It is the 74th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl. It is always an emotional day for old sailors, particularly those who had the chance to serve in the very place where it occurred, or worked in the building that was converted to the morgue for th dead on that awful day.
This year, I find myself attending to the Omega end of the attack- the last deployment of the battleship Nagato, whose powerful radio transmitters had sent the three-word command to launch the assault on the still-sleeping island early on a lovely Sunday morning: “Tora! Tora! Tora!” teh words literally mean “Tiger” in Japanese, but in this case was an acronym of the term ” totsugeki raigeki” (突撃雷撃, or, “lightning attack”).
By the time the Alpha moment in the conflict had passed, there were 2,042 Americans killed and 1,247 wounded. The American Pacific Fleet was largely on the bottom of the shallow harbor, and Nagato and her carrier strike force-the Kido Butai- were retiring to the northwest.
We left Ed Gilfillen on Nagato with Hairless Joe and the Lonesome Polecat, looking at the elegant cone of Mt Fuji, preparing to sail for the ultimate Omega of the Pacific conflict- the atomic tests against the obsolete warships that had born the battle.
It was the “18 huge radio tubes and a big variable condenser” from the radio room of the old Japanese battleship that brought me together with Ed, years and years ago now, courtesy of my Uncle Jim, who would ensure that the tubes were delivered to the Antique Wireless Association’s Museum in Bloomfield, New York.
http://www.antiquewireless.org/
I have taken the excellent virtual tour of the facility- it is a nice site run by dedicated volunteers. I looked at most of the displays, but did not see anything specific to Nagato’s radio tubes, or their role in the opening of the Pacific War. There is a working radio room from a B-17 bomber, and some other military relics:
I felt stirred to write them and let them know of the significance of the artifacts, just in case that had got misplaced in their delivery. I will let you know what they say about that. If they don’t know, they certainly should.
In the meantime, this is a day to remember, when America’s innocence was lost amid a humiliating defeat. The great ships were still on the bottom when ENS Mac Showers arrived the following February, and the great struggle was just beginning to unfold. I will never forget his description of the bustling activity as shipyard workers swarmed over the hulls of the Oklahoma and Nevada as he reported to The Dungeon at Station Hypo.
When I was in Pearl for the retirement of an old shipmate earlier this year, I was sitting on the pier under a white canvas awning, looking out across the placid waters toward the bookends at Ford Island.
Arizona beneath the soaring white arches of her memorial are the Alpha of the conflict. Just to her stern in the Omega, the vast gray bulk of the greatest battleship of them all, the USS Missouri (BB-63), and the little plaque on her deck that marks where the instrument of Japan’s surrender was signed seventy years ago this year.
Remember Pearl Harbor.
Copyright 2015 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303