Ian Fleming and Pearl Harbor

In August of 1941 Cdr. Ian Fleming was attached to the BSC - British Security Commission. In that capacity he brought over to the United States another British agent named Popov, a Yugoslavian by birth, but a Brit by citizenship.

Popov had earlier supplied information after the German disaster at Tarino on Sicily. In that attack, the British used carrier based aircraft to annihilate a good portion of the German fleet. The Japanese quickly sent over a team to assess the damage done, and, more importantly, try and get a better understanding of how the attack was mounted.

A month later Popov had information concerning the Japanese. They were requesting information from their local Hawaiin agents as to the strength and positioning of ships berthed at Pearl  Harbor, the progress of the channel dregding, the depth of all channels and anti aircraft capabilities.

This information, coupled with the earlier intelligence, were pretty good indications that Japan was going to attack Pearl Harbor. It was only a question of when.

This information became the property of J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI. He was not pleased with the Presidents directive that he share information with the British. He was a notorious Anglophobe, which is to say that he, like the Japanese Colonel Sato in "A Bridge Over the River Kwai", hated the British. So, this info was locked away in August of 1941, having been dismissed by the Director as "nonesense."

In reality he was disgusted with Popovs playboy lifestyle and had even told others on more than one occassion that he considered the Yugoslavian to "be a double agent, using German and American money to live like a degenerate playboy."

And thus was born that old story about how FDR knew in advance of Pearl Harbor and did nothing. J. Edgar Hoover told him it didn't matter. That was in August.

"Code Talker" by Chester Nez with Judith Schiess Avila

In the 1920's and 1930's, as the country struggled through the Great Depression, the government waged an all out war to abolish Native American traditions, including their languaugue. This misguided effort would later prove to be a case of true irony as the government sought to find a code that would be unbreakable to the Japanese. Navajo, which had never been written down, became that code.

In this all encompassing memoir, Chester Nez, born "Betoli", which means "light complexion" in Navajo, takes the reader on his journey through both the pre-war years, first as a youngster in the government schools designed to erase his culture, and then through the war years, when that very culture, which the government worked so hard to destroy, was used to defeat the Japanese in the Pacific.

Mr. Nez begins his remarkeable journey on the reservation during the 1920's. He also includes a brief history of the Navajo tribe, and some of their belief systems and traditions in a very reader friendly manner, which serves to heighten the experiences the author would later endure while serving in the Pacific. Drawing on the folklore, and wisdom, of his own people, helped him to survive the war mentally, in much the same way that his military basic training enabled him to survive the war physically.

It is hard to believe, but this is the first, and only, book to have been written by one of the original "Codetalkers". As I said, theirs is an oral culture. Much has been written about them, and films have grossed tremendous amounts of money from their story, but this is the first, authentic account of how the code came to be, and how it was used, to defeat a common enemy.

Pearl Harbor

I know I did this last year, and I try not to replicate too much, but this was such a tremendous event in the lives of our parents, that it became a huge part of my own upbringing. The stories of the war, and the blackouts, are something I think about every day. Actually, the first thing I thought about after the attacks of 9/11 was, "Why aren't we going on rations?"

The Second World War grew out of an Isolationist policy on the part of the United States after World War One, as well as the inequities in the Treaty of Versailles. And every year I keep wondering when we will ever begin to learn from our past? When will we ever stop repeating the mistakes of both Isolationism and Appeasement? I have no answers...

Anyway, here's a photo of the USS Shaw, DD-373, during the attack on Pearl Harbor, just after the first wave. Remember as you look at this photo that there are people trapped inside the ship and dying. The ship was repaired early in 1942 and served at sea for the remainder of the war. It's one of a larger, remarkable set of photos that were e-mailed to me a couple of years ago from a shipmate on the USS Milwaukee Googlegroup, of which I am a proud member. If you'd like a set of these photos, just e-mail me and I will zap them right over. There's about 12 in all. Many are quite similar to the ones circulating today on the Internet, although from slightly different angles. They appear to have been taken with a Speed Graphic camera, the preferred tool of news photographers at the time.

To the few who served that day and are still with us - thank you. And to the many who are gone - you are never forgotten.