Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy - Ludwig von Mises ...

320 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
Hickam Field; or they could be B-17s en route from the west
coast to the Philippines and due to arrive about then in Hawaii. 34
Reassured that his sighting “was not anything of importance,”
Lockard and Elliott closed down the radar installation and left
for breakfast. 35
Air Raid Pearl Harbor STOP This is No Drill
At Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, the sun rose at 6:27
a.m. 36
At 7:33, Marshall’s last-minute message, announcing the
instructions to the Japanese ambassadors to deliver their government’s
reply at precisely 1:00 p.m. Washington time (7:30 a.m.
Honolulu time), had arrived, in code, at Western Union in downtown
Honolulu. 37 It had to be sent for decoding to the Army’s
cryptographic center at Fort Shafter, four miles away, before it
could be read.
At 7:55 (1:25 p.m. in Washington, D.C.) the fi rst Japanese
planes swooped down simultaneously at Hawaii’s Army air base
at Hickam Field and at Hawaii’s Navy air base on Ford Island
in the middle of Pearl Harbor. Almost immediately the fi rst
Japanese torpedoes struck their targets in the harbor. 38
At 7:58 Vice Admiral Patrick Nelson Lynch Bellinger, commander
of Patrol Wing Two at the naval air station on Ford
Island, broadcast to all ships in the area, “Air raid Pearl Harbor X
Th is is no drill.” With the emergency, the Naval Base Defense Air
34Wallin, Pearl Harbor, pp. 48–50.
35Joint Committee, Pearl Harbor Attack, part 27, p. 533, Lockard testimony
before the APHB.
36Ibid., part 5, p. 2439, as reported by the Naval Observatory.
37Ibid., part 14, p. 1410; also ibid., part 34, p. 7.
38Ibid., part 6, p. 2675.