gather outside the White House, peering through the fence and into windows, watching, waiting for something to happen. A Japanese flash. Imperial headquarters announces state of war with the United States. Across the country, people tie up phone lines and gather around radios, collecting and swapping information. The government of the Dutch East Indies has just declared war on Japan. Operating declared war on Japan tonight, and other Latin American nations are expected to follow. Keep tuned to this station. Across the country, newspaper special editions are snapped up as soon as they hit the streets. Following Japan's declaration of war on the United States, Hawaii has been under two air attacks today. More than ten persons were wounded when enemy planes machined on the town near Honolulu, according to a righteous dispatch. And General Douglas MacArthur has ordered all women and children in Manila to evacuate the sea coast. There are a few facts to contradict rumors of hundreds of ships destroyed. Invasion forces off the coast of Mexico sabotage in California. This is H.B. Cottenborough speaking from the NBC Newsroom. It is evident now that the world entirely is at war. Emotions as well as facts are confused. The threat of war had existed for so long that the start of it, finally, is a relief. A satisfying, even exhilarating relief. Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. History, an active mystery, supports an act that lives forever. We'll recall, and this will I recall, the things that have spent on the light of shore. Let's remember, world, hard work, as we go to peace of hope. Let's remember, world, hard work, as we give the album old truth. We will always remember how they died for liberty. Let's remember, world, hard work, and go on to this place. On Christmas Eve, a convoy of ships sails into the cold mists of San Francisco Bay. Their cargo, in chastis and on stretchers, are some of Pearl Harbor's dead and wounded. More than 2,200 sailors, soldiers, and Marines died in the attack, and more than 1,000 others were wounded. Four battleships sunk. Four heavily damaged. More than 300 airplanes destroyed. Most of them on the ground. At the White House on Christmas Eve, there is no traditional family gathering. All four of the Roosevelt sons, James, John, Elliot, and Franklin Jr., are in uniform. But there is a dinner and caroling for Winston Churchill, who has just arrived in the United States by battleship. When the president speaks to the nation on Christmas Eve with Churchill at his side, and when the prime minister addresses Congress the day after Christmas, many people are greatly encouraged, fortified by the thought that these two men, upon whom so much depended, are together in purpose and in person under the same rule. He and his people have pointed the way to the courage and the sacrifice of the sake of little children and everybody. What kind of a people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never seem to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget? Ladies and gentlemen, you have been listening to a special presentation of the Hour of the Time. Tonight's production was written, produced, and narrated by Edward Brown, Frank Gorin, and William B. Williams. I'm William Cooper. Good night, and God bless you all. Good night. Good night, and people get through the morning news. . . . . . . Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.