Chapter 9

“JAPANESE ATTACK UNITES AMERICA”

November–December 1941

N o one reading the daily headlines in The Times through November should have been surprised by the sudden Japanese assault on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at anchor in the Hawaiian base at Pearl Harbor on December 7. Yet the attack, when it came, achieved complete surprise. The news from Russia showed Moscow girding for its ordeal as German armies edged ever closer through the tightening grip of a Russian winter, but the focus of all the news was on Japan. The Times’s correspondent in Tokyo, Otto Tolischus, sent what information he could get through the censor, but the news was all bad. On November 5 the Japanese asked the United States to reverse its policy or “face conflict.” On November 17 the Japanese premier, Hideki Tojo, in a speech to the Japanese Diet, gave the United States a virtual ultimatum to cancel the economic blockade and abandon interference in Asia. Privately the Japanese cabinet decided to wait until November 30 and if America had not backed down, to go to war to create a southern empire in Southeast Asia and the Pacific from which Japan could get oil and other raw materials that she could no longer obtain on world markets. On December 1 The Times announced that American aims were “Rejected by Japan as Fantastic.” That same day Tojo had asked Emperor Hirohito at a formal Imperial Conference to authorize the decision for war a week later. To mask the decision another negotiator had been sent to Washington to keep up the pretense of discussion. The Times reported on December 6 “Japan Confident Talks Will Go On.” News from Singapore again showed that the British doubted the threat from Japan, but in Australia preparations began for the possible onset of hostilities.

On December 7 The Times reported the Japanese view that a supreme crisis loomed, little knowing what was actually happening. It was a Sunday in New York and the Times office was quiet. Suddenly the news came through that the Japanese naval air arm had launched a major attack on Pearl Harbor, on what for Japan was December 8. There were few details, but the news was electrifying. Arthur Sulzberger, The Times’ publisher, was away from New York but traveled back as quickly as he could to be in the thick of the crisis, sleeping in the office all that night. The full news could only be published the following day, on Monday morning. The effect all over America was profound, but the news was difficult to piece together since Japanese air and naval forces attacked in a wide arc from Malaya to Guam. All hint of isolationism or pacifism melted away. Arthur Krock, chief of the Times’s Washington bureau, reported immediate national unity: “You could almost hear it click into place in Washington today.” On December 9 Roosevelt signed the declaration of war against Japan, announcing to Congress the grim consequences of “a date that will live in infamy.”

The news over the following three weeks was to become grimmer still. On December 10 the British battleships Prince of Wales and Renown were sunk off the coast of Malaya by Japanese naval aircraft; the same day the invasion of the Philippines was reported. The British Commonwealth garrison at Hong Kong surrendered two weeks later. Japanese soldiers advanced down the Malay Peninsula in the direction of Singapore, and through the island of Luzon toward Manila. For Tolischus in Tokyo the coming of war was a personal tragedy. He was arrested by the Japanese secret police for allegedly sending secret information to America, and tortured for weeks to confess that he was a spy. Beaten regularly, his legs and feet became swollen and bloody, reaching a point where he thought death might be preferable. But he refused to give way and eventually he was summoned before a court and given a suspended prison sentence. He was exchanged along with other newsmen for Japanese personnel and arrived back in New York amid tears of relief in August 1942.

NOVEMBER 1, 1941

REUBEN JAMES HIT

First American Warship Lost in War Torpedoed West of Iceland

By CHARLES HURD
Special to The New York Times.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 —The United States lost its first warship in the Battle of the Atlantic when the destroyer Reuben James was torpedoed and sunk last night west of Iceland while on convoy duty, the Navy Department announced today.

The Navy later announced that forty-four members of the crew had been rescued. It was without word, however, as to the fate of the other members of the crew of 120 officers and men which made up her complement.

The meager reports on the sinking were believed to be due to the fact that radio silence for all but the most urgent messages is an inviolate rule of ships serving on the Atlantic patrol. The flashing of detailed messages by wireless serves in effect as a beacon to notify other enemy vessels where to find the ships which sent them out.

News of the sinking of the Reuben James created an immediate stir in Washington, on Capitol Hill particularly, but President Roosevelt sounded a conservative note in a press conference when he stated that the sinking did not change any aspect of the international position of the United States.

THIRD ATTACK ON U.S. WARSHIPS

The sinking of the Reuben James represented only the result which might have attended torpedo attacks on two other destroyers which recently have engaged German submarines. The destroyer Greek, first to figure in such an incident, escaped without being hit. The destroyer Kearny was hit by one of three torpedoes launched simultaneously and survived, but with the loss of eleven members of her crew.

The Kearny was a new destroyer, which proved the strength of its type in surviving a torpedo hit. The Reuben James, twenty-one-year-old member of the “tin-can” fleet, met the fate that all sailors long have agreed a destroyer faced if hit by a torpedo.

The Reuben James is believed to have gone down in the area where the other American destroyers were attacked.

If the engagement which cost the Reuben James occurred in the place where the previous attacks were made the vessel or vessels which witnessed and reported its sinking presumably would be some hundreds of miles from land, whether Iceland or Newfoundland, and perhaps a day or more would elapse before they could fully determine who survived and reach a safe place from which to relay further news.

It seemed probable to informed persons here acquainted with fleet operations and with the destroyer itself (in the absence of official comment) that the Reuben James probably was sunk in a general engagement rather than in single combat with a submarine.

American destroyers, like the British ones, are equipped with various devices which make it virtually impossible for a single submarine to catch a destroyer unawares and approach within torpedoing distance. It appeared probable, therefore, that a “pack” of submarines was involved in this attack. By the same token, in view of the system of naval operation, it is probable that other destroyers were on the scene in addition to the Reuben James and there is at least an even chance that the submarine which won this victory did not long survive it.

NOVEMBER 2, 1941

OUR ‘ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY’ BEGINS TO FUNCTION

Arms Output for Ourselves and Others Has Now Assumed Impressive Size

By HANSON W. BALDWIN

The “Battle of Production” entered a new phase last week as an additional lease-lend appropriation was made available and the President and his industrial advisers put the finishing touches to a new “victory program” designed to double the present plan with its enormous output of munitions.

For the first time since the passage of the Lease-Lend Act the “Arsenal of Democracy” has commenced to bristle with arms. The first twenty-four of the Army’s new 90-mm. anti-aircraft guns reached the hands of troops at Camp Davis, N.C., in September; medium tanks are beginning to roll off the lines in considerable number; aircraft production stands at about 2,000 a month; ships are being launched almost daily.

In many items we are still in what William S. Knudsen calls the “make-ready” stage. In others we are still designing and blueprinting. Some weapons are already “flops”; others have encountered major delays of one sort or another—some of them technical difficulties, others difficulties of labor, matériel or management. There are shortages and bottlenecks in nearly every line. Many items have been delayed beyond anticipation. Lipstick and compact manufacturers are still using brass when there is a shortage of it for cartridge cases. Strike after strike—many of them jurisdiction al—still plague, delay and seriously hurt output. Yet, despite all this, the wheels of America are beginning to turn.

START OF PRODUCTION

The production program was started two and a half years ago as an attempt to strengthen the defenses of this country. Before and after the war began in Europe orders for munitions were placed in this country by Britain and France, and these orders immediately caused a limited expansion of the aircraft industry. With the fall of France the entire American program underwent a tremendous expansion and was redrafted to meet the needs of a two-ocean Navy, a great air strength and a large Army, plus some supplies for Britain. But there was little attempt to key the program to actual war strategy needs and there was no detailed specific information in this country as to British production or British productive capacity.

It was not until last Summer, after Stacy May of the OPM went to England, that our production planners gleaned the full facts about British production and it was not until then that we were able to lay a sound groundwork, in terms of industrial planning, for a program which would supply our own needs, Britain’s and half the rest of the world.

Under the Lease-Lend Act American lathes were used for turning out gun parts.

The requests of Russian, Chinese, Greek and Latin-American requirements and the necessities of scores of other nations all had to be thrown into the hopper, to come out in the form of arms. So new and additional requirements have constantly been superimposed upon preceding ones.

The result is a $60,000,000,000 armament program, authorized or appropriated for the new “Victory Program,” of which none of the details is known except that tank production is to be doubled, which is expected to at least double this cost.

THE NEW PROGRAM

This new program is supposed to be conceived in terms of “what it takes to beat Hitler” and is intended to be geared to strategic plans. Yet there are still many loose ends and the bottleneck of all plans—merchant tonnage to carry the munitions produced—has not been solved.

The present program—not the greatly increased “Victory Program”—is based upon the construction of a two-ocean Navy, the production of complete equipment for an Army of 1,725,000 men, with critical items for an Army of 3,000,000 and with factories capable of filling the battle needs of 4,000,000 troops and an annual production rate of almost 42,000 planes. The new program is expected to skyrocket this to what once would have been considered almost fantastic proportions. Under the terms of the “Victory” plans, for instance, total planes to be produced in the factories of America, from the beginning of the wartime boom until the end of the program, would be well over 100,000.

New munitions factories for the Army alone have already cost $1,750,000,000. In addition, $460,000,000 has been spent by the Navy on the expansion of shipbuilding facilities: the steel industry has added facilities for 6,000,000 net tons to boost its capacity to 88,000,000 tons a year; the aircraft industry has increased its floor space from 9,454,550 productive square feet on Jan. 1, 1939, to almost 54,000,000 square feet today. The monthly expenditures for defense in September, 1940, was $200,000,000; this year it was $1,360,000,000; next year it may be $2,000,000,000 or much higher, for the goal of many of the statisticians and industrialists in OPM is a $40,000,000,000 armament program annually.

The total picture presented is not an uncheerful one. Chief problems now and in the future will be those of controlling the vast machine that has been started, supplying it with sufficient raw materials without wrecking the rest of our industry, and controlling prices and wages. It is the greatest task this nation has ever undertaken.

NOVEMBER 4, 1941

MOSCOW A CITADEL CLEARED FOR BATTLE

Reports to Kuibyshev Tell of the Spirit Of Its Defenders

Wireless to The New York Times.

KUIBYSHEV, Russia, Nov. 2 (Delayed) —The city of Moscow, which represents an architectural bridge between Europe and Asia has now been transformed into a fortified citadel—probably the largest defended city in the history of modern warfare. It is a city stripped to the essential, its supernumery population evacuated and diplomats and other foreigners cleared out.

Hundreds of thousands of workers, men and women—builders, forgers, weavers, railwaymen, locksmiths, subway conductors, architects, housewives, engineers—are busily completing concentric rings of fortifications about the Soviet capital that never for a moment has thought of avoiding the struggle by declaring itself an open town.

Ravines, fields and forests around the city are now cut by deep rings of anti-tank ditches, lined with bunkers and pillboxes and interspersed with riflemen’s trenches. Day and night streams of mobilized automobiles carry new shifts of workers to the outskirts to maintain twenty-four-hour labor on the defenses.

A competitive spirit is encouraged among volunteers from each district constantly to speed up the construction.

Reports here today said men and women from the Timiriazev district held the title of “Stakhanovites” of the capital because of their speed in fortifying an allotted strip, and one man of that group was said to be excavating seven cubic meters of earth daily.

The Muscovites are adopting all sorts of slogans expressing their determination to prevent a Nazi entry of their city, the “heart of Russia.”

