Pearl Harbor Myths Debunked
The stories people tell about Pearl Harbor aren’t always entirely accurate. Historians are certainly skeptical of some of the presumptions linked to the attack nowadays. The National World War II Museum’s Rob Citino has laid out his objections to particular “facts” we tell ourselves about Pearl Harbor. We need to be careful in making claims about the complicated, he argued, otherwise, we risk misinterpreting the nation’s past.
Myth: The U.S. was a "sleeping giant"
The assault on Pearl Harbor was a terrible shock for the U.S. and its citizens, but it didn’t occur in a vacuum. The attack was launched in secret, true, but the odds of America and Japan coming to blows had been rising year on year for a long time.
“The attack on Pearl Harbor was a crime, a military attack that took place without a declaration of war,” Rob Citino told Time. “But at the same time, all these stories are very, very complex.”
Japan had expansive aims
For decades, the two nations had been standing in opposition to each other. One main of the main sources of conflicts in the 1930s was that the Japanese had been acting in an antagonistic way toward China. Japan seemed intent on expansion, and their Chinese neighbor was in their sights.
Taking over parts of that country would have economic and demographic benefits for Japan, and all of this came to a head in 1937. The Japanese declared war. Opposing Japan’s hostile approach towards China, the Americans then got involved in the messy situation.
The U.S. stood in opposition to Japan
They imposed a series of sanctions and embargoes on Japan, hoping to bruise its economy. If the U.S. could limit its access to money and vital supplies, the thinking went, Japan would have to pull back a bit. But as things turned out, that plan failed spectacularly.
Far from being discouraged to expand, the Japanese, if anything, were emboldened to carry on. Officials from both sides engaged in months of talks, but no firm resolutions were ever reached. In hindsight, it can seem like war was basically unavoidable.
Definitely not a "sleeping giant"
All of this challenges another widely believed myth about America being a "sleeping giant" before Pearl Harbor. But what does that actually mean, and where exactly did this phrase come from?
The story is that Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, who orchestrated the Pearl Harbor assault, said it after the attack had taken place. The Japanese commander supposedly said, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
Sticking to the script
It’s a great line. It sounds like it could have been in a movie, in fact. And, well, that’s because it was. In 1970 the film Tora! Tora! Tora! came out, presenting audiences with a dramatization of what happened on December 7, 1941, and the "sleeping giant" line.
There’s no evidence the real Admiral Yamamoto ever uttered those famous words. The movie’s screenwriter once claimed to have spotted the quote in a letter, but nobody else has ever seen this letter.
Wide awake
But even if Yamamoto did refer to the U.S. as a sleeping giant — which there’s no evidence for — the fact is that America was by no means asleep during this period. The U.S. was already opposing Japan before Pearl Harbor, even though it wasn’t technically at war yet.
America had placed embargoes on Japanese goods, which interfered with its ability to acquire important materials for fighting a war. And months before the Pearl Harbor attack, the U.S. cut off Japan’s ability to buy its oil.
Myth: Pearl Harbor was totally destroyed
As things heated up, the Japanese came up with a scheme to quickly and emphatically knock the Americans out. They wanted to annihilate the American fleet in the Pacific Ocean — and that meant organizing a secret attack.
Despite the clear destruction left in the wake of the attack, though, Japan did not succeed in its aim of totally crippling the U.S. Luckily for the Americans, no aircraft carriers were stationed at Pearl Harbor that day. That was extremely fortunate because carriers were far more important than battleships at that time.
The infrastructure survived in one piece
On top of that, much of Pearl Harbor’s infrastructure was left more or less in one piece. Much of it had been damaged, of course — but not all of it. Many important facilities were still able to function in the wake of the attack.
This meant the U.S. recovery wasn’t as difficult as it otherwise would have been. But even though it wasn’t an insurmountable disaster in terms of damage, the Pearl Harbor assault was politically seismic.
“A date which will live in infamy”
President Roosevelt spoke to Congress the very next day, calling for war. He said, “Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
FDR’s speech did what it was supposed to, and Congress gave the go-ahead for the American declaration of war against the Japanese. Just a few days after that, Germany and Italy proclaimed war against the U.S., and the Americans were now at the heart of a global conflict.
Myth: All of Congress voted to declare war
Congress voted overwhelmingly to declare war on Japan. The vote was 82–0 in the Senate and 388–1 in the House. Who was the holdout? That came from Montana representative — and dedicated pacificist — Jeannette Rankin, who had also been opposed to America joining World War I.
This time, the prominent suffragist said, “As a woman, I can’t go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else.” She later reasoned, "If you're against war, you're against war regardless of what happens. It's a wrong method of trying to settle a dispute."
