Sunday in Hell, page 113
British author, Mr. H.P. Willmott, with Tohmatsu Haruo and W. Spencer Johnson, in his work, Pearl Harbor, provided another thoughtful, fact-filled examination of Japan’s and America’s road to war, followed by a detailed, factual insight into the attack, and assessments of its effects. The book is filled with outstanding, beautifully-rendered, color photographs, maps, diagrams and tables which enhance a comprehensive look at the attack and its immediate aftermath.
In 1950, the University of Hawaii Press published Hawaii’s War Years, 1941-1945, by Gwenfread Allen. A most excellent, invaluable one-of-a-kind reference and source, the book laid before readers a wonderfully crafted history and analysis documenting The Territory of Hawaii’s American role in the great Pacific, the islands’ preparations for war, and subsequently their total immersion in efforts to defeat the Japanese Empire and its Axis allies.
For the fiftieth anniversary of the attack, the Pacific Air Force’s Office of History, sponsored a landmark work, titled 7 December 1941, The Air Force Story. Written by Leatrice R. Arakaki and John R. Kuborn and filled with outstanding photographs, diagrams, maps, and fascinating human interest, the book presents yet another important perspective on the events of that day, including a detailed accounting of Army Air Force casualties and aircraft losses.
In 1992, Pictorial Histories Publishing Company released Donald Young’s December 1941, America’s First 25 Days at War. The work proved invaluable in surveying the immediate impacts of 7 December on the nation, and more particularly on the West Coast and its Pacific waters. The book brought readers the history of publicly obvious American defense responses, and equally obvious Japanese submarine attacks in the Pacific waters off the coast - along with the beginning of the round-up and internment of Japanese-Americans in the first days of World War II.
Three other wonderful books, primary sources from men who were at Pearl Harbor, were inspiring, for they captured and exuded so well, the spirits of men who were there and later heavily engaged in the Pacific war. The first, From 6-S-7, by Jack Leaming, a radioman-gunner in the rear cockpit of a Douglas Dauntless SBD scout bomber in Scouting Squadron Six (VS-6) on the carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6). A marvelous, courageous, giving American, Jack Leaming and his pilot, then Lieutenant (USN) Dale Hilton, had been shot down early in World War II and spent the balance of the war in Japanese prisoner of war camps. Jack gave me unqualified permission to quote and paraphrase from his work, which told of the wrenching experiences of his squadron that fateful day, including their unsuspecting early-morning flight into the maelstrom of the Japanese air raid, and their role in the search for the Japanese carrier strike force after the attack.
The second, the 1942 book The Flying Guns, by then Lieutenant (USN) Clarence E. Dickinson, a Douglas Dauntless pilot on the Enterprise, was filled with firsthand accounts of events important to a complete history of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Coupled with Jack Leaming’s work and action reports written by other pilots within days after the attack, The Flying Guns filled out important details in the story of Scouting Squadron Six (VS-6).
The third work, a 1944 book by Navy Chaplain Howell M. Forgy, chaplain on board the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans (CA-32) at Pearl Harbor and later, with his shipmates, he described the ship’s participation in bloody naval battles. His work was inspiring beyond words. This good man’s love and deep respect for the men who went down to the sea in ships, sparkled like a bright light in his every word.
Without the assistance of so many others willing to give of their time and energies during the period 2004-2011, this work would have been impossible. Numerous archivists, librarians, photograph custodians, historians and others in the National and Hawaiian Archives; the Naval History and Heritage Command; United States Marine Corps History Division; National Park Service historical sites, National Museum of Naval Aviation, maritime and airport museums; the Army’s Military History Institute; the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, public and university libraries, who retrieved, copied, and mailed or E-mailed the documents and photographs indispensable to fact-finding and a complete work.