NOVEMBER 5, 1941

JAPANESE ASK U.S. TO REVERSE STAND OR FACE CONFLICT

Foreign Office Organ Demands Complete About-Face on Pain of ‘Alternatives’

By OTTO D. TOLISCHUS
Wireless to The New York Times.

TOKYO, Nov. 5 —The Japanese press is continuing its campaign to bring the United States to “self-reflection” about its Far Eastern policy. There is a growing crescendo, though with some confusion and contradiction in arguments.

The Japan Times Advertiser, organ of the Foreign Office, today made up its own list of what the United States must do “or face the alternatives”—as follows:

Japanese General and Prime Minister Hideki Tojo in 1941.

1. All military and economic aid to Chungking must cease.

2. China must be left “free to deal with Japan,” and Chungking must be advised to make peace with Japan.

3. Military and economic encirclement of Japan must end.

4. Japan’s “co-prosperity sphere” must be acknowledged, and Manchukuo, China, Indo-China, Thailand, the Netherlands Indies and other States and protectorates must be allowed to establish their own political and economic relations with Japan without interference of any kind.

5. Manchukuo must be recognized; “nobody will undo what has been done there.”

6. The freezing of Japanese and Chinese assets must be ended unconditionally.

7. Trade treaties must be restored and all restrictions on shipping and commerce ended.

The National General Mobilization Council of the new Cabinet is scheduled to hold its first meeting Friday.

The Cabinet decided to call an extraordinary conference of prefectural Governors on Nov. 24 (following the extraordinary Diet session) at which special instructions are to be issued to the local authorities for the maintenance of domestic peace and order. At this conference Premier Hideki Tojo is expected to impress on the local Governors that the instructions designed to prepare Japan for war must be carried out with unflinching determination, while individual Ministers are expected to issue specific instructions in their respective fields, especially in the line of distribution of food and materials and an increase in production. The conference will last only one day.

All papers predict that in his Diet speech Premier Tojo will reiterate what the Japan Times Advertiser calls Japan’s “standpat aims”—namely, the successful conclusion of the China “incident” and the establishment of the “East Asia co-prosperity sphere”—and at the same time reveal the truth about the American-Japanese conversations. But a “standpat” attitude on the part of the United States is denounced as “outrageous.”

All the papers also insist that Japan has tried to conduct these conversations with patience and sincerity, and Soho Tokutomi declares in Nichi Nichi:

“Japan’s friendship for the United States has been complete. Japan has done everything in her power to seek a compromise with the United States. The Konoye message [to President Roosevelt] represented the maximum limit of Japanese concessions.”

The author of that assertion admits that he does not know the details of former Premier Prince Konoye’s message and, therefore, is unable to suggest just what concessions Japan made. The only concession suggested in the press is an increasing reference to the “East Asia co-prosperity sphere,” instead of a “greater East Asia co-prosperity sphere,” though the significance of the difference remains obscure.

U.S. AS ENCIRCLER

Nichi Nichi further proclaims in a banner headline, “U.S.A. inspired encirclement designed to destroy Nippon empire in East Asia at sacrifice of Chungking and Netherlands East Indies.” But Hochi reiterates: “Japan’s objective is to eradicate unjust rights and interests in East Asia of various countries of the world which are intent upon treating East Asian peoples as slaves.”

Or, as Teiichi Muto, a Hochi writer, declared recently, “Drive out the foreign barbarian.”

In Nichi Nichi Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek is represented as merely a tool of the United States, which is gradually taking the place of Britain in attempting to dominate Asia.

Whatever their arguments, however, all the papers constantly emphasize Japan’s determination to cope with the situation and warn that the time limit of Japan’s patience is about up. Nichi Nichi says it is a mistake to expect much from American and Japanese negotiations alone because all problems are now international in scale and peace can be constructed only on an international conception, but it also warns against the idea that Japan will remain motionless while being strangled economically.

“That is a completely Jewish theory,” says this champion of the Axis alliance.

NOVEMBER 7, 1941

GERMANS REPORT CAPTURE OF TULA

SEVASTOPOL SIEGE LOOMS

By GEORGE AXELSSON
By Telephone to The New York Times.

BERLIN, Nov. 6 —The city of Tula, to which the southern end of the Moscow defenses has been anchored for almost a month, is in German hands, according to what are considered reliable reports from the front received in private quarters here today.

Bitter fighting continues in Crimea, according to the High Command, with the Germans claiming to have widened the breach on the Yaila Mountain front, pouring troops down to the shallow Black Sea coast between Theodosia and Yalta. If this is true, Yalta may already have been captured.

If the Germans have captured Tula, which lies in the low and marshy Upa Valley, some 100 airline miles south of Moscow, it is the result of some major action about which the German High Command has chosen to be silent.

ENCIRCLEMENT PLAN INDICATED

Indeed, military spokesmen in Berlin say even tonight that they do not know anything about the capture of Tula and refer to the communiqués, which have refrained from mentioning any actions of consequence along the Moscow front for many days.

The taking of Tula, where Czar Boris Godunoff built the first Russian gun factory in 1595 and whose main industry is rifle-making, might mean that the Germans are in the process of throwing a ring around Moscow similar to that around Leningrad.

If the Germans need not halt to consolidate their gains, as they are interpreted by neutral military experts here, they may be pushing straight on to Zaraisk and Ryazan Province and the Oka River, whence they would try to strike north and west to join the German units in the Kalinin sector, northwest of Moscow.

The passage through the Yaila Mountains is reported to have been forced at the Alushta Pass on the road from Simferopol to the town of Alushta. This road is at the bottom of a fairly broad valley, suitable for main traffic, and is the best if not the only road by which mechanized units could have reached the Black Sea coast.

SEVASTOPOL SIEGE EXPECTED

The Russians, however, are not abandoning Crimea without further fighting, for the Germans admit serious attempts by Soviet units to break out of their trap and fight their way through the German lines. These attempts, of course, are said to have failed.

The Germans expect that they must lay siege to Sevastopol before they can hope to capture this important Soviet naval base. But they are confident that they can rid the rest of Crimea of Soviet troops in short order.

Leningrad, which rounds out its second month of siege tomorrow on the twenty-fourth anniversary of the October revolution, has been particularly tried in the last few days by aerial and artillery bombardment, according to German reports, but these attacks evidently register no progress in the long-drawn-out effort to induce the city to surrender.

As the front line before Leningrad remains largely where it has been since the Germans marched into Schluesselburg on Sept. 8, and in view of German reports of local activity and repeated attempts of the beleaguered defenders to break the iron ring around the city, it does not appear that the Germans are much nearer their objectives than they were two months ago.

NOVEMBER 9, 1941

FABLED RUSSIAN WINTER CLOSING IN ON INVADERS

Months of Bitter Cold and Deep Snow Will Test German Fighting Spirit

By C. L. SULZBERGER
Wireless to The New York Times.

KUIBISHEV, Nov. 8 —Russia’s traditional ally, General Winter, is slowly moving into action. The Russian Winter is one of the favorite subjects of this country’s songs, poetry and painting—and well it might be. For at least five months every year the major part of the country is blanketed in snow and the peasants’ activity is limited to feeding the livestock, talking, singing, drinking, hunting and protecting their cattle from foraging wolves. The women and children sit about the samovar brewing endless cups of tea, while the menfolk sit smoking long, half-filled cigarettes, exchanging yarns or singing mournful folksongs to the accompaniment of the triangular balalaika or the accordion.

Traditional are the peasant legends of the cold. Tales of the ravages of wolves are manifold. There are countless versions of the story Willa Cather tells of a peasant’s bridal party drunkenly swinging home across snow-filled roads in troikas and being chased by voracious wolf packs. First one sled overturned and occupants and horses were eaten. Then another and another piled into the drifts as the lead wolves slashed at the terrified steeds. Eventually only one sled was left and the driver of it hurled out bride and groom to lighten the load and escape.

FOUNDED IN TRUTH

How many of these tales have a foundation in truth is hard to know. But wolves are plentiful and when the Winter blanket covers everything they frequently are driven to the outskirts of villages, hunting anything in order to exist.

A wolf, a belled horse-drawn troika, and a forest loaded with snow are traditional subjects in Russian art. Two hundred miles from Moscow, in little villages, peasant craftsmen still paint lacquered boxes that are famous the world over, laboring with squirrel’s-tail brushes, egg-yolk kvas and colored pictures, depicting these scenes on small surfaces which have been transported by tourists throughout the world. Ancient folksongs, legends of Prince Igor and peasant fairy tales are all steeped in the lore of Winter.

German infantry unit advances toward Rostov, November, 1941.

The stamp of Winter has always marked the traditional picture of Russia since traders from Moscow first began to circulate among the capitals of Europe in medieval times. Muscovites are thought of as bearded, befurred and dressed in heavy coats. The earliest international commerce with Russia was for the purpose of securing products from its cold clime—furs, timber, pitch and gum.

A COLD WORLD

An old peasant used to say: “Russia is not a country; it is a world.” To this peasant it is a cold world. Living in his wooden house, over which sweeps the Winter wind, he has learned how to protect himself by warm clothes and strong drinks against his greatest natural enemy—Winter. It is only in times of war that this enemy becomes an ally. How effective this aid has been can be realized by anyone who has seen some of Meissonier’s paintings of Napoleon’s catastrophic retreat.

To strangers unaccustomed to this climate and unaided by the local population, desolation can prove disastrous. The Russian says about his enemy: “A German will thrash wheat out of the head of an axe.” That’s about what he will have to do this Winter. Major crop stores have been removed or burned in the evacuated territories. Village after village and town after town have been destroyed in battle or by rear-guard units.

As cold sets in, salient after salient on the vast front becomes inactive. All along the Karelian and Kola peninsulas, it is reported that the Germans are digging in, not against the Russians but against the cold.

What actual effect Winter can have on military operations is hard to predict. There is no doubt that armies can fight in Winter and fight hard, discomfort or not. That was proved in the last war. It was proved in Finland more recently.

PAST EXPERIENCE

But, undoubtedly, continued fighting under Russian Winter conditions will not improve the morale of the invader. During the period of Allied intervention after the last war, General Sokolovsky told the writer, the Japanese could not stand the Siberian climate, despite the fact that they brought electric heating pads with them. If the Russians can continue to hold Leningrad and Moscow the Germans will not have any bases where warm housing can be afforded behind the lines on two fronts.

Up around Murmansk it is reported that Col. Gen. Dittel, the German commander, is calling for Finnish reinforcements who are better able to stand the Winter cold. One of the chief reasons that the Germans are trying so hard now to take the Crimea is that they may acquire warm hospitals and sanitaria on the Soviet Riviera to house their wounded.

Hitler is making desperate efforts to attain the major goals of his latest offensive before Winter sets in. Speed is essential to his task. Every day now that the Red Army holds its lines can be counted as a day’s gain.

Russia has been invaded many times and many times these invasions have been finally checked by resistance aided by cold. Who knows whether this will make a great difference against modern mechanized tactics. Can the Luftwaffe continue to operate effectively in an icy sky? Will Hitler’s troops easily face another Winter—the third of a slowed down Blitzkrieg? These things are imponderables at present. But there is one certainty—Winter comes early here; and it stays long.

NOVEMBER 12, 1941

PRESIDENT WARNS NATION IS FACING WORLD WAR AGAIN

FOR LIBERTY AND DECENCY

By FRANK L. KLUCKHORN
Special to The New York Times.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11 —As the United States celebrated today the signing of the World War armistice, President Roosevelt declared in his address that this country may be forced by Germany into another war. Other speakers emphasized the same theme of the Nazi peril.