Remembering Pearl Harbor
Rankin was hounded by the public and the press for her decision, and her political career practically ended that day. John F. Kennedy later wrote, “Few members of Congress have ever stood more alone while being true to a higher honor and loyalty.”
Despite Rankin’s protestations, America entered World War II and would remain embroiled in it until September 1945. Yet many people think of Pearl Harbor as the event that instigated the entire conflict. Historian Rob Citino wants us to be careful about how we remember the attack and its consequences.
Myth: Pearl Harbor started WWII
"It’s in movies, it’s in books. The big myth we have to get rid of is [marking] December 7, 1941, as the date World War II began," Citino wrote in Time. "The U.S. was the last of the great powers to get involved in the war, but Pearl Harbor didn’t start World War II, not by a long stretch."
In actual fact, the beginning of World War II is more complicated than many people might think. If you’re from China, for example, you might say the war began a whole decade before the assault on Pearl Harbor.
War in Asia
By the dawn of the 1930s, Japan was looking to acquire raw materials to feed its industrial growth. That led it to invade Manchuria province in China in ’31. Things only got worse for the Chinese from there.
By 1937, the Japanese had instigated a full-blown invasion of their neighbor. So you could argue World War II began at this time. Europeans, on the other hand, might look to September 1939 as the start of World War II.
The rest of the world
People in Russia, meanwhile, might say June 1941 was the beginning of their war. That month marks the point when Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.
If you were from Ethiopia, your war would have started in 1935, after Italian forces moved into the African country. In short, then, World War II was a complicated conflict that involved a lot of different players.
Myth: Everybody volunteered to sign up
Even after the United States joined the fray, events didn’t necessarily unfold as many people today think they did. There’s a perception that the events at Pearl Harbor roused people all over the country to get involved with the military.
The doors into recruitment stations, it’s said, were ripped from their hinges as people lined up to join the fight. Well, that’s not quite true. "If you think this [is real], you’ve probably seen too many movies," Citino said.
The draft
Plenty of Americans really were moved by what happened at Pearl Harbor, so they decided to join the military. But in reality, most people who ended up fighting for the United States weren’t volunteers at all. Roughly two-thirds of these people were actually drafted into action.
In fact, the draft had already been in force for a year before the Japanese set out for the Pearl Harbor naval base in 1941. So, by December 7, 1941, President Roosevelt had called on more than two million individuals to don the military uniform.
Training in progress
These drafted soldiers had been through training in the months before the Pearl Harbor attack. In places such as the Carolinas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, the drafted fighters were put through their paces in exercises meant to replicate real fighting scenarios.
This meant the U.S. was definitely preparing for war months before December 1941. "The country wasn’t really on a war footing, but it was getting there and it certainly wasn’t on a voluntary basis," said Citino.
Myth: The U.S. was caught off guard
The notion that America’s forces were mainly made up of volunteers also feeds another myth. It suggests that the nation was caught off guard by Japan and that it was in no way ready to fight a war by the end of 1941.
The Pearl Harbor attack took American forces by surprise on the day itself, but if we zoom out a little, we see the situation more fully. The country had already drafted millions of men, plus industry had already been kicked into gear. Factories were making the materials necessary to fight a war.
Myth: Pearl Harbor was the only base attacked
A big myth that has long been doing the rounds is that Pearl Harbor was the only base to be attacked on December 7, 1941. We tend not to hear about the other targets that the Japanese hit that day because Pearl Harbor was the most dramatic.
But Japan also attacked Guam, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaya on that fateful date. So even though Pearl Harbor is one of the most famous events in American history, all of this suggests how much we have to learn about it.
Myth: Only the U.S. Navy was harmed
It’s hard to imagine what December 7, 1942, would have been like for people such as blue-collar worker Julio DeCastro. He experienced the surprise attack — even though this man wasn’t an official part of the U.S. Navy. He was just doing his regular job when the bombs started falling.
DeCastro had a job as a caulker and chipper. That means he — and many civilians just like him — helped to make Navy ships watertight and fit for their voyages. So it’s little wonder that 68 civilians lost their lives when Japanese forces quickly trounced 19 U.S. ships during the Pearl Harbor attack. Perhaps this partly explains DeCastro’s actions later that day.
History in the making
The Japanese began their assault on Pearl Harbor at 7:55 a.m. Their force was made up of 353 planes, and it took just one hour and 15 minutes to decimate the naval base. An auxiliary ship was completely destroyed, as were a pair of U.S. battleships. And it was the sinking wreck of one of these ships that caused DeCastro to act.
DeCastro could have been forced into action because of the fate of the USS Arizona, too. This 608-foot vessel was the biggest battleship in the entire fleet — and among its most deadly. Yet when enemy horizontal bombers hit her multiple times, the Arizona erupted in an almighty explosion. The damage would be devastating.
