The PBS series, NOVA, broadcast a show on January 5, 2010 about the mysteries around the Japanese submarine attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. I was able to participate in an interview with the researchers behind the work discussed on the program. While that show was generally accurate, there were some differences in emphasis and timing that did not agree with those of the original research.

Historians have recognized since 1941 that the Japanese augmented their air attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor with a submarine attack. Some twenty submarines were deployed around the Hawaiian Islands, and five mini submarines were launched in an effort to penetrate the harbor and attack.

The public, fed by movies and a brief history lesson in school, believes that the attack on December 7 was by carrier based aircraft. This interview provides a clearer picture of that day and the actions of the Japanese mini submarines. The faux newspaper clipping above illustrates an alternative view of the days events.

Of the five mini subs that the Japanese launched, one was intercepted and sunk by the destroyer Ward well before the aerial attack began. Her reports were ignored in the early hours of December 7.

Pearl Harbor was protected by torpedo nets, but they had been withdrawn because of expected ship traffic. The nets did not extend to the bottom of the channels, and it would have been possible for the mini subs to sail underneath. If necessary, the subs were equipped with net cutting devices.

At about 8:30 a.m. local time, the USS Monaghan was sortieing in response to orders when it observed a submarine being attacked by two moored Navy ships. Monaghan proceeded at flank speed to where the sub had been seen with the intent to ram the sub. It also launched a depth charge attack. The actions of the Monaghan resulted in the sinking of that Japanese mini sub.

In 2004, a team of analysts including Mr. Peter K. Hsu, Mr. Carroll Lucas, Dr. and CAPT. Andrew Biache, USN(Ret) and CAPT. John Rodgaard, USN, published an article in the USNI Navy History magazine describing their work on a captured Japanese photo from the attack. That photo seems to show a Japanese mini sub broaching the surface, a torpedo wake and an explosion at the side of the battleship West Virginia. It also appears to show a second torpedo track aimed at the USS Oklahoma.

Until this point, there had been little reliable evidence that any Japanese mini sub had penetrated the harbor and been successful in conducting an attack. There are numerous accounts of sightings by survivors of the attack and ships reported contacts and conducting several attacks on presumed subs but concrete proof was limited.

Mr. Hsu discussed the evidence. In his expert opinion, the sub in the photo had been forced to the surface due to the cavitation and various pressure waves being generated by both the torpedo explosion as well as the air attack. Within the relatively shallow harbor, these explosions would bounce off vessels, the shore and the bottom and would be capable of lifting the mini sub to where it would surface.

The mini subs were designed to launch their two torpedoes from periscope depth. The torpedoes would have been set to run at sixteen feet.

The sub did not survive its attack but what happened to it remains a mystery. Its remains lie in a Navy dump, underwater. Photos clearly show that it was cut into pieces and the cables used to lift and tow those pieces remain attached. No record exists, however, of the capture or disposal of that submarine.

Here is some information about one of the subs that did not penetrate the harbor.

Japanese 2-man midget submarine grounded on the coral reef off Bellows Field

The Japanese midget submarine at Bellows Field was salvaged by a Navy crew, 1941.

A Japanese 2-man midget submarine grounded on the coral reef off Bellows Field, was commanded by Ens. Kazuo Sakamaki who swam ashore on December 8, 1941 and was captured.

The Japanese Mini submarine was 80-foot long 6-foot diameter, 46 ton displacement, battery operated with 600 hp motor. Launched from mother sub (I-24) arrived off entrance to Pearl Harbor late evening, December 6, 1941. Was grounded off Bellows Field on December 7, 1941.

State of Hawaii

Today I would like to honor ten Americans who changed world history.

