Wednesday, December 7, 2011

7 December 1941



Today is the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attacks on the United States. It was 7 December in Pearl Harbor. Across the international date line in the Philippines it was 8 December.


U.S.S. Arizona.


Everyone who is sentient and not historically amnesiac remembers Pearl Harbor, the ultimate example of arrogance, unpreparedness, sloth and stupidity in the face of an obvious and imminent enemy threat.

Fewer remember the attack later in the day at Clark Field in Manila, which destroyed the American Army Air Corps in the Philippines as, hours after new of the Pearl Harbor attack was known to the commander in the Philippines Douglas MacArthur, our planes -- nice new B17s and P40s -- were lined up on the tarmac, awaiting the orders of a commander paralyzed by indecision. It was not the first deadly mistake that Douglas MacArthur made in the defense of the Philippines. Most of those were made before the war, as the vainglorious prima donna fussed more about the pomp and circumstance of being "Field Marshal of the Philippine Armed Forces" than he did about the practicalities attendant to his position and responsibility. His most able Chief of Staff, a Major named Dwight Eisenhower, had shouting matches with the man who would later be dubbed "Dugout Doug" by his doomed troops. Eisenhower finally left the Philippines in frustration at MacArthur's unwillingness to deal with the Philippine army's unpreparedness.


Japanese print of the air attack on Clark Field.

But the final, fatal, mistake of MacArthur was the indecision that led to the massacre of aviation assets at Clark Field.


12: 20 PM 8 December 1941, Clark Field, Philippine Islands, about 50 miles north of Manila.

History has left us very few photographic images of the attack on Clark Field. Nothing like the instantly recognizable icons from Pearl Harbor. But when this date rolls around, I always think of Clark Field rather than Pearl Harbor as the ultimate cautionary tale. For Admiral Kimmell and General Short, commanders in Hawaii, at least had one excuse -- hostilities had not yet commenced. They were snookered, they were unprepared, but the war was not yet on. MacArthur had no such excuse. He dithered -- indeed, he had dithered for years -- and thereby lost the one long chance the Philippines had to successfully resist Japanese invasion. And so, the Americans and Filipinos were condemned to a forlorn hope, all because of catastrophic failure of command.


Over Clark Field, too little, too late.

Long-time readers will recall my essay on one of the personal stories that flowed from MacArthur's indecision: "Only those who are willing to die are fit to live." -- Remembering Captain Joe Barker on Memorial Day.

As I wrote then:

"Only those who are willing to die are fit to live." -- Captain Joseph Rhett Barker II, Bilibid Prison, Manila, Philippines, a few days before his execution by the Japanese, 8 October 1943.

The quote above is sometimes attributed to General Douglas MacArthur. He said it, no doubt. You can find several times that he said it, after the war. But he stole it from Joe Barker, a young officer who was stuck with the consequences of Macarthur's poor generalship of the Philippine campaign and, though he paid for it with his life, wrote as bright a chapter in American heroism as anyone ever has or ever could.

"The President of the United States takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross (Posthumously) to Joseph R. Barker, II (0-021155), Captain (Cavalry), U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy (assigned to the 26th Cavalry Regiment, Philippine Scouts), while serving with the Philippine Guerilla Forces, East Central Luzon Guerrilla Area, in action against enemy forces from May 1942 to November 1943, in the Philippine Islands. Captain Barker's intrepid actions, personal bravery and zealous devotion to duty at the cost of his life, exemplify the highest traditions of the military forces of the United States and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army. Headquarters, U.S. Forces-Pacific, General Orders No. 263 (1946). Home Town: Jefferson County, Alabama. Personal Awards: Distinguished Service Cross (WWII), Silver Star (WWII), Legion of Merit, Purple Heart."


So reads the synopsis of Joe Barker's Distinguished Service Cross citation. It doesn't begin to cover the truth of the sacrifice and fidelity to duty exhibited by the story of this boy from Birmingham, Alabama, who is almost entirely forgotten by fickle history. It is fitting on this Memorial Day, more than sixty-five years after he was beheaded by the Japanese and dumped in an unmarked grave, that we remember Joe Barker.



Bataan Death March. Dugout Doug didn't stick around for this little denouement of all of his bad decisions.