All is lost
The massive vessel was hit with such force that part of it collapsed into itself. A fire inevitably broke out, and the Arizona soon sank. A crew of roughly 1,100 men lost their lives in service to that ship. This was almost half of the total death toll for the whole of the Pearl Harbor attack. Losses like that are hard for anybody to take — doubly so if you’re seeing it firsthand.
Yet there was no saving the Arizona. It stayed alight for two days, taking the crew with her to the bottom of Pearl Harbor. But the story wasn’t the same for every ship impacted by the attack. In fact, men across the naval yard took courageous actions that would later go down in the history books. It’s unfortunate that DeCastro’s tale hasn’t been remembered in quite the same way.
A chaplain’s sacrifice
Aloysius Schmitt was the Oklahoma’s chaplain. When the battleship rolled into the water, he was one of many men who got trapped inside. Fortunately, though, a porthole gave some sailors a way to get out of their dire situation. In the spirit of his profession, the chaplain generously helped others to escape through the hatch before attempting to flee himself. And that’s when circumstances turned.
Schmitt couldn’t squeeze himself through the tight porthole. Yet when the chaplain realized that more crew had entered the compartment looking for an escape, he knew exactly what he had to do. Instead of clogging the only way out, Schmitt stepped back and let the others go first. He even gave each man a blessing as they passed before him. Schmitt himself never made it off the ship.
Life or death decision
The selfless actions of Schmitt meant that multiple men got off the Oklahoma alive. And make no mistake about it, the chaplain’s decision in the deep recesses of that ship could have been the difference between life and death for these sailors. After all, not every heroic effort that day had a happy ending.
When the Arizona was sinking toward its grisly fate, for instance, there was naturally an attempt to rescue any survivors. But the Arizona proved trickier to reach than other damaged battleships around Pearl Harbor. One diver who tried to get down to it almost lost their life. And this botched rescue effort had a knock-on effect on other missions later on.
A write-off and terrifying tapping
After the near-death incident of the diver, the Navy made the decision to not attempt any further rescues. It seemed that any ship that had plunged beneath the water without capsizing was going to be unsalvageable. But this call — which was likely made with the best intention to preserve lives — led to an eerie scene on the USS West Virginia.
From December 7 to December 23 — 16 days in total — people at Pearl Harbor could hear a knocking noise coming from inside the West Virginia. The sound was made by trapped men tapping on the ship’s carcass. They were signaling for help. But while rescue missions were eventually mounted, no one could get close enough to make a difference. And still, the tapping continued.
It wasn’t over
The West Virginia was recovered six months later, and the remains of three men were found inside. These desperate sailors had marked the passing of days on a wall in red pencil. It’s the kind of tale that would likely have haunted anybody at Pearl Harbor at the time. And it could have been part of the reason why Julio DeCastro set about making history of his own.
DeCastro’s story has recently re-entered the public consciousness thanks to an exhibition at New Orleans’ National WWII Museum. The event is called “Infamy: Pearl Harbor Remembered,” and it’s part of the museum’s effort to commemorate 80 years since the tragic attack. It’s only right, then, that DeCastro should finally have his wild act highlighted.
Call to action
DeCastro’s part of the Pearl Harbor story started in the aftermath of the attack. The USS Oklahoma had capsized just 20 minutes after the first torpedo had struck it. But the battered battleship was stopped from sinking completely because its masts jammed into the bottom of the harbor. Many men were still trapped inside, though — and they were in desperate need of help.
Just like the doomed men inside the West Virginia, some of the sailors caught inside the overturned Oklahoma were tapping against the hull. And DeCastro heard that haunting sound as he first approached the rolled battleship. It was probably all he needed to force him into action. So when an operation was put into motion, DeCastro was all in.
Race against time
Remember, too, that DeCastro was not a sworn-in member of the U.S. Navy. He was a Hawaiian civilian — a chipper drafted in to work at the naval yard. And we know from the experience of the diver at the Arizona that any rescue mission carries its own risks of death. So what DeCastro did next, he did off his own back.
The chipper and caulker first rallied together a band of like-minded individuals. He also helped round up the necessary kit to enable the kind of rescue operation they had in mind. This included pneumatic chipping guns, blowtorches, and compressors. Basically, everything someone might need to cut into the hull of the Oklahoma. But there was a problem.
Fire in the hull
The crew’s first attempt at breaking through the hull’s thick shell using blowtorches nearly ended in disaster. The ship had been painted in an oil-based paint that actually set alight when the cutting torches were applied to them. Considering the compartments within the hull were insulated with cork, a fire could have been a major issue for the men trapped inside.