1. Ronald Wilson Reagan
   Somehow we’ve forgotten. Less than 20 years ago, hundreds of millions of people were enslaved by a theology called Communism. One man had a vision, and made that vision a reality. Freedom today means Ronald Reagan. Don’t ask the residents of Hollywood. Ask the people of Bulgaria, Poland, Albania.
   White House
2. J. Edgar Hoover
   Hoover headed the FBI for 48 years. He is responsible for the creation and continuance of one of the most professional federal police forces in the world. On a planet with memories of the Gestapo and the KGB, and the religious police of Saudi Arabia, the FBI still serves as a model for the national police of free nations worldwide.
   FBI
3. Barbara Bush
   Wife of a President in wartime, and mother of another, I would suggest that Barbara Bush has had as much effect on world history as any on this list. Much of that history remains to be written, but this lady’s relationship with each of the two Bush presidents certainly help make them who they are and molded how they acted.
   White House
4. President Theodore Roosevelt
   Teddy gives America and the world a two-fer. The Panama Canal and the idea of preserving unique, unspoiled areas for future generations to enjoy. The Canal linked the world’s two major oceans in a commercially viable way for the first time, enabling trade. Roosevelt’s work on national parks and monuments saved much of the beauty of the wild west for our generation and those who will follow.
   White House
   
5. Andrew Carnegie
   Once the richest man in the world, Carnegie saw wealth as an obligation to give. By his death he had donated $350 million to charity, and built over 2,500 public libraries. Without him, libraries would still be the province of the rich and famous. Being able to read builds wealth, and Carnegie made it possible for millions to read.
   Carnegie Corporation of New York
6. Clarissa Harlowe Barton
   A resident of America’s North Shore, Clara Barton’s work has saved millions of lives. You know, the American Red Cross and all those groups inspired by it.
   American Red Cross
   National Park Service
7. President Thomas Jefferson
   Jefferson is not on this list for his political work. He’s here because he created America, by making the Louisiana Purchase. Taking authority he may not have had, he bought a largely unknown tract of land, doubling the size of the United States. Without this addition, we would have remained just another coastal nation, depending on other nations for resources and with limited room to grow. America exists because Thomas Jefferson bought it.
   National Park Service
   Monticello website
8. George Washington Carver
   Peanuts are ugly. They look like a useless bit of flora. But you and I eat peanuts every day thanks to George Washington Carver. Carver is one of a handful of people that can be legitimately credited with saving billions of people from starvation. His work with peanuts and crop rotation saved the agricultural industry of the cotton South, and much, much more.
   George Washington Carver National Monument
   Inventors’ Hall of Fame
9. Clarence Birdseye
   Birdseye perfected freezing food. You may think of it as just TV dinners, but the invention made it possible to store food for long periods of time and have it retain most of the original flavor and texture. Thank Clarence Birdseye the next time you eat a food that could not possibly have been grown locally or at this time of year.
   Birdseye Foods
   Inventors’ Hall of Fame
10. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur
    I think that it may be argued that much of the history of East Asia in the last sixty years is due to Douglas MacArthur. The Philippines, Japan and free Korea owe their democracy, and their freedom to him. In an era of heroes, he was one of the elite, and the fall from the top is always the longest. His flaws are duly noted and his achievements honored.
    Army bio
    City of Norfolk memorial

The first Japanese plane shot down during the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. (U.S. Air Force photo)

Dec. 7, 1941: 2nd Lt. Wells Lawrence and his July bride slept soundly in their Wheeler Field, Hawaii, quarters. They’d been at Hickam Field for a big Saturday night party and returned home after midnight.

At 7:55 a.m., sleepy calm turned to wide-awake terror. “A big bang startled me awake, and the window blinds started rattling,” Lieutenant Lawrence recalled. “I jumped up and looked out the window. I saw a dive bomber making a run. It had ‘rising sun’ streaks painted on the wingtips.”

Quickly dressing, the Lawrences ran next door. “We shared a duplex with my flight leader, a lieutenant named Wilmont. While we were there,” Lieutenant Lawrence said, “a bullet came through the roof and hit the concrete floor, right between my wife and me. We felt sparks on our ankles.”

They could hear more bombs exploding. Lieutenant Lawrence wanted to hurry to the flight line and launch his aircraft. Lieutenant Wilmont said to wait until the bombing ceased. When there were no more explosions, the men jumped in Lieutenant Wilmont’s car and started toward the flight line. On the way, they picked up Maj. Aaron Tyer, their squadron commander. Despite all the smoke over the flight line, they found their planes unscathed and taxied them to the ammunition bunkers.