Standing bare-headed on a windswept hill in Arlington National Cemetery, near the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where solemn and impressive rites had just taken place, the President told a nationwide radio audience and a large crowd gathered in the amphitheatre, that the United States fought in the World War to protect liberty and democracy. The people of America, he remarked, believe liberty to be worth fighting for. And of liberty, he said:

“If they are obliged to fight they will fight eternally to hold it. This is the duty we owe, not to ourselves alone, but to the many dead who died to gain freedom for us—to make the world a place where freedom can live and grow into the ages.”

SOLEMN SCENE AT ARLINGTON

It was with solemn mien that the President heard the ceremony at Arlington, the playing of the national anthem, the bugle’s Taps and the two twenty-one-gun salutes. The hour was 11, just twenty-three years after the end of the World War. He spoke to the distinguished gathering assembled under the banners of the American Legion. He spoke with a calm determination.

Those who died in 1917–18, he said, had indeed died to make the world safe for decency and self-respect.

“We know,” he went on, “that these men died to save their country from a terrible danger of the day. We know, because we face that danger once again on this day.”

Recalling that those who gave their lives on the battlefields of Europe had sacrificed themselves for democracy, “to prevent then the very thing that now, a quarter of a century later, has happened from one end of Europe to another,” the President of the United States declared that now, in their memory and so that they may not have perished in vain, the obligation and the duty are ours.

“Whatever we knew or thought we knew a few years or months ago, we know now that the danger of brutality, the danger of tyranny and slavery to freedom-loving people can be real and terrible.”

The President stood at attention as the band played The Star-Spangled Banner. Then flanked by his military and naval aides, Maj. Gen. Edwin M. Watson and Captain John Beardall, he moved forward. There was a minute of silence, and Captain Beardall took a wreath of white chrysanthemums from an Army sergeant in full-dress blue and, acting for the President, placed it at the foot of the Tomb.

NOVEMBER 15, 1941

ARK ROYAL SUNK NEAR GIBRALTAR BY AXIS TORPEDO

By CRAIG THOMPSON
Special Cable to The New York Times.

LONDON, Nov. 14 —The airplane carrier Ark Royal—so often reported sunk by the Germans and Italians that she became a sort of phantom ship ranging the seas from the Arctic Circle to the Equator and in the Mediterranean—has finally gone to the bottom. Torpedoed by an Italian submarine yesterday she sank today about twenty-five miles east of Gibraltar while being towed to that port.

A. V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty, announced that the casualties were “very light.” It appears at present that it was impossible to get off her aircraft, which means that about seventy planes, mostly Swordfish torpedo-carriers, Skua dive-bombers and reconnaissance craft, went down with her. The Ark Royal is the third British carrier lost in this war, the others being the Courageous and the Glorious.

The Ark Royal, the ‘phantom’ British carrier.

OFTEN REPORTED SUNK

From the time only a few days after the war began, when the German radio inquired nightly “Where is the Ark Royal?” and coupled this question with the assertion that she was sunk on Sept. 26, 1939, until recent months there have been repeated claims that the carrier, the third bearer of its illustrious naval name, had been destroyed. All during that time she was actively in service, searching the Atlantic for the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee, participating in naval action off Norway, fighting Italians in the Mediterranean, playing a major role in the destruction of the battleship Bismarck and finally performing invaluable service spotting Axis convoys in the Mediterranean.

In the whole term of her service, which began in midsummer 1938, the planes of the Ark Royal brought down more than 100 German or Italian aircraft, sixty-nine of these within recent months in Mediterranean operations. Her loss will be a serious blow to British naval forces there and at a critical time, when the Germans and Italians are making a determined effort to add men and supplies to the garrison in Libya.

ACTION IN “MARE NOSTRUM”

In patrolling Premier Mussolini’s “Mare Nostrum” the Ark Royal performed a major service. Her normal complement of seventy planes flew off her 800-foot deck for several purposes. There were some that ranged over a long stretch of water locating Africa-bound Axis convoys and bringing to them ships of the British Fleet, which has been busy cutting off Italy and Germany from Africa.

Then there were the Swordfish planes, which flashed low on the water and loosed torpedoes. A year ago while taking part in the pursuit of the Italian Fleet southwest of Sardinia a Swordfish torpedoed a Littorio-class battleship and hit cruisers and destroyers, while Skua bombers, also from the Ark Royal, attacked them from above.

This was only one of her performances during the time when the German radio claimed she was on the ocean’s bottom. After having sunk her numbers of times in the past, radio stations and official pronouncements from Axis capitals were strangely silent today. It was assumed here that their claimed performance was awkwardly late.

DECEMBER 1, 1941

U.S. Principles Rejected By Japanese as ‘Fantastic’

Foreign Minister Togo Makes First Official Comment on Washington Note—General Threatens Fresh Aggression

By OTTO D. TOLISCHUS
Wireless to The New York Times.

TOKYO, Dec. 1 —In the first official statement on the American proposals for a settlement of the issues in the Pacific submitted to Japan, Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo today rejected the principles underlying them as “fantastic,” and characterized the American attitude as unrealistic and regrettable. He reiterated Japan’s determination to proceed with the construction of a “New Order in East Asia.”

Following the lines of a strong message from Premier General Hideki Tojo, the reading of which was the highlight of yesterday’s mass meetings, the Foreign Minister declared:

“The world is confronted with unprecedented disturbances. In Greater East Asia, however, close relations of Japan, Manchukuo and China must be further cemented. Japan, Manchukuo and China must go forward toward the construction of a new order in East Asia on the basis of their coexistence and coprosperity.

“In our negotiations with the United States we have consistently upheld this principle. However, the United States does not understand the real situation in East Asia. It is trying forcibly to apply to East Asiatic countries fantastic principles and rules not adapted to the actual situation in the world and thereby tending to obstruct the construction of the New Order. This is extremely regrettable.”

Opposing the slogan of “Asia for the Asiatics under Japan’s leadership” to the American principle of the Open Door, Japan, Manchukuo and the Nanking puppet regime yesterday celebrated the first anniversary of their joint declaration of cooperation with mass meetings in their principal cities organized by their governments. Semi-official organs reiterated the firm determination of the three countries to “liberate” the one thousand million people of East Asia from the “exploitation” of Europe and America by the construction of the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,” as a guiding torch for mankind and to crush all outside powers’ obstruction of this “holy and historic mission.”

The press echoes sentiments expressed at the meetings. Yomiuri declared that there was special meaning in the fact that this anniversary came in the midst of tension in Japanese-American negotiations, “for the complete independence of East Asia must be strengthened and western imperialism must be wiped from this part of the globe.”

DECEMBER 4, 1941

SINGAPORE DOUBTS JAPANESE THREATS

Arrival of the British Fleet Is Expected To Cause Tokyo To Order General Retreat

By F. TILLMAN DURDIN
Wireless to The New York Times.

SINGAPORE, Dec. 3 —Authorities here agree that the arrival of powerful British naval units, headed by the new battleship, Prince of Wales , yesterday raises the odds against Japan more than ever before.

It is pointed out that an advance against British or Netherland territories in Southeast Asia, which a year ago might have been easy for the Japanese, now would be a desperate effort with remote chances of success.

The capital ships and auxiliaries that make up Britain’s new Far Eastern fleet constitute a formidable force, especially when considered in conjunction with Netherland naval power in the East. The Netherland Navy of cruisers, destroyers, submarines and scores of fast small torpedo boats complements the naval units the British have sent to the Orient in a way that could not have been a coincidence and makes the combined strength of the two navies considerably more than is indicated by tonnages or the number of ships.

Political observers here say the arrival of the British fleet brought powerful new pressure on the Japanese in connection with the Washington negotiations and believe it may be decisive in forcing Japan to drop her plans for new aggressions and to begin a general retreat.

DECEMBER 5, 1941

AUSTRALIA GIRDS FOR PACIFIC WAR

TOKYO WATCHES BRITISH

Wireless to The New York Times.

MELBOURNE, Australia, Dec. 4 —A War Cabinet meeting in which service chiefs participated has completed comprehensive plans to put Australia on a new emergency footing if war spreads to the Pacific. The Cabinet resumes tomorrow.

Prime Minister John Curtin said the Cabinet reviewed the services and the state of preparedness, examined precautionary measures to meet any contingency and authorized further precautions when necessary.

News of the arrival of a battle fleet in Singapore gave the government special satisfaction, for the Ministers when in opposition consistently urged the dispatch of capital ships to Malaya as a bulwark against a southward move by an Asiatic aggressor. Thus, Australia’s northern defenses are now regarded as more secure.

DECEMBER 6, 1941

JAPAN CONFIDENT TALKS WILL GO ON

Spokesman Says Both Sides Are ‘Sincere’

By OTTO D. TOLISCHUS
Wireless to The New York Times.

TOKYO, Dec. 6 —Tomokazu Hori, spokesman of the Cabinet Information Board, announced at a press conference yesterday that the Washington negotiations would continue. He repudiated charges by the Japanese press that America lacked sincerity and was protracting the negotiations purposely.

“Both sides,” Mr. Hori said, “will continue to negotiate with sincerity to find a common formula to ease the situation in the Pacific. If there were no sincerity there would be no need to continue the negotiations.”

Spokesman Hori said the Japanese Government was amazed at the continued existence of great American misunderstanding regarding Japan’s policy in the Far East. United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull, he said, charged that Japan was following a policy of force, conquest and military despotism.

CITES PUPPET REGIME

Naturally, Mr. Hori said, conditions in China are not normal on account of hostilities, but he maintained that the ultimate objective of the “China incident” had been fixed in the statement of former Premier Prince Fumimaro Konoye, which disclaimed territorial ambitions and indemnities. This principle, Mr. Hori asserted, was incorporated in the basic treaty with Nanking [puppet regime in China].

The Washington negotiations, he continued, have the purpose of removing this misunderstanding. Although he did not subscribe to Mr. Hull’s statement that the negotiations were virtually back at their starting point, he made it clear that there was still a wide difference of opinion on the two sides.

As for the occupation of French Indo-China he declared that there were many examples of sending troops to a foreign domain with the consent of its government. Mr. Hori declared, in regard to American inquiries, that the number of Japanese troops in French Indo-China was within the agreed limit as reported in news dispatches from Vichy.

“If Vichy says so,” he said, “there cannot be any complaint from any other side.”

EPITHETS FOR AMERICA

Meanwhile, in contrast with the vernacular press, which confines itself in the main to scouring the dictionary for epithets to hurl against Mr. Hull and the United States, the Japan Times Advertiser, the Foreign Office organ, attempts to present a reasoned argument in contravention to Mr. Hull’s fundamental thesis. Mr. Hull’s revelations, it says, appear to be a scarcely statesmanlike attempt to seize the propagandistic initiative and put the responsibility for a breakdown in the negotiations on Japan. The Japan Times Advertiser raises the following points, which may be summarized as follows:

1. America maintains the Monroe Doctrine and President Roosevelt himself has declared that other regions have the right to a similar doctrine. Japan, therefore, feels itself entitled to establish one for the Far East to prevent distant powers from encroaching on the territories of the Western Pacific. But while a statement about non-interference with existing colonies and dependencies of distant powers is left in the quotation of the Monroe Doctrine, that point is not further discussed.

