Craig Shirley Revisits December 1941
Craig Shirley’s December 1941 reminds us that the United States’ entry into World War II wasn’t inevitable. His day-by-day account of that month’s events chronicles a shift in American attitudes that occurred after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and Shirley asserts that fallout from that day caused widespread and permanent changes in our national character.
The idea is simple and compelling: send your researcher (in this case, Shirley’s son Andrew) down to the library and have him compile newspaper and magazine clippings that hopefully reveal what people were thinking and talking about each day during that month. Once you’ve got your hands on the basic material, use a summary of that material as a jumping-off point for broader context about world events.
Shirley writes about radio, movies, music, sports and what goods and services are being advertised in the newspapers almost as much as he does about politics and the war. If you’re over 50, the casual mentions of the Andrews Sisters, Clark Gable’s shirtless moment in It Happened One Night or Rita Hayworth’s diet secrets might bring up some powerful memories. If none of that makes any sense, you could use the book as a jumping off point to educate yourself about 1940’s popular culture.
Shirley’s approach reveals how lots of powerful and influential people opposed American intervention in world affairs right up until (and even after) the Japanese attack, how politics and bureaucracy obscured intelligence that might have prepared U.S. forces for the surprise attack (cf. 9/11) and just how fractured the political landscape was in 1941.
The author makes clear his affection for Ronald Reagan (Shirley is the author of Reagan’s Revolution, a chronicle of the candidate’s 1976 presidential campaign) and no secret of his day job running a public relations firm for conservative causes but, aside from a few gratuitous shots at the left that seem like applause lines from a political speech, Shirley mostly tries to present an (actually) fair and balanced account of the debates raging in American life about just what our role could be in world affairs.
December 1941 is the kind of popular history book that could reach a real mainstream audience. Everything moves along at a good clip and it’s an easy read if you don’t get lost in the thicket of cultural references. If it sounds like your dad or your grandfather might like it for Christmas, then go right ahead and pick up a copy.
It’s hard to tell if the marketing brains behind this book decided to focus exclusively on the usual suspects (Fox News, the Heritage Foundation Blog, The Daily Caller, the Washington Times) or if mainstream media outlets have ignored the title because it was published by Christian publisher Thomas Nelson but Shirley’s day-by-day account manages to shed new light on a critical period in our history. Check it out.
![Der Gro?mufti von Jerusalem [Amin al Husseini] bei den bosnischen Freiwilligen der Waffen-SS. Der Gro?mufti ist auf dem Truppenubungsplatz ein[getroffen] und schreitet die Front der angetretenen Freiwilligen mit erhobenem Arm ab.](http://images-undertheradar.military.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/nazicollaborators300.jpg)
Under the Radar is commentary. We don’t report the news; we offer our take on what happened.
12 Comments
I wonder if the attack was made in large part, to counter the proposed “preemptive” strike by the U.S.?
Chris you must be talking to your Tea Party friends. No attack was planned by the US on Japan.
Where did you hear that?
Sal, you don’t have a Tea Party phobia, do you? If you are looking for historical revisionist look no further than your progressive comrades.
The possibility of war with Japan was not an unknown, nor was it never considered. Japan had gotten pretty p.o.‘d over their perceived slights from the U.S. The only question that remained up to the Pearl Harbor attack; was where and when. Most of the military leaders of that era believed if anything might happen, it would be in the Philippines, not the Hawaiian Islands.
Read “Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover’s History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath”, edited by George Nash. If you think that political liars and coverups are a recent phenomena, this will slap you with some truth.
I was 7 years old when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. My father’s family, two cousins, had migrated to the Manila in 1899 after the Spanish American War and took control of the Islands. The family developed a tobacco plantation and manufactured cigars exported to the U.S. sold through my father’s mail order business established in 1926. Everyone in the family new that Japan would attack the U.S. and invade the Islands. During 1941 prior to the attack, mainland based business were approached by Turkish, Itlaian and German business interests offering to buy American-U.S. based companies in the Philippines –at a “discount”. I recall the family conversations about the Japanese invading the Philippines from “Formosa” and landing in Luzon. The premeditated planned attack on the U.S. changed the Axis power priorities. If the “****” had not declared war on our country , a majority of the general public as well as corporate interests would have kept us out of the war in Europe, inspite of the lend-lease support. One can project a number of scenarios of how close we woud have come to a significant change in our society. The fleet should not have been homebased in a waterery bulls eye. We were lucky that the carriers were not there. By the way, when we surrendered in the Philippines we had more troops than the ****–but numbers did not count. Anyway, ask anyone under 55 the significance of Pearl Harbor Day or D-Day you will probably get a dumb answer. We were lucky that the **** made a huge strategic error. Our civilian family wound up in a prison camp in Manila and took part in liberating it in Feb 45′. The **** were vicious and tough.