I would be remiss if I didn’t name the following and acknowledge their kind, responsive assistance and warmly courteous contributions: David A. Giordano, Gibson B. Smith, Terrence Johnson, Jason D. Staton, John Vernon, Nathaniel S. Patch, Barry Zerby, and Regina Davis at the National Archives in College Park, MD; Robert Glass at the National Archives Pacific Region in San Bruno, CA; Hill Goodspeed at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, FL; Susan Karren and Kathleen Crossman at the National Archives Pacific-Alaska Region in Seattle, WA, and Deborah Franz-Anderson, Puget Sound Navy Yard Public Information Office; Matthew C. Hanson at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, NY; Jason Achiu at the Hawaii State Archives and James Cartwright, Archivist, and DeeDee Acosta, Special Collections, at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Hamilton Library, HI; Sara Diamond and Bill Kooiman, National Maritime Museum Library in San Francisco, CA; Josh Graml and Claudia Jew, The Library at The Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, VA; Marti Goddard and Christina Moretta at the San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA; Mr. Daniel Martinez, National Park Service Chief Historian, World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, at Pearl Harbor, HI, for assisting with numerous photographs and important suggestions for additional manuscript reviews; Donald Gill, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Library, Kings Point, NY; Edwin Finney, Jr., Naval History and Heritage Command, Laura Waayers and Cory Black, Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, DC; Tim Wooldridge, Archivist, History Reference and Preservation Library, United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, MD; Bill McQuade at the U.S. Naval Academy Library, Annapolis, MD; Ford Schmidt, Mark O. Hatfield Library, Willamette University, Salem, OR; Linda Sueyoshi, Hawaii State Library, Honolulu, HI; Helen Wong Smith, Librarian, Hawaiian Collection and Mookini Library, Hilo, HI; Julie Tashima Takata and Alissa Chadburn at the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library, San Francisco, CA; Michael Nerney, Port of San Francisco, CA; Bob Johnson at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, a San Jose and San Jose State University Collaboration, San Jose, CA; Greg Cina and Sue Dillon, at the U.S. Marine Corps Archives and Special Collections; Ryan D. Meyer, David Keough, and Dr. Arthur W. Bergeron, Jr., Military History Institute, U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, PA; Karen Phares at the Orange, TX Public Library; Cindy A. Gillam, University of Detroit Mercy Library Special Collections and Margaret E. Auer, Dean of Libraries, McNichols Campus Library, University of Detroit; Caroline Harzewski and Laura Capell, Richter Library, University of Miami (FL) Libraries; Henry Pazos of OfficeMax for his invaluable assistance in updating and improving maps and diagrams to better depict the key events in the work; and good friend and West Point classmate Roy T. Thorsen, Thousand Oaks, CA, for his kind assistance in restoring photographs important to portraying this history to readers.
To Jeff Hull, public affairs officer in the Matson Navigation Company, a special thanks for all he gave - a clear expression of his great admiration for Matson’s long colorful history: the numerous photos of the magnificent ships of that era, the copies of Ampersand (Winter 1991); and Ships in Gray, the Story of Matson in World War II (1946).
To my good friend of many years, Dan Nelis, thank you for turning me toward the grand, romantic history of the Pan American Clippers. To another good friend, Australian author and free lance writer Kate Doolan, a special thank you for sending a copy of The Lady and the President, The Life and Loss of the SS President Coolidge, a tragic yet inspiring sea story containing important contributions to this history.
My deep and sincere appreciation for the kind and invaluable assistance of Mr. Sidney Hayes of Tampa, Florida, who so readily volunteered to give of his time, energy and editorial skills in critically reading the entire narrative and providing numerous suggestions to improve the work’s quality and readability. To J. Michael Wenger, the widely acclaimed Pearl Harbor and military historian and expert on the Japanese attack, for his seminal, factual works on the Hyperwar website, with another renowned military historian, Robert Cressman, and his willingness to assist with a short notice technical review of selected manuscript excerpts, to develop guidance for further review of the entire manuscript. To a good friend and former Navy officer, John Gould, who read the manuscript and gave his comments leavened always with kind encouragement and good humor.
And to my wife, the love of my life, Veronica, who made it all possible, my everlasting gratitude and adoration. Without her patient understanding and support, listening to and reading the stories; her steadfast willingness to assist, and doing work I should ordinarily have done, this book would never have been completed.
The growth and maturity of computer technology, the worldwide web, and centers of history that have taken full advantage of both, must be acknowledged because of their role in this work. Were it not for upgraded computer capabilities, research would have taken more than twice as long and documents and photographs would have filled many more drawers and storage boxes. The trend toward putting more and more history on line is accelerating, permitting researchers and nearly all citizens easy access to our past, access invaluable to the accumulation of knowledge, and to our future national security.
There were well over 200 documented online sources used to help bring this history to life, and there were probably twice that many examined that were not used. In many instances there were multiple online sources used in reconstructing one event or a series of events. As an example, online Pearl Harbor action reports from the Naval History