The ultimate cruel irony was that Dugout Doug, the man whose fatal, multiple, indecisions led to Joe Barker's death -- nand the deaths of hundreds of thousands of other Americans and Filipinos -- would steal the very words of the young soldier that he doomed.

So it is that I remember this day, seventy years ago -- As a reminder not to ignore the obvious threats of apparent enemies whose forces are already on the march, yes. But, also, as a warning about the responsibilities of command and the duty to ACT in the face of an attack already made elsewhere.

That is what I remember this day.

And I remember Joe Barker, and all the other Joe Barkers', condemned by one man's vanity and indecision.

7 comments:

Dedicated_Dad said...

How does a MAN find himself kneeling in submission, waiting on a sword?

I'd like to THINK that I'd be fighting until my last breath!

Paul X said...

This is well worth reading:
http://www.republicmagazine.com/news/pearl-harbor-at-70-fdrs-deception-and-perpetual-war.html

Bad Cyborg said...

The men and women who were slaughtered in the Phillipines due to McArthur's dithering were far from the only ones to die because of his execrable leadership.

Months later, there were a few dozen Japanese on Iwo Jima. All were terribly ill with the intestinal ailments endemic to the tropics. A lookout alerted the watch officer that he saw smoke on the horizon. The least ill pilot - one Saburo Sakai - was detailed to go aloft to do a little recon on what could only be an allied fleet approaching.

Somehow Sakai managed to get his Zero fighter aloft and flew towards the smoke on the horizon. The higher he climbed the more ships he could see. Warships, supply ships, troops, a huge armada stretching seemingly from horizon to horizon as far as Sakai's eagle eyes could see. Sakai turned around and landed back at the small airfield. After he gave his report the installation ordered everyone to prepare to repulse the invasion that must surely come. Iwo Jima was clearly a priority target for the allies on their way to the Japanese home islands. The installation commander knew in his bones that a single platoon of the marines who had taken Guadalcanal could easily defeat his debilitated command.

The ragged, sick, pitiful few Japanese troops mustered bravely, determined to take as many of the enemy with them into the next world.

But the anticipated attack never materialized. Even though Iwo Jima was a significant strategic target the mighty allied armada sailed past. It seems a certain egomaniacal popinjay had other plans. HE had promised to return to the Phillipines and even though by that time those islands were of no significant military value he was determined to go back there no matter the cost.

Meanwhile, the Empire of Japan recognized that it had, indeed, dodged a bullet and proceeded to garrison and fortify Iwo Jima. When the Allies finally DID turn their attention to that island, it was at an awful cost. The Americans suffered 6,812 killed/missing, 2 captured and 19,217 wounded. The Empire of Japan suffered the virtual annihilation of its garrison with only 216 troops surviving out of over 21,000!

D_D, I hope you are smart enough to know that you never know what you will do in a situation until you are actually IN it. Pray you never find yourself in a similar situation.

Anonymous said...

They deserved more than just two nucs.

Bullitt396 said...

Thank God the Jap's didn't also attack the fuel depot about 5 miles inland of Pearl. This would have caused a minimum 2 year shutdown of the Pacific Fleet as well as any long range aviation. As few as 10 kamikaze's could have changed the war dramatically.

There are many often historically overlooked heroes who stood up that day. These are the Hawaiians.
The Fire Captain Herb Oahu, who personally saved over 100 sailors. (As a footnote, his wife killed a jap pilot that crashed in their neighborhood with a ballpeen hammer).
Many others I have read and heard of, but this is a family with a connection to mine. Hawaii was not a state at the time.
Thank You to all of the Patriots for saving the world from the axis and jap barbarians.
I am disgusted that our President felt the need to apologize for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Victories. Did you see the reports today about the lunch menu at his children's school? Hard to believe it isn't some pinko lefty's idea of a joke.

Thank's again go to all the US men and women for saving the world.

W W Woodward said...

D-D,
A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
Resistance almost certainly would result in deadly retaliation against other prisoner soldiers.

"Greater love hath no man ..."

[W3]

Anonymous said...

Paul X,

I think this one is related:

Did FDR Provoke Pearl Harbor?
http://lewrockwell.com/buchanan/buchanan198.html