It’s common knowledge that in 1941 we were a divided nation on the question of European conflict participation.
America first was a powerful rallying cry for many Americans. What is frequently overlooked are the Japanese attacks on our west coast not long following the Pearl Habor surprise attack. On Chrismas eve 1941, a Japanes submarine was poised immediately West of the Golden Gate bridge to bombard the city of San Francisco with it’s deck gun.
Tokyo cancelled the attack by radio communication fearing U. S propaganda from potential Japanese Americal casualties. The sub then proceeded South and shelled some oil storge tanks near Santa Barbara creating some fires with minor damage. Incendiary bombs were also dropped on Oregon forests by sub launched Japanese planes. These facts were censored by our national government thus depriving our citizens of the knowledge of the continued serious threat of Fascist plans of world dominance. Today, in a eerily similar pre WWII scenario, we have also been lulled into a false sense of security from a present religious / politically fascist threat to the free world today.
Japan also sent explosive carrying baloons to burn our forests, but fortunately it was the wet season. and they didn’t work. The only casualities from that were some people who discovered one baloon cargo and attempted to pick it up with nasty results.
Japan’s biggest blunder in the Pearl Harbor attack was not launching a third wave to hit the oil storage tanks which would have left the remaining ships without refueling capacity.
And of course Hitler’s blunder was declaring war on the U.S. along with his *** allies.
As for Roosevelt putting our fleet at Pearl when the Navy told him it was a bad idea was the height of arrogance!
Nazi Germany hoped by declaring war on the U.S.A. that Japan would declare war on the USSR, not knowing that Dr. Sorge — a member of the German Embassy in Tokyo — had already told the Russians that Japan would certainly not do so!
The German frontline in Russia in December 1941 was desastrous beacuse it was a unexpectedly very cold winter (the socalled “fact” that the Geman Army didn’t have sufficient winter clothes is simply a lie: I watched for some decades the winter temperatures in the Moscow region — mostly they were the same as in Berlin and the German Army’s winter garment was quite alright for Middle European winters!). The normal Soviet soldiers suffered, too, but knowing Dr. Sorge’s secrets Stalin could send his coldprooved Sibirian forces to the front.
It was a mere wonder that the German Army could witheld the following fierce Soviet attacks one way or another, suffering many, many casualties.
By the way, this experience led straightly to the Stalingrad desaster one year later!
Another point was that Admiral Doenitz could send his submarines to the American harbors directly and they created havoc among the american merchantmen — as planned by Doenitz.
And the 3rd point I guess was Hitler’s feeling the U.S.A as a Damokles Sword hanging over the “Third Reich”:
Led by his experience of WW I he prefered declaring war on the United States than the second declaration of War by the States.
By December 1941 the U.S.A wasn’t really prepared for war and the “Fuehrer” knew that fact. But being not educated very well this former hobo from Braunau am Inn/Austria just couldn’t imagine that America was able to mobilize her troops in a rather short time.
p.s.
A good example for my “weather theory”
Today’s temperatures in Middle and Eastern Europe:
Berlin –2 degrees centigrade
Moskow –1 degree centigrade
QVOD ERAT DEMONSTRANDVM
Let’s not overlook the fact that Japan had two envoys in Washington„ DC Nogotiating a peace accord right up to the moment of the attack on Pearl Harbor 12/7/41. How’s that for double dealing?
YES WE DID HAVE A PLAN TO ATTACK JAPAN! It was a US Navy contingency plan titled Warplan ORANGE originally written before World War I (before 1914) and modified and updated by many Naval war planners after that. Many parts of plan ORANGE were followed by the Navy in its “Central Pacific Thrust” starting in the Hawaiian Islands in 1941 and ending in Tokyo Bay in Sept. 1945.
It should come as no surprise that all nations (having a large military) have in place pre-written contingency warplans for possible future use.