2. President Roosevelt declared nations must be free to choose their own forms of government free from interference by outside nations. Therefore Far Eastern States should be free to determine their own destiny free of interposition by the United States—not, however, of Japan, which is promoting a co-prosperity sphere.

3. Mr. Hull charges Japan’s policy is based on force. The very core of Oriental business is compromise and adjustment, but Japan will apply force when it finds itself confronted with a hostile disposition.

4. Mr. Hull says he put the negotiations back on a basis of fundamental principles. These principles are obscurantist.

5. Japan put forward a practical principle of the highest human order, including non-intervention in Far Eastern affairs. The United States, Chungking, the Netherlands and the Soviet oppose Japan.

The paper concludes:

“The American and British people will now use their influence on Mr. Hull to make some practical efforts at agreement with Japan on pacific principles, instead of appealing to publicity for the purpose of discrediting one nation that is seriously trying to avoid war.”

DECEMBER 7, 1941

JAPANESE HERALD ‘SUPREME CRISIS’

U.S. IS HELD AGGRESSIVE

Press Intimates Efforts for Negotiated Settlement May Soon Be Abandoned

TOKYO, Dec. 7 (UP) —Japan indicated early today that she was on the verge of abandoning efforts to achieve a settlement of Pacific issues by diplomatic negotiation at Washington.

At the same time warnings circulated that Soviet Russia—with an estimated Far Eastern army of 840,000—had joined the United States, Britain, China, the Netherlands Indies and the British Dominions in a united front against Japan.

The press, bellwether of Japanese opinion, thundered that the moment of supreme crisis was at hand. A government spokesman said Japan’s “patience” may be tried only a little longer.

Japanese economic preparations against what is called the “open strengthening of anti-Japanese encirclement” were believed completed with adjournment of a highly significant meeting of 300 Japanese industrial and business leaders who comprise the East Asia Economic Council.

The report that Russia was casting her lot with the so-called ABCD powers appeared in the newspaper Hochi, which attributed it to “undisclosed Tokyo quarters.”

LITVINOFF VIEWED OMINOUSLY

The imminent arrival of Maxim Litvinoff, new Soviet Ambassador to the United States, in Washington was said to increase the prospect of Russia’s participation in moves against Japan.

The newspaper estimated the strength of the Russian Red Banner Far Eastern armies at 840,000 men despite reported transfers of some troops from the eastern theatre to the western front.

The statement that Japan’s “patience” is drawing to an end was made by Lieut. Gen. Teiichi Suzuki, president of the Cabinet Planning Board, in an address to the East Asia Economic Council.

“Japan’s patience,” he said, “will no longer be necessary in the event the countries hostile to peace in East Asia—countries whose identity now is becoming absolutely clear—attempt to continue and increase Far Eastern disturbances.

“We Japanese are tensely watching whether or not President Roosevelt will commit the epoch-making crime of further extending the world upheaval.”

DECEMBER 8, 1941

TOKYO ACTS FIRST

Declaration Follows Air and Sea Attacks On U.S. and Britain

TOGO CALLS ENVOYS

By The Associated Press.

TOKYO, Dec. 8 —Japan went to war against the United States and Britain today with air and sea attacks against Hawaii, followed by a formal declaration of hostilities.

Japanese Imperial headquarters announced at 6 A.M. [4 P.M. Sunday, Eastern standard time] that a state of war existed among these nations in the Western Pacific, as of dawn.

Soon afterward, Domei, the Japanese official news agency, announced that “naval operations are progressing off Hawaii, with at least one Japanese aircraft carrier in action against Pearl Harbor,” the American naval base in the islands.

Japanese bombers were declared to have raided Honolulu at 7:35 A.M., Hawaii time [1:05 Sunday, Eastern standard time].

Smoke pouring from sinking battleship USS California, which was attacked during the surprise Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor.

Premier-War Minister General Hideki Tojo held a twenty-minute Cabinet session at his official residence at 7 A.M.

Soon afterward it was announced that both the United States Ambassador, Joseph C. Grew, and the British Ambassador, Sir Robert Leslie Craigie, had been summoned by Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo.

The Foreign Minister, Domei said, handed to Mr. Grew the Japanese Government’s formal reply to the note sent to Japan by United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull on Nov. 26.

[In the course of the diplomatic negotiations leading up to yesterday’s events, the Domei agency had stated that Japan could not accept the premises of Mr. Hull’s note.]

Sir Robert was summoned by Foreign Minister Togo fifteen minutes after Mr. Grew was called.

At the brief Cabinet session Premier Tojo reported on the progress of war plans against the British and American forces, according to Domei, and outlined the Japanese Government’s policy.

DECEMBER 8, 1941

Japan Wars on U.S. and Britain

Makes Sudden Attack on Hawaii

By FRANK L. KLUCKHOHN
Special to The New York Times.

Shortly after the outbreak of hostilities an American ship sent a distress call from (1) and a United States Army transport carrying lumber was torpedoed at (2). The most important action was at Hawaii (3), where Japanese planes bombed the great Pearl Harbor base Also attacked was Guam (4). From Manila (6) United States bombers roared northward, while some parts of the Philippines were raided, as was Hong Kong, to the northwest. At Shanghai (5) a British gunboat was sunk and an American gunboat seized. To the south, in the Malaya area (7), the British bombed Japanese ships, Tokyo forces attempted landings on British territory and Singapore underwent an air raid. Distances between key Pacific points are shown on the map in statute miles.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 —Sudden and unexpected attacks on Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, and other United States possessions in the Pacific early yesterday by the Japanese air force and navy plunged the United States and Japan into active war.

The initial attack in Hawaii, apparently launched by torpedo-carrying bombers and submarines, caused widespread damage and death. It was quickly followed by others. There were unconfirmed reports that German raiders participated in the attacks.

Guam also was assaulted from the air, as were Davao, on the island of Mindanao, and Camp John Hay, in Northern Luzon, both in the Philippines. Lieut. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commanding the United States Army of the Far East, reported there was little damage, however.

Japanese submarines, ranging out over the Pacific, sank an American transport carrying lumber 1,300 miles from San Francisco, and distress signals were heard from a freighter 700 miles from that city.

The War Department reported that 104 soldiers died and 300 were wounded as a result of the attack on Hickam Field, Hawaii. The National Broadcasting Company reported from Honolulu that the battleship Oklahoma was afire. [Domei, Japanese news agency, reported the Oklahoma sunk.]

NATION PLACED ON FULL WAR BASIS

The news of these surprise attacks fell like a bombshell on Washington. President Roosevelt immediately ordered the country and the Army and Navy onto a full war footing. He arranged at a White House conference last night to address a joint session of Congress at noon today, presumably to ask for declaration of a formal state of war.

This was disclosed after a long special Cabinet meeting, which was joined later by Congressional leaders. These leaders predicted “action” within a day.

After leaving the White House conference Attorney General Francis Biddle said that “a resolution” would be introduced in Congress tomorrow. He would not amplify or affirm that it would be for a declaration of war.

Congress probably will “act” within the day, and he will call the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for this purpose, Chairman Tom Connally announced.

[A United Press dispatch from London this morning said that Prime Minister Churchill had notified Japan that a state of war existed.]

As the reports of heavy fighting flashed into the White House, London reported semi-officially that the British Empire would carry out Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s pledge to give the United States full support in case of hostilities with Japan. The President and Mr. Churchill talked by transatlantic telephone.

This was followed by a statement in London from the Netherland Government in Exile that it considered a state of war to exist between the Netherlands and Japan. Canada, Australia and Costa Rica took similar action.

LANDING MADE IN MALAYA

A Singapore communiqué disclosed that Japanese troops had landed in Northern Malaya and that Singapore had been bombed.

The President told those at last night’s White House meeting that “doubtless very heavy losses” were sustained by the Navy and also by the Army on the island of Oahu [Honolulu]. It was impossible to obtain confirmation or denial of reports that the battleships Oklahoma and West Virginia had been damaged or sunk at Pearl Harbor, together with six or seven destroyers, and that 350 United States airplanes had been caught on the ground.

The White House took over control of the bulletins, and the Navy Department, therefore, said it could not discuss the matter or answer any questions how the Japanese were able to penetrate the Hawaiian defenses or appear without previous knowledge of their presence in those waters.

Administration circles forecast that the United States soon might be involved in a world-wide war, with Germany supporting Japan, an Axis partner. The German official radio tonight attacked the United States and supported Japan.

A nation-wide round-up of Japanese nationals was ordered by Attorney General Biddle through cooperation by the FBI and local police forces.

Action was taken to protect defense plants, especially in California, where Japanese are particularly numerous. Orders were issued by the Civil Aeronautics Authority to ground most private aircraft except those on scheduled lines.

FLEET PUTS OUT TO SEA FROM HAWAII

The Navy last night swept out to sea from its bombed base at Pearl Harbor after Secretary of State Cordell Hull, following a final conference with Japanese “peace envoys” here, asserted that Japan’s had been a “treacherous” attack. Neither the War nor the Navy Department had been able to communicate with its commanders in Manila.

Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson ordered the entire United States Army to be in uniform by today. Secretary Frank Knox followed suit for the Navy. They did so after President Roosevelt had instructed the Navy and Army to expect all previously prepared orders for defense immediately.

A San Francisco corner on December 8, 1941.

United States naval craft are expected to operate out of Singapore as soon as possible in protecting the vital rubber and tin shipments necessary to our national defense program.

Despite these preliminary defense moves, however, it was clear that further detailed discussions would soon take place between officials of the United States, Great Britain, China, the Netherlands and Australia to devise a total scheme of limiting the activities of the Japanese Fleet.

Immediate steps will be taken also to meet the increased menace to China’s lifeline, the Burma Road. Reliable information indicates that the Japanese are preparing a large-scale assault on the road in the hope of cutting off American supplies before the Allies can transport sufficient forces into defensive positions.

Censorship was established on all messages leaving the United States by cable and radio.

In Tokyo United States Ambassador Joseph C. Grew obtained a reply to Secretary Hull’s early message, according to dispatches from the Japanese capital.

The attack on Pearl Harbor and Honolulu began “at dawn,” according to Stephen Early, Presidential secretary. Because of the time difference, the first news of the bombing was released in Washington at 2:22 P.M. Subsequently it was announced at the White House that another wave of bombers and dive bombers had come over Oahu Island, on which Honolulu is situated, to be met by anti-aircraft fire again.

An attack on Guam, tiny island outpost, subsequently was announced. The White House at first said that Manila also had been attacked but, after failure to reach Army and Navy commanders there, President Roosevelt expressed the “hope” that no such attack had occurred. Broadcasts from Manila bore out this hope.

HAWAII ATTACKED WITHOUT WARNING

Reports from Hawaii indicated that Honolulu had no warning of the attack. Japanese bombers, with the red circle of the Rising Sun of Japan on their wings, suddenly appeared, escorted by fighters. Flying high, they suddenly dive-bombed, attacking Pearl Harbor, the great Navy base, the Army’s Hickam Field and Ford Island. At least one torpedo plane was seen to launch a torpedo at warships in Pearl Harbor.

A report from Admiral C. C. Bloch, commander of the naval district at Hawaii, expressed the belief that “there has been heavy damage done in Hawaii and there has been heavy loss of life.”