Attacking Jap Shot Down

“While we were at the bunkers, a Japanese observation plane came over real low,” Lieutenant Lawrence said. “The canopy was open and we could see the guy looking out both sides. Somebody with a machine gun up toward headquarters started shooting at him. Major Tyer said, ‘Hey, Lawrence, give me your .45.’ I gave it to him and he started shooting. Somebody hit the plane. It started to smoke and augured in.”

Army Air Corps Scrambles

Shortly thereafter, four Wheeler pilots launched a flight of P-36s. Unfortunately for an eager Lawrence, an equally eager Lt. Gordon Sterling was piloting Lawrence’s plane.

“I found another airplane and took off,” Lieutenant Lawrence said. “I was anxious to find somebody — friend or foe.”

Lieutenant Lawrence finally caught up with a P-40 and another P-36, and all three flew toward Hickam Field at 2,500 feet, just below the clouds. At Hickam, they saw burning buildings and aircraft, so they headed north around the island searching for enemy activity.

Unsuccessful in their search and low on fuel, they returned to Wheeler. There, Lieutenant Lawrence learned that of the first group that took off from Wheeler, two didn’t return.

“Lew Sanders got shot down, and so did Sterling, who’d taken my plane.” Lieutenant Lawrence spent the remainder of Dec. 7 patrolling the coastal area, but he never did encounter the enemy. That evening, he returned to Wheeler, ready for a fight.

“Following the attack, most of us were just plain mad,” Lieutenant Lawrence said. “We’d been caught flatfooted, and we wanted revenge.”

Transferred to the Solomon Islands in April 1943, Lieutenant Lawrence finally was able to strike back. As a P-38 pilot, he participated in numerous missions against the Japanese. On a subsequent tour in the Solomons, he commanded the 339th Fighter Squadron. The former commander, Maj. John Mitchell, had led the mission that shot down Japanese Admiral Yamamoto. “We learned the Japanese had a bounty on Mitchell, so he was reassigned out of the theater,” Lieutenant Lawrence said.

Civilians Rush to Aid

At the time Lieutenant Lawrence was awakened from his slumber Dec. 7 by enemy dive bombers, Ray Perry and Walter Thompson began experiencing the terror of the attack on Hickam Field.

A driver for an Army quartermaster colonel, Mr. Perry was attempting to reach Hickam to help transport wounded to Tripler Army Medical Center.

“I drove down the railroad track, because both highways leading there were impassable,” Mr. Perry said.

“I could see the fires before I got there. Hangar 35 — the Hawaii Air Depot — was one of the first buildings hit. Then they hit another hangar filled with airplanes, dropping a bomb right through the roof. Most of the other airplanes were on the flight line and were easy targets.

“Our boys set up machine guns on tables and fired them out the windows along the hangar line. They did the best they could.

“Just past the barracks we turned left at the fire station, parked between two hangars and started loading the wounded.

“Somebody hollered, ‘Here they come again!’ We ran inside a hangar and stayed there until the noise died down. Out of 15 guys trapped outdoors, only three survived the attack.”

Because he lived near the main gate, Mr. Thompson reached Hickam before Mr. Perry. A civilian worker at the Hawaii Air Depot since his Nov. 14, 1941, discharge, he shared a home with three other bachelors.

“A guy visiting with us was in the service,” Mr. Thompson said. “He thought he’d better get back to his unit, so two of us drove him out.

“Entering the base, we saw cars that had been strafed. One was burning. After dropping our passenger at his barracks, we started home. But we thought, ‘Where are we going? This is our base being attacked.’ So we turned around and came back.

“We entered a barracks, and one of our buddies was lying there all blown to hell. We got a blanket and covered him. About then, three more airplanes swooped down hangar row, strafing the street. We hid under an old wooden building across from the hangars. It was a shoe repair shop, and half our squadron was hiding there.”

After the attack, Mr. Thompson and others joined a fire brigade and later went to the Hickam clinic to check on a neighbor who was an engineer there. At the clinic, “bodies were lined up everywhere, and trucks were hauling them to a morgue downtown,” he said.