DeCastro and his crew then considered their chipping guns. These tools were not the fastest pieces of equipment at the best of times, and the men were already up against the clock. Did they really have the time to methodically chip their way through a quarter-inch of steel? And on top of that pressure, there was another unknown factor beneath the hull.
Explosive action
DeCastro had no way of knowing what was directly underneath the spot where his pneumatic chipper would be hitting. It could have led them straight to the trapped men inside, true. But it could also have led to them striking a fuel tank or a torpedo or any other explosive material held within the ship. Clearly, another plan was needed.
The answer came from E.P. Kranzfelder, who was the commander of the USS Maryland. He had been called to Pearl Harbor following the attacks and quickly joined the rescue effort for the Oklahoma men. Kranzfelder also had the wherewithal to grab a copy of the Booklet of General Plans for the Oklahoma. This would prove to be a vital resource.
Turning point
Yet the booklet wasn’t enough on its own to point DeCastro’s team in the right direction. Fortunately, Commander Kranzfelder and his men were able to make contact with two guys trapped in the Oklahoma. They then compared what these sailors said with the booklet’s plans and put together a strategy. But there was still a long way to go.
DeCastro and his crew worked for the rest of the day to try and break through the Oklahoma’s bottom. “For about an hour, there was antiaircraft firing all over the place,” DeCastro told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 1942. “But we kept on working. If the firing got too hot, we’d flatten out against the hull and hope nothing would hit us.”
An eerie code
While all this was happening, the men imprisoned within the Oklahoma had little idea about what was going on. They were fighting for survival in total darkness beneath the upturned hull of the battleship. The water level would have constantly been threatening to overwhelm them — and their air supply would have been depleting. It was all they could do to hammer out “SOS” in Morse code on the hull.
Seaman First Class Stephen Bower Young was one of the sailors caught in the capsized battleship that day. He later described the experience in a book called Trapped at Pearl Harbor. “We had no knowledge that any attempt at rescue was even being made until the first sounds of the air hammer were heard as dawn came over the islands,” he wrote.
Not out of danger
But even that caused its own difficulties. Whenever the would-be rescuers managed to bore a hole into the Oklahoma’s hull, you see, water would inevitably find its way into the ship. That meant the men caught inside would have to work to fill the holes before they were flooded with even more water.
Eventually, though, all that hard work paid off. DeCastro and his team were able to cut into the battleship’s hull and finally get eyes on the sailors who had no other way out. One of the workers began yanking people out of the compartment and into the fresh air. But then one of the rescued men gave him news that took the mission to another level.
Trapped
The sailor gestured to a compartment known as the “Lucky Bag.” According to Young, this man said, “There are some guys trapped in there.” But this seeming wasn’t anything DeCastro couldn’t handle. “We’ll get ’em out,” he replied. And so, once Young and the men with him were safe, DeCastro’s crew got to work on cutting into the bulkhead.
Another hour passed before the workers were able to find a way through. This involved making three incisions into the steel wall and then crashing a sledgehammer into it. “Look out for your hands, boy,” one of the workers yelled before commencing with the smashing. In the end, the men in the Lucky Bag joined their colleagues on dry land.
More men
Those first 11 sailors were not the only men to have their lives changed by DeCastro and his crew, though. When all was said and done, the chipper had helped save 32 men from the devastation of Pearl Harbor. Yet even after DeCastro’s history-changing day, he still had one more hardship to overcome.
It seems that even saving people’s lives isn’t enough to get you out of trouble with the bosses. “Somebody came up to me while I was changing clothes,” DeCastro told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. “I was all in and hungry and wanted to get home. This guy asks me, ‘Why didn’t you fill out this overtime slip?’ I look[ed] at him and [said], ‘Christamighty!’”
No rest
Yet still the man wasn’t done. After spending who knows how many hours helping to rescue 32 men from almost certain doom, DeCastro then had to walk home. It wasn’t just a walk down the street, either. This was a five-mile trek during a blackout the night after the attack on Pearl Harbor. But DeCastro’s efforts didn’t go unnoticed.
After his valiant effort at Pearl Harbor, DeCastro earned a commendation from the commandant of the Fourteenth Naval District. He went on to live a long life, too, ultimately passing away in his 80s in 1984. Stephen Young later gave DeCastro a brilliantly simple description: “He was a leader of men.”
Mystery remains
DeCastro’s efforts — and those of other like-minded people that day — changed the lives of 32 men. Yet 429 officers and sailors from the Oklahoma were not so lucky during the surprise raid of Pearl Harbor.
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And while the remains of these lost men were later recovered by Navy divers, they had their own tale to tell. In fact, the story of the Oklahoma’s dead is still ongoing today.