This was subsequently confirmed by Governor Joseph B. Poindexter of Hawaii in a telephone conversation with President Roosevelt. The Governor also said that there were heavy casualties in the city of Honolulu.

Many Japanese and former Japanese who are now American citizens are in residence in Hawaii.

Saburo Jurusu, special Japanese envoy who has been conducting “peace” negotiations while Japan was preparing for this attack, and Ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura called at the State Department at 2:05 P.M. after asking for the appointment at 1 P.M. They arrived shortly before Secretary Hull had received news Japan had started a war without warning. Mrs. Roosevelt revealed in her broadcast last night that the Japanese Ambassador was with the President when word of the attacks was received.

The two envoys handed a document to Mr. Hull, who kept them waiting about fifteen minutes. Upon reading it, he turned to his visitors to exclaim that it was “crowded with infamous falsehoods and distortions.”

President Roosevelt ordered war bulletins released at the White House as rapidly as they were received. A sentence or two was added to the story of the surprise attack every few minutes for several hours.

Cabinet members arrived promptly at 8:30 last evening for their meeting in the White House Oval Room. President Roosevelt had been closeted with Harry L. Hopkins in the Oval Room since receiving the first news. He had conferred with Secretaries Stimson and Knox by telephone and also with General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff. Admiral Harold R. Stark, Chief of Naval Operations, was too busy to talk to the President even by telephone.

PRESIDENT VOICED HOPE FOR PEACE

The President’s message expressed a “fervent hope for peace” and outlined the dangers of the situation.

“We have hoped that a peace of the Pacific could be consummated in such a way that the nationalities of many diverse peoples may exist side by side without fear of invasion,” the President told the Emperor.

The President, recalling that the United States had been directly responsible for bringing Japan into contact with the outside world, said that in seeking peace in the Pacific “I am certain that it will be clear to Your Majesty, as it is to me, that… both Japan and the United States should agree to eliminate any form of military threat.”

The Japanese document, despite the obviously carefully prepared attack on American bases, insisted that:

“On the other hand, the American Government, always holding fast to theories in disregard of realities and refusing to yield an inch on its impractical principles, caused undue delay in the [peace] negotiations.”

DECEMBER 8, 1941

HULL DENOUNCES TOKYO ‘INFAMY’

Brands Japan ‘Fraudulent’ in Preparing Attack While Carrying On Parleys

By BERTRAM D. HULEN
Special to The New York Times.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 —Japan was accused by Secretary of State Cordell Hull today of making a “treacherous and utterly unprovoked attack” upon the United States and of having been “infamously false and fraudulent” by preparing for the attack while conducting diplomatic negotiations with the professed desire of maintaining peace.

But even before he knew of that attack, Mr. Hull had vehemently brought the diplomatic negotiations to a virtual end with an outburst against Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura, the Japanese Ambassador, and Saburo Kurusu, special envoy, because of the insulting character of the reply they delivered to his document of Nov. 26 setting forth the basic principles of the United States.

This proposed a multilateral non-aggression pact in the Pacific, taking in all the interested powers in that area except France.

REJECTION BY JAPANESE

The Japanese reply was a flat rejection in stiff language and a termination of the negotiations. Japan charged that the United States was “conspiring” with Great Britain in the Far East, was trying to detach Japan from the Axis, and was ignoring Japan’s position.

The American position, it charged, was utopian and not in accordance with realities. All the good it could see in Mr. Hull’s proposals had to do with possible relaxation by the United States of some economic pressure.

The document revealed definitely that the Japanese Premier had sought to meet President Roosevelt last August for a conference, but that this was refused until an agreement had been reached. It also said that Mr. Roosevelt had offered to act as “introducer” of peace between Japan and China.

Secretary Hull considered the reply so filled with false statements and distortions that in an outburst that recalled the vigor of speech of his youth in Tennessee, he declared to Admiral Nomura “with the greatest indignation,” as the State Department’s announcement described it:

Secretary of State Cordell Hull in 1941.

“I must say that in all my conversations with you [the Japanese Ambassador] during the last nine months I have never uttered one word of untruth. This is borne out absolutely by the record. In all my fifty years of public service I have never seen a document that was more crowded with infamous falsehoods and distortions on a scale so huge that I never imagined until today that any government on this planet was capable of uttering them.”

UNAWARE OF ATTACK

When this meeting took place at 2:20 P.M. word was being received at the White House of the attack on Hawaii. Mr. Hull was unaware of it, and apparently so were the Japanese envoys. Several hours later, Mr. Hull issued his general statement of condemnation of Japan.

“Japan has made a treacherous and utterly unprovoked attack upon the United States,” Secretary Hull said.

“At the very moment when representatives of the Japanese Government were discussing with representatives of this government, at the request of the former, principles and courses of peace, the armed forces of Japan were preparing and assembling at various strategic points to launch new attacks and new aggressions upon nations and peoples with which Japan was professedly at peace, including the United States.

“This government has stood for all the principles that underlie fair dealing, peace, law and order, and justice between nations and has steadfastly striven to promote and maintain that state of relationship between itself and all other nations.

“It is now apparent to the whole world that Japan in its recent professions of a desire for peace has been infamously false and fraudulent.”

Mr. Hull’s conference with the Japanese envoys lasted ten minutes.

When they emerged they were glum and downcast.

DECEMBER 8, 1941

NETHERLANDS JOIN IN WAR ON JAPAN

Exiled Government in London and Indies’ Governor General Issue Declarations

LONDON, Dec. 8 (AP) —The Netherland Government in exile considers itself in a state of war with Japan, said an authorized statement issued early today.

The statement said:

“In view of Japan’s aggression against two powers with whom the Netherlands maintain particularly close relations, aggression directly threatening vital Netherlands interests, the Government of the Kingdom considers a state of war exists between the Netherlands and the Japanese Empire.”

It was learned that instructions to this effect have been sent to the Governor-General of the Netherlands Indies and the Governors of two Western Hemisphere possessions, Surinam and Curacao.

DECEMBER 8, 1941

NEGROES PLEDGE LOYALTY

Leader Wires Roosevelt 12,000,000 Are Ready to Serve

Special to The New York Times.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 —Assurances of the loyalty and support of the Negroes of the United States in the hostilities with Japan were sent to President Roosevelt tonight in a telegram by Edgar G. Brown, director of the National Negro Council and president of the United Government Employes. His telegram said:

“Twelve million American Negro citizens renewed today their pledge of 100 per cent loyalty to their country and our Commander-in-Chief against Japan and all other invaders. Negro youth awaits your call for an unrestricted and full opportunity to serve their country at this critical hour in all capacities of the Army and Navy, the Marines, the Coast Guard and the Air Corps and national defense.”

DECEMBER 9, 1941

UNITY IN CONGRESS

Only One Negative Vote as President Calls to War And Victory

ROUNDS OF CHEERS

By FRANK L. KLUCKHOHN
Special to The New York Times.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 —The United States today formally declared war on Japan. Congress, with only one dissenting vote, approved the resolution in the record time of 33 minutes after President Roosevelt denounced Japanese aggression in ringing tones. He personally delivered his message to a joint session of the Senate and House. At 4:10 P.M. he affixed his signature to the resolution.

There was no debate like that between April 2, 1917, when President Wilson requested war against Germany, and April 6, when a declaration of war was approved by Congress.

President Roosevelt spoke only 6 minutes and 30 seconds today compared with Woodrow Wilson’s 29 minutes and 34 seconds.

The vote today against Japan was 82 to 0 in the Senate and 388 to 1 in the House. The lone vote against the resolution in the House was that of Miss Jeanette Rankin, Republican, of Montana. Her “no” was greeted with boos and hisses. In 1917 she voted against the resolution for war against Germany.

The President did not mention either Germany or Italy in his request. Early this evening a statement was issued at the White House, however, accusing Germany of doing everything possible to push Japan into the war. The objective, the official statement proclaimed, was to cut off American lend-lease aid to Germany’s European enemies, and a pledge was made that this aid would continue “100 per cent.”

A SUDDEN AND DELIBERATE ATTACK

President Roosevelt’s brief and decisive words were addressed to the assembled representatives of the basic organizations of American democracy—the Senate, the House, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court.

“America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan,” he said. “We will gain the inevitable triumph, so help us God.”

Thunderous cheers greeted the Chief Executive and Commander in Chief throughout the address. This was particularly pronounced when he declared that Americans “will remember the character of the onslaught against us,” a day, he remarked, which will live in infamy.

“This form of treachery shall never endanger us again,” he declared amid cheers. “The American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.”

Then, to the accompaniment of a great roar of cheering, he asked for war against Japan.

The President officially informed Congress that in the dastardly attack by Japan, delivered while the Imperial Japanese Government was expressing hope for continued peace, “very many American lives have been lost” and American ships reportedly have been “torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.”

President Franklin Roosevelt delivers his ‘Day of Infamy’ address on December 8, 1941.

Mentioning one by one in staccato phrases the Japanese attacks on the Philippines, American Midway, Wake and Guam Islands, British Hong Kong and Malaya, he bluntly informed the people by radio and their representatives directly:

“Hostilities exist. There is no blinking the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.”

VICTORY MAY TAKE TIME, HE WARNS

It may take a long time, Mr. Roosevelt warned, “to overcome this premeditated invasion,” but of the unbounding determination of the American people and confidence in our armed forces neither he nor they had any doubt. Then he said:

“I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, Dec. 7, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.”

It was to a solemn Congress and to grim galleries that the President mentioned the casualties in Hawaii—officially estimated at 1,500 dead and 1,500 wounded.

Before him, on his left was the Supreme Court, its members clad in black robes. On the right in the front row sat the Cabinet, with Secretary Hull in the ranking position on the aisle. Behind the Cabinet were the Senators and then the members of the House.

Mr. Roosevelt spoke concisely, clearly and to the point to an already convinced audience already stirred to belligerency by the wantonness of the Japanese attack.

Extraordinary precautions were taken by the Secret Service to guard the President during his short trip over the indirect mile and a quarter route from the Executive Mansion to the Capitol and back to the White House.

Crowds, solemn but determined, greeted the Chief Executive with cheers from the time he was driven out of the East Gate of the White House until he reached the rear entrance of the House after passing through crowded Capitol Plaza. The same crowds stood silently by as he returned.

JOINT SESSION IS ENDED

The two houses split up immediately after the address and passed the war resolution separately without debate, the time consumed being accountable to having the resolution officially introduced and in the physical problem involved.

Stephen T. Early, Presidential secretary, said that nothing official had been received by this government tonight on European reports that Germany and Italy were contemplating declaration of war against the United States. Germany, however, was widely expected to carry out its treaty commitments arranged by Hitler with Japan and to declare war on the United States with her Italian satellite following suit.

Since the Constitution provides that Congress alone can declare war, there was some doubt here as to whether the United States was officially at war with Japan from the time the House adopted the war resolution at 1:10 P.M., ten minutes after the Senate, or from the time the President signed the resolution at 4:10 P.M. Most attorneys consulted inclined to the belief the latter time marked the historic step.

DECEMBER 9, 1941

The President’s Message

Following is the text of President Roosevelt’s war message to Congress, as recorded by The New York Times from a broadcast:

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives:

Yesterday, Dec. 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.

The United States was at peace with that nation, and, at the solicitation of Japan, was still in conversation with its government and its Emperor looking toward the maintenance of peace in the Pacific.