Mr. Thompson’s outfit had been receiving and maintaining B-17s in the months before the attack. Another flight of the bombers was due to arrive that morning.

“I don’t know if it helped the Japanese or not,” Mr. Thompson said, “but a Honolulu radio station played Hawaiian music all night as a beacon for the B-17s.”

National Geographic link

Commandancy of the Alamo
Bexar, Fby. 24th, 1836

To the People of Texas & all Americans in the world

Fellow Citizens & Compatriots I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained a continual bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise the garrison are to be put to the sword if the fort is taken. I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender nor retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism, & of everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with all dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country.

Victory or Death
William Barret Travis
Lt. Col. Comdt.

The Stockstad farm, Milnor, North Dakota, about 1906. I like the decorations around the door to the roof, and the “Tom Sawyer” hats that the boys are wearing. The lovely wife’s father is the babe in arms.

As best my mother-in-law can recall, this picture dates from the late 1940’s or early fifties. Something about the grain elevator, over on the right.

As a little girl of six or seven, the lovely wife would take the train west, to Gwinner, to visit her maternal grandmother. By herself. She was a big girl.

She heard a term used for a couple of women that lived in the boarding house just beyond the station and had to have it explained to her. She cannot recall the term, but they were prostitutes. The railroad crews stayed at the boarding house.

Left to right: Andrew Miller, Jens Olstad, Anders P. Stockstad

These are the town fathers of Milnor, North Dakota. If you ever wondered what the term meant, it’s these guys.

They came to North Dakota in the Fall of 1880, in covered wagons, and Anders [?] walked the whole way leading a cow. They came from Brown County, Minnesota.

I’m certain that they had to worry about Indians. It was a rough life back then, but they, and men like them, built America.

I’ve collected all of the old photos from North Dakota onto one page:

Days of Yore.

Go and have a look.

Albert & Louisa Adermann and family, great uncle to the lovely wife.
Young man is probably Ardele Skari
Ray, North Dakota

Two of these girls later died of TB within a couple years of each other. The third girl was an old maid, marrying when she was in her forties, possibly to the young man in the photo, since she is said to have married a Skari. The family also had a son who became a Methodist minister. These folks lived in a sod hut.

Stockstad Farm
Southeast of Milnor, North Dakota
Original photo is both of the above side by side.

The lovely wife’s father is one of the boys in this photo. We suspect it is the young man holding the horse on the far right. Her paternal grandfather is the man holding the horse on the far left. He also operated the shoe shop seen in previous photos.

Reprinted from 2004

Building the road over South Hill

This postcard shows work being done in the Milnor, North Dakota area just before World War I. The lovely wife’s father is the small boy on the left of the photos, and he was born in 1904. Note that the road is being cut through a small hill, using horse-pulled scrapers.

Reprinted from 2004

Although our “democracy” and “Constitution” unmistakably has flaws, the logic and writings (such as the words of The Federalist) still manage to put shivers up my spine every time. It’s beautifully written, intricate logic, that I doubt ANY writer today could match. It’s much easier for the writers and professors of today to write and lecture against the logic, without really offering solid answers of their own.

I could get in trouble for encouraging an 18 year old coed. But, what the heck. You go, girl!

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Shoe and leather repair shop
A. A. Stockstad, Milnor, N.D. 1934

Sign from wall of shop

Durkopp sewing machine in shop
(donated to the county museum in Foreman, N.D. some years ago)

The shoe shop was operated by the lovely wife’s great grandfather, grandfather and father. She has warm memories of playing in the shop while her father worked.

Edmund Burke

In this character of the Americans, a love of freedom is the predominating feature which marks and distinguishes the whole; and as an ardent is always a jealous affection, your Colonies become suspicious, restive, and untractable whenever they see the least attempt to wrest from them by force, or shuffle from them by chicane, what they think the only advantage worth living for. This fierce spirit of liberty is stronger in the English Colonies probably than in any other people of the earth, and this from a great variety of powerful causes; which, to understand the true temper of their minds and the direction which this spirit takes, it will not be amiss to lay open somewhat more largely.

Sometimes, it’s good to remember that people other than Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi once spoke about America.