Indeed, one hour after Japanese air squadrons had commenced bombing in the American island of Oahu the Japanese Ambassador to the United States and his colleague delivered to our Secretary of State a formal reply to a recent American message. And, while this reply stated that it seemed useless to continue the existing diplomatic negotiations, it contained no threat or hint of war or of armed attack.

ATTACK DELIBERATELY PLANNED

It will be recorded that the distance of Hawaii from Japan makes it obvious that the attack was deliberately planned many days or even weeks ago. During the intervening time the Japanese Government has deliberately sought to deceive the United States by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace.

The attack yesterday on the Hawaiian Islands has caused severe damage to American naval and military forces. I regret to tell you that very many American lives have been lost. In addition, American ships have been reported torpedoed on the high seas between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.

Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.

Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.

Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island.

And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.

Japan has therefore undertaken a surprise offensive extending throughout the Pacific area. The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.

As Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense, that always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.

VICTORY WILL BE ABSOLUTE

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.

I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.

Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger. With confidence in our armed forces, with the inbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph. So help us God.

I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.

DECEMBER 9, 1941

PRESIDENT’S POWER GREATLY ENLARGED

State of War ‘All But Lifts The Limit,’ Legal Advisers In the Capital Say

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (AP) —A state of war all but lifts the limit from Presidential powers.

Statutes which operate in such periods authorize the President to take over transportation systems, industrial plants, radio stations, power facilities and ships, and place some controls on communication systems.

Many of these powers have been available to the President under his emergency proclamations and as Commander in Chief of the armed forces.

One highly placed Administration legal adviser says that in wartime the government has the power “to take what it needs to meet the emergency.”

The same thought was expressed by Alexander Hamilton more than a century ago when he wrote:

“The direction of war implies the direction of common strength; and the power of directing and employing the common strength forms a usual and essential part in the definition of the executive authority.”

Here, in brief, are some of the other powers given to the President in times of war or great emergency:

Temporary connections of power lines may be required.

Parts of the 1930 Tariff Act may be suspended to permit free entry of needed commodities.

Additional Army officers may be commissioned and their rank may be raised. Retired officers and nurses may be recalled to active service.

The Coast Guard operates as part of the Navy (already ordered).

The Army may take over lands for certain purposes.

The Secretary of War may rent any building in the District of Columbia.

Use may be made of strategic materials purchased for stock piles.

Securities Exchanges (there are nineteen in eighteen cities) may be closed, or trading in any selected securities may be suspended.

Restrictions may be placed against imports from countries found to be discriminating against United States products.

Labor laws providing for an eight-hour working day may be suspended in connection with work on government contracts.

Some of the formalities in making purchases, such as advertising for bids, may be omitted.

The monthly apportionments of funds for governmental departments and agencies may be disregarded.

DECEMBER 10, 1941

ISLANDS INVADED

Landings at 2 Places in Philippines Reported in ‘Heavy’ Attack

By The Associated Press.

MANILA, Dec. 10 —Two Japanese landings on the Philippine island of Luzon were reported today by the Filipino Constabulary, and an Army spokesman announced that “all indications point to a heavy enemy attack with land troops supported by naval contingents and aircraft.”

A communiqué issued a short time later from the headquarters of Lieut. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, United States commander in the Philippines, declared that “the enemy is in heavy force off the northern coast of Luzon, extending from Vigan to Aparri. [Vigan is on the coast of Luzon, about 200 miles north of Manila; Aparri, 200 miles farther north, is the northernmost port of Luzon.]

The communiqué reported that United States bombers had done heavy damage to Japanese naval units, scoring direct hits on three transports, one of which capsized.

[Six transports, believed to have been under heavy naval protection, were in the fleet that the United States bombers attacked, The United Press reported. Bomb hits were scored close to the three ships remaining after one had capsized and two had been hit.]

The announcement came soon after officials had uncovered a fifth-columnist plot that set off two false air-raid alarms and pointed the way to military targets with lights on the ground while Japanese planes were first attacking the Philippines.

Before last midnight this blacked-out capital had two alarms declared officially to have been fraudulently turned on. Alfredo Eugenio, Philippine national air-raid precautions head, announced the arrest of two workers, and he said two others were under surveillance. Their nationality was not disclosed.

Earlier a United States Army spokesman had announced that “certain areas were marked out by light signals”—both flares and fireworks—during the raids on Nichols Field, outside Manila, early yesterday.

Last night, he said, the persons in charge of the sirens sounded the two false alarms after having received telephone calls from unidentified persons. He expressed the belief that fifth columnists hoped to cause panic among the uneducated masses by a multiplicity of alarms and to lull others into a feeling that the alarms were not worth heeding.

The first alarm last night sounded at 7:41 o’clock and the second at 9:50. Each lasted about an hour.

United States pilots and anti-aircraft crews were said to have stood up well under their first bombings and ground-strafing at Clark Field, sixty miles north of Manila.

Despite a bright moon, no Japanese air attacks on the Philippines were reported overnight. A few anti-aircraft shots were heard, and United States planes droned steadily overhead on patrol, but there were no bombs. Army authorities had expected the Japanese to take advantage of the favorable attacking weather.

Newspapers reported that a single Japanese plane had appeared over Davao but dropped no bombs, and residents of Lucena, Tayabas, reported that United States planes had driven off three Japanese planes.

The Cavite Naval Yard aflame following a Japanese bombing raid, Luzon, Philippines, December 10, 1941.

“It was tough enough and we were glad when it ended,” one gunner said, “but the next time we’ll do better. Even when the bombs were raining down we kept noticing little things we were not doing right. These kinks are ironed our now. The next time we’ll give ’em hell.”

An American pilot expressed confidence that the United States fliers could take care of the Japanese fighter planes, which he said were heavily armed with 20-millimeter hub-firing cannon and numerous machine-guns. The Japanese ground-strafing tactics, he said, indicated German tutelage if not actual German participation. Reports that a German flier had been captured after having parachuted out of a burning plane could not be confirmed.

The Japanese Air Force is using German equipment in its attacks, informed sources said. Participants in yesterday’s air clash at Clark Field said they had picked up and identified beyond question empty German-marked 20-millimeter shells fired by the cannon-carrying Japanese pursuit planes. American machine-gunners also shot a small spare gasoline tank bearing the name of a German manufacturer from the under-side of a Japanese fighter.

An American aircraft gunner said rumors were afloat that some Germans had been shot down in Japanese planes, but, he asserted:

“The Japs we shot down were Japs.”

Thus far the Japanese pilots were reported to have got decidedly the worst of it in individual dogfights over the islands.

Still unverified was the report that Japanese troops now were in full control of Lubang Island, southwest of Manila Bay, with the help of fifth columnists.

An official Army announcement yesterday said material losses in planes as a result of Monday’s air fighting over the Philippines had been “heavy on both sides.” No figures were given.

United States naval sources denied reports that the seaplane tender Langley had been bombed during a Japanese attack on Davao. They said the vessel was safe and carrying out routine duties.

DECEMBER 10, 1941

CENSORSHIP RULES SET BY PRESIDENT

FIRST, IT MUST BE TRUE

Special to The New York Times.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 —President Roosevelt laid down two primary rules of censorship of war news today, reserving to himself and high-ranking officials the right of decision over material released. News to be released, he said, first must be true, and then it must pass a test whether it conforms with a rule that it must “not give aid and comfort to the enemy.”

These basic stipulations were described at the first press conference held by the President since the outbreak of the war with Japan. After reporters had protested that officials at the War and Navy Departments had given inquirers the “run-around,” even on matters of record, Mr. Roosevelt said that discretion for giving out news could not be left to captains or majors, to lieutenant commanders or commanders.

Reporters would get news as soon as information is available, if it conforms to the rule, Mr. Roosevelt said. The mere fact that one bureau in a government department gets a flash, he went on, is not sufficient authority for its release. He told reporters that they were in no position to determine whether it conformed to the rule and neither were heads of these bureaus.

CITES BRITISH COMMUNIQUéS

The decision is up to the heads of the War and Navy Departments, said the President, and news has to be accurate and has to be approved. He cited the current London communiqué system as a model which might be followed by this government in its eventual handling of war reports.

In reply to a question, the President said that officers in the services were being checked for leaks.

“Can you make any comment,” a reporter asked, “on domestic responsibility for the surprise of the command at Hawaii by the Japanese?”

Mr. Roosevelt replied that he did not know and neither did any member of Congress.

The President’s mention and support of the British system aroused some apprehension here among reporters who have worked in London during the war. There, too, the rule was that stories must be accurate and must not give aid and comfort to the enemy. There, also, the final decision was left to military and naval officials, and the chief criticism of the American reporters in London was that the military mind often tended to rule that almost any news that was bad for the British gave aid and comfort to Germany and Italy.

DECEMBER 11, 1941

Blackout Rules Listed

Orders by the Police Department of New York City to be followed by all residents in a total blackout were issued to thousands of air-raid wardens last night at special meetings. The principal orders and instructions follow:

LARGE BUILDINGS

Extinguish all exterior lights, illuminating signs, etc.

Extinguish or effectively screen off all interior lights.

Superintendents and managers of all apartment buildings will be responsible for shutting off all lights or drawing window shades if the main switches in buildings are not pulled.

Managers and superintendents are responsible for the instruction and training of protection personnel of building premises.

HOUSEHOLDERS

Remain in the house if possible.

Turn out or effectively screen off all lights at the blackout signal or on orders from responsible person.

Use no matches or lights outside the home.

Keep pets under control.

Keep off the streets or highways.

MOTORISTS

Pull over to the side of the highway, extinguish lights, close car and seek shelter.

Do not park at intersections, hydrants, police stations, hospitals or fire houses.

Avoid all congested areas.

PEDESTRIANS

Remain away from all congested areas.

Do not attempt to cross streets or highways.

Proceed to and remain at some place of safety.

Use no flashlights or matches; light no cigarettes on the street.

The orders requested that wherever possible the main electric switches and main gas cocks in large buildings should not be pulled. They closed with the request that all lawful instructions be obeyed.

A switch for an air raid blackout.

The British battleship HMS Prince of Wales in 1941.

DECEMBER 11, 1941

Blow Staggers London

By JAMES MacDONALD
Special Cable to The New York Times

LONDON, Dec. l0 —Great Britain was plunged into sadness today by the staggering blow suffered by the Navy in the loss of two of its most powerful vessels, the 35,000-ton battleship Prince of Wales , flagship of the newly constituted British Far Eastern Fleet, and the 32,000-ton battle cruiser Repulse.

Both apparently were sunk by Japanese planes off Malaya. Some reports indicated they might have fallen victims to “suicide” fliers who dived on them with full bomb loads.

These are the first British capital ships sunk by the Japanese. Their destruction has given Japan a tremendous initial advantage in Malayan waters. Far from minimizing the loss of these vessels, some British observers foresee that their sinking will have a direct bearing on the course of the war all around the globe.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a brief solemn announcement in the House of Commons, confirming the Japanese announcement that the Prince of Wales and Repulse had been sent to the bottom.

The Prince of Wales , a sister ship of the King George V, was one of this country’s newest men-of-war and carried among her complement of at least 1,500 officers and men, Admiral Sir Tom S. V. Phillips, whose appointment as commander in chief of the newly established Far Eastern Fleet was announced Dec. 1. [Alfred Duff Cooper, British Minister in the Far East, confirmed that Admiral Phillips was aboard and said patrol boats were searching for survivors.

The Repulse, although built in 1916, was a hard-hitting modernized battle cruiser and normally carried a complement of about 1,200 officers and men.

The wife of Captain W. G. Tennant of the Repulse said she received word her husband had been saved by a destroyer. The fate of Admiral Phillips and of Captain J. C. Leach of the Prince of Wales was not determined.

The sinking of these vessels, combined with losses suffered by the United States Navy since Japan began the war, has taken on the aspect of a catastrophe. Virtually every one in this country is watching the Far Eastern theatre of hostilities with anxious eyes.

Britain’s grim determination to win through to a victorious finish, which was strengthened when the United States declared war on Japan, remains unswerving, however.

DECEMBER 12, 1941

SILENT GALLERIES WATCH WAR VOTE

Hear President’s Message And the Roll-Call On Germany, but Refuse To Stay for Italy

Special to The New York Times.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 —Without hesitation and without debate, and as rapidly as parliamentary procedure would permit, the Congress cast two more war votes today to carry the United States formally and constitutionally into battle to the finish with the Axis on all fronts.

No member of either house voted “no” on going to war against Germany and Italy.

One, Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana, who voted against the 1917 declaration of war against Germany and who voted on Monday against accepting the Japanese challenge in the Pacific voted “present.”

Substitution, by unanimous House consent, of Senate texts to prevent procedural delays removed even this reservation.

Formally the Senate voted war against Germany by 88 to 0. When the resolution accepting Italy’s declaration followed, the vote was 90-0, two Senators having reached the floor after missing the first speedy vote.

In the House the roll call on the resolution against the German Government showed a vote of 393 to 0. Six additional members appeared for the tally on the resolution on Italy, making the vote 399 to 0.

GALLERIES ARE CROWDED

Viscount Halifax, the British Ambassador, and Lady Halifax leaned tensely over the rail of the diplomatic [words missing] Roosevelt’s brief message was read. They departed before any votes were taken.

Visitors’ galleries of Senate and House were crowded and silent, through the reading of the message and throughout the slow, methodical roll calling on the declaration against Germany. When the voting started on the resolution against Italy the spectators lost interest. In the House chamber the leave-taking was so general and so noisy that Speaker Rayburn halted the balloting to restore order. The exodus continued.

President Roosevelt signing the declaration of war against Germany, Dec. 11, 1941.

DECEMBER 14, 1941

JAPANESE ATTACK UNITES AMERICAS

In the Southern Continent Popular Sentiment Is Aroused and Angry

By ARNALDO CORTESI
Special Cable to The New York Times.

BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 13 —The popular South American reaction to the Japanese aggression against the United States, after a moment of shocked and incredulous surprise, has been one of anger—blazing, red-hot anger—that any power foreign to this continent should have dared to attack one of the American republics.

The people who feel the most outraged by what Japan has done include many who up to the present had no particular sympathy for the United States, for the fact that the victim of Japanese aggression happened to be the United States is of secondary importance, and the reaction would undoubtedly have been the same if the least instead of the greatest of American republics had been attacked. The point is that violent hands have been laid upon an America regarded as a single unit stretching from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and this has caused the blood of all of the citizens of the continent to boil, regardless of nationality or political opinions.

The people of South America have suddenly discovered—and have not been a little surprised by the discovery—that there are certain things about which they all feel alike.

SAME FAMILY

The first and most important of these is the intangibility of this continent. When it is a matter of an American country versus a non-American power—any non-American power—Argentine and Brazilian, Chilean and Venezuelan, Uruguayan and Colombian all feel that in very truth they are members of the same family. Japan has contributed more in five minutes than all of the statesmen of the Americas in a century toward bringing such a feeling of brotherhood about.

How large a part of the popular reaction in South America has been determined by the fact that the United States was the victim of a treacherous attack is shown by the comparatively slighter impression made by the German and Italian declarations of war. These were taken almost as a matter of course, as a necessary consequence of the irresistible development of events. They have caused interest, speculation and excitement, but nothing even faintly comparable to the spontaneous emotion produced by the first news that Japanese aircraft had bombed the United States possessions in the Pacific.

DECEMBER 21, 1941

Admiral King Heads Navy, Rules All Sea And Air Fleets

Special to The New York Times.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 —Admiral Ernest J. King, in command of the Atlantic Fleet since February, was designated today Commander-in-Chief of the United States Fleet, directly responsible to the President under general direction of the Secretary of the Navy and in supreme command of all naval operating forces in Atlantic, Pacific and Asiatic waters.

Rear Admiral Royal E. Ingersoll was named to succeed Admiral King as commander of the Atlantic Fleet.

These actions were taken by Secretary Knox in accordance with an Executive Order signed by President Roosevelt on Thursday, a day after Rear Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, was ordered to relieve Admiral Husband E. Kimmel as Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet at Hawaii.

Admiral King, an aviation expert who has served also as chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, is put in entire charge of the Navy’s surface, air and coastal frontier operating forces.

His staff will be composed of a chief of staff and such other officers and agencies as appropriate and necessary, the Presidential order specified, to perform duties in general as follows:

Make available for evaluation all pertinent information and naval intelligence.

Prepare and execute plans for current war operations.

Conduct operational duties.

Effect all essential communications.

Direct training essential to carrying out operations.

Serve as personal aides.

Although Admiral King’s principal offices will be in the department, the Navy emphasized that the orders did not relieve him from duty at sea.

“He is free to exercise personal command at sea as in his judgment circumstances make advisable,” it stated.

KING’S SERVICE IN ALL BRANCHES

Admiral King was born in Lorain, Ohio, on Nov. 23, 1878, and was appointed to the Naval Academy from Ohio in 1897. His subsequent career brought him experience and distinction in all branches of naval service, on the sea, in the air, on submarines and in administrative posts.

During the Spanish-American War he served on the U.S.S. San Francisco engaged in patrol duty off the Atlantic coast. From 1916 to 1919 he was Assistant Chief of the Staff of Admiral Henry T. Mayo, Commander in Chief of the United States Fleet, and for that service he received the Navy Cross.

In 1923 he took command of the submarine base at New London, Conn., and was in charge of the salvage operations of Submarine S-51, which sank off Block Island in September, 1925. For that service he received the Distinguished Service Medal.

After the sinking of the Submarine S-4 off Provincetown, Mass., in December, 1927, he directed the salvage force and the Distinguished Service Medal, Gold Star, was awarded to him for that task.

In 1927 Admiral King qualified as a naval aviator at Pensacola, Fla., and in 1928 was appointed commander, Aircraft Squadrons, Scouting Fleet.

He served as assistant chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics, 1928–29, and was in command of the aircraft carrier Lexington until 1932, when he attended the senior course at the Naval War College. He was appointed chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics in May, 1933.

His decorations also include the Sampson Medal, U.S.S. San Francisco, 1898; Spanish Campaign Medal; Mexican Service Medal, U.S.S. Terry; and Victory Medal, Atlantic Fleet Clasp, U.S.S. Pennsylvania.

Admiral Ernest J. King in 1941.

His home is at Annapolis.

DECEMBER 23, 1941

Editorial

HITLER PROMOTES HITLER

Though the German armies in Russia have not been destroyed, they have failed in their primary objective. This was to destroy the armed forces of the Soviets. They have also failed in their secondary objectives, which were to reach the southern oil fields and to take Moscow before the coming of cold weather. The attempt has cost them dearly. And with this failure added to the entrance of the United States into the war, it must be a dull German who does not wonder whether something has gone wrong.

Is this the explanation of the sudden mysterious removal of Field Marshal von Brauchitsch as Commander in Chief of the German Army and the assumption of superior command by the man who describes himself as “the statesman Adolf Hitler”? Certainly it is possible that Hitler, relying on German confidence in the infallibility of his “inner call” and his “intuition” and the dynamics of his “fanatical will power,” has sought to allay anxiety among his people by taking command himself and at least by implication charging responsibility for the failure in Russia against the soldier whose task it was to execute his orders. It is also possible that the suspected rift between the Nazi party and the Army has been widened by the Russian failure and that Hitler does not wholly trust his high command. A third possibility is that Hitler is dreaming dreams of new campaigns which the hardheaded army men are reluctant to attempt to carry out.

In any case Hitler has strained the legend of his infallibility pretty far, even for the German people. The year is almost gone, and the Nazi leaders themselves have stopped promising that the war is nearly over. Yet when 1941 began Hitler pledged his countrymen that it would bring victory and an end to all their hardships and privations. In his New Year’s Day proclamation he made the unequivocal statement: “The year 1941 will bring consummation of the greatest victory in our history.” At the end of January, on the anniversary of his assumption of power, he boasted: “The year 1941 will be the historical year of the great new order for Europe.” In mid-March, at the annual German Memorial Day services, he promised that the year 1941 would “end what started the year before.” And in mid-April, celebrating his own birthday, he echoed the confidence of Dr. Goebbels that victory was “already as good as assured.” Again, at the outset of the Russian campaign, he promised his people that this would be the decisive battle for the establishment of the “New Order,” and still more recently he assured them that the resistance of Russia “is already broken and will never rise again.”

Even the regimented people of Germany must be aware of the obvious inconsistencies between these statements and the recent semi-hysterical wheedling pleas for greater sacrifices on their part, in order to overcome an enemy superior in numbers to, and better equipped than, the hitherto invincible German Army. How long will it be before the German people isolate and identify and destroy Hitler himself as the root-cause of all their suffering?

Adolf Hitler saluting from a train window, April 1941.

DECEMBER 25, 1941

Heroic Defense of Wake Isle an Epic In Marines’ Annals

By CHARLES HURD
Special to The New York Times.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 24 —The Navy reluctantly closed today its chapter of exploits at Wake Island, which is now assumed lost to the Japanese, by revealing that 378 Marines, assisted by seven members of naval medical personnel, held off Japanese attacks by sea, air and land for fourteen days before radio silence signaled the end of their vigil.

This little group of fighting men, armed only with light weapons and twelve fighter planes—without bombers—took a toll of one Japanese cruiser and three destroyers in the course of their defense of the tiny island, which lies about 2,000 miles west of Honolulu.

In the fighting, which lasted from Dec. 9 through Dec. 23, no aid reached the defenders of Wake and there apparently was no chance to try to evacuate them. This they knew, but they continued fighting for a length of time and against odds that made their work without parallel in the service records.

The fall of Wake removed another link between Honolulu and Manila; Guam was captured by the Japanese about two weeks ago. So far as is known, Midway Island still is holding out and has not been attacked for some days.

THE HEROISM OF WAKE

A collection of facts marshaled by the Navy Department here, on the basis of radio reports from Wake Island, pictured a fight in which the Marines, outnumbered from the start, sustained wave after wave of smashing attacks, even after the loss of most of their fighting equipment.

The report that they had sunk two more destroyers on the last day of the defense, when most of their weapons had been smashed, was confirmed by the Tokyo radio last night.

In addition to the planes based on Wake Island the Marines had only weapons classed as “light.” The garrison had no heavy artillery and there was no protective fort—only the garrison buildings, hangars and the usual buildings that would be erected on a watch post. The Navy listed the weapons at Wake at the start of the fighting as six 5-inch guns, two 3-inch anti-aircraft guns, eighteen 50-calibre machine guns, “plus the usual light weapons.” There also were six searchlights.

The official report of action in the last fortnight read as follows:

“Early as Dec. 9 Wake was under enemy attack by sea and air. Four separate attacks in forty-eight hours were beaten off, and most of the fighter planes were lost in these actions. The marines, however, succeeded in sinking one enemy light cruiser and one destroyer by air action.

LANDING FIELD ATTACKED

“They reported to the Navy Department that they expected these attacks would be resumed and a landing attempted by the enemy. They were prepared to resist to the best of their ability. President Roosevelt reported on Dec. 12 that Wake was still holding out. On Dec. 14 the marines suffered a moonlight raid by enemy bombers, which attacked their landing field. They reported no damage had been suffered, but by the following morning forty-one bombers were over Wake. In this raid one of their fast-diminishing number of fighting planes was destroyed on the ground.

“The defenders reported two of their men had been killed, but that they had succeeded in bringing down two enemy bombers and damaging several others by anti-aircraft fire. They would continue to resist.

“Two additional bombing attacks were sustained on 15 December, and an enemy submarine was reported hovering around Wake. These were to be followed by still two more attacks in force on the 17th and 18th.

“By 21 December the little garrison was in serious trouble. Seventeen heavy Japanese bombers attacked the island and were beaten off after heavy damage. The 3-inch batteries were struck, the power plant was damaged and the Diesel oil building and its equipment were destroyed. Only one 3-inch battery of four guns was now effective.

“The following day, Dec. 22, the Wake defenders reported that they had sustained still another heavy attack by air, but that several enemy ships and a transport were moving in. This landing attempt was in great force, but two enemy destroyers were put out of action by the Marines before the invaders could effect a landing on the island.

“For many hours the issue was in doubt. On Dec. 23 Tokyo claimed that Wake Island was completely occupied by Japanese forces, and the Navy Department was forced to admit that all communications with Wake had ceased.”

DECEMBER 25, 1941

Roosevelt, Churchill Voice Faith To War-Weary World

Special to The New York Times.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 24 —Speaking from the high south portico of the White House, in the twinkling lights of the community Christmas tree on the lawn below them, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill this evening called on the people of their two nations to rededicate themselves in a righteous cause and to “arm their hearts” for labor, suffering and for the ultimate victory ahead.

Thousands of men and women, banked on the south lawn in the clear, mild twilight, heard the two leaders speak, while the radio carried their voices throughout the world, with the hymns and carols of the traditional Christmas ceremony.

Standing between the central columns of the porch, at the President’s left hand, Mr. Churchill spoke publicly for the first time since he arrived to start the historic discussions of the joint conduct of the war.

It was the first time, too, that a President of the United States and a Prime Minister of Britain had ever met on Christmas Eve, with what at least approximated a joint message to their peoples.

CHURCHILL IS HAILED AS FRIEND

Hailed by the President as “my associate, my old and good friend,” Mr. Churchill spoke to his American audience as “fellow-workers, fellows, soldiers in this common cause.” He had “a right to sit at your fireside and share your Christmas joys,” through ties of unity and association, he said, and he urged them, at this season, not to overlook the character of their cause.

“Ill would it be for us this Christmastide if we were not sure that no greed for the lands or wealth of any other people has led us to the field, that no vulgar ambition, no sordid lust for material gain at the expense of others has led us to the field,” he said.

“Here in the midst of war, raging and roaring about us over all the lands and seas, creeping nearer to our hearts and homes, here, amidst all these tumults, we have the spirit of peace in each cottage home and in every heart.”

Armed soldiers surrounded the White House grounds, ropes held the crowd 100 yards from the portico and policemen and members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation patrolled the interval, but the grim wartime precautions did not dampen the enthusiasm of the audience as the President spoke and Mr. Churchill followed.

Winston Churchill demonstrates the easy zipper on his famous siren suit on the White House lawn at dusk, December 1941. Next to him, Diana Hopkins, the daughter of White House aide Harry Hopkins, struggles to keep President Roosevelt’s dog, Fala, next to the chair.

APPLAUSE INTERRUPTS SPEAKER

The vibrant voice, the strong Victorian phrases, the quick, descriptive lift of the left hand, the set of chin and mouth marked an expressive and defiant Churchill, and the audience, again and again as he spoke, interrupted him with applause.

But not all his message was of determination and defiance. Seasonably, he wished his hearers, “In God’s mercy, a happy Christmas to you all.” And he asked, “for one night only,” a revival of the season’s cheer.

DECEMBER 26, 1941

BRITISH GARRISON ENDS 16-DAY SIEGE

Water Supply Exhausted, Hong Kong Defenders Bow to Crushing Odds

By CRAIG THOMPSON
Special Cable to The New York Times.

LONDON, Dec. 25 —Even while long-delayed communiqués from Hong Kong reached here today, the Colonial Office announced the colony’s fall after a sixteen-day siege. It appeared that Governor Sir Mark Young had been instructed to seek a negotiated surrender rather than attempt to stand off the Japanese to the last defender.

Early this evening the Colonial Office revealed that Sir Mark had been advised by the naval and military commanders at Hong Kong that further effective resistance was impossible and that he was taking action accordingly.

This pieced neatly into a Japanese report that the Governor was participating in a conference at Kowloon with Japanese military leaders. It was only in Japanese broadcasts that any direct statement was made that Hong Kong had surrendered.

END SEEN AS AT HAND

Even as Sir Mark talked with the Japanese in Kowloon, there were reports that Chinese troops pressing toward Hong Kong were meeting with successes.

To many here, however, it seemed that the end must be near. For seven days under relentless observed artillery fire not only from the mainland but on the heights of Hong Kong Island, the British garrison fought on, rejecting two demands to surrender.

The water supply gave cause for anxiety, as three reservoirs had fallen into Japanese hands. Water mains destroyed by bombardment were repaired, but the invaders destroyed them again and again. On Tuesday there remained but one day’s supply of water.

Military and civilian casualties in Hong Kong were heavy, but under the Governor’s inspiring leadership morale was admirable.

“So ends a valiant fight against overwhelming odds,” said the official statement. “The courage and determination of the Royal Navy and troops from the United Kingdom, Canada and India, as well as local levies, including many Chinese, will long be remembered.”

In eight days Hong Kong had forty-five air raids. Heavy shelling was maintained by the Japanese. They sent two peace offers, which were rejected out of hand.

“We are going to hold on,” the Governor cabled Lord Moyne, the Colonial Secretary.

Tokyo reported the capture of Hong Kong last Friday, but this claim was refuted by a British communiqué telling of heavy losses being inflicted on the invaders.

DECEMBER 27, 1941

CHURCHILL MASTER OF TELLING PHRASES

His War Addresses Have Contained a Succession of Striking Passages

By The United Press.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 26 —Winston Churchill is a master phrasemaker and passages from his addresses have a majestic cadence. Highest honors for a single sentence probably go to eleven words Churchill uttered on May 13, 1940, after Great Britain had dropped the Chamberlain government and was adjusting itself to the prospect of total war. Then Mr. Churchill told his countrymen:

“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

And with the hard going in June, 1940, and the Germans in possession of beaches a few miles across the English Channel, Mr. Churchill made this promise:

“We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender.”

In that same June, when the British Army in Europe was beaten and disorganized, he said:

“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its commonwealth last for a thousand years men will still say: ‘This was their finest hour.’”

In August, 1940, after Germany had begun all-out efforts to bomb Britain into submission, Mr. Churchill said of the British airmen: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

On Sept. 11, 1940, Mr. Churchill said of Adolf Hitler:

“This wicked man, the repository and embodiment of many forms of soul-destroying hatred; this monstrous product of former wrongs and shame, has now resolved to try and break our famous island race by a process of indiscriminate slaughter and destruction. What he has done is to kindle a fire in British hearts, here and all over the world, which will glow long after all traces of the conflagration he has caused in London have been removed.”

“Do not suppose,” he warned again in January, 1941, “that we are at the end of the road. Yet, though long and hard it may be, I have absolutely no doubt that we shall win a complete and decisive victory over the forces of evil, and that victory itself will only be a stimulus to further efforts to conquer ourselves and to make our country as worthy in the days of peace as it is proving itself in the hours of war.”

To Americans in February, 1941, he directed this message: “Give us the tools and we will finish the job.”

DECEMBER 28, 1941

JAPANESE ADVANCE SLOWLY ON MANILA

By The United Press.

FIELD HEADQUARTERS, United States Forces on Northern Luzon Front, Dec. 27 —Japanese forces tonight advanced slowly against stubbornly resisting American and Philippine troops in a huge north-and-south pincers upon Manila. On this Northern Front the Japanese spearheads have debouched from narrow, mountainous defiles of the north onto the broad Pampanga plains. Their advance guard was reported at Urdaneta, eight miles south of Binalonan and about ninety-seven miles from Manila.

Reports from the Southern Front placed the Japanese advance at Lucena, sixty-four airline miles from Manila, but separated from the capital by several mountain ranges, lakes, swamps and difficult terrain. At this point the Japanese had driven forward about twenty-six miles from their landing stage on Lamon Bay, a twenty-mile strip of beach from Atimonan to Mauban.

Both the Japanese thrusts were regarded as dangerous. They were backed by increasing numbers of mobile Japanese troops, landed with light arms and equipment from transports standing off Lingayen Gulf in the northwest and Lamon Bay to the southeast.

However, neither in north nor south had the main battle yet been joined as General Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of United States forces in the Far East, carefully deployed his inferior numbers against the invaders.

Despite the Japanese advances there was an air of confidence here at Major Gen. J. M. Wainwright’s field headquarters. General Wainwright reported in a communiqué that he was slowly moving his troops back to strong battle lines carefully selected long in advance. There was no indication where the main defense line had been erected, but several water courses bisect this long, easy valley that provides a broad highway to Manila.

The Japanese northern thrust is being made in two main columns. One column is trying to force its way toward Lingayen at the head of Lingayen Gulf, along whose shores the Japanese landings were made. This column is circling along the coast, following the coastal plain highway. The second column has struck down through Rosales and Urdaneta, ninety-seven miles due north of Manila in Pangasinan Province.

General Wainwright reported that the Japanese were “now making slow progress on the Northern Luzon Front as the withdrawal of our troops to a stronger line is proceeding in accordance with plans.” He said that “the resistance of our troops continues undiminished.”

Japanese soldiers in the Philippines, late 1941.

A communiqué from General Mac-Arthur gave no details of the fighting except to say that it was “desultory” in the North and “very heavy” in the Southeast.

“The enemy is steadily bringing reinforcements from his fleet of transports off Lingayen and Atimonan,” the communiqué reported. “Enemy air activity is heavy.”

Reports from the South said that the Japanese flag now was flying over Lucena, capital of Tayabas Province on the Southern Luzon Coast.

Capture of Lucena plants the Japanese squarely across Tayabas Isthmus, a narrow neck of land that links the central portion of Luzon with the long narrow southern extension stretching 175 miles to the southeast. Japanese control of the Tayabas Isthmus appeared to cut off any United States forces in the south combating the Japanese landing forces at Legaspi, except by sea.

The strength of the Japanese forces now ashore in the Atimonan-Mauban sector was estimated as between 10,000 and 15,000—possibly more. The northern force was placed between 80,000 and 100,000. In all, the Japanese may have between 150,000 and 200,000 troops ashore on Luzon or awaiting landing from transports.

The American-Philippines forces in the South are believed strong enough to cope with the Japanese, at least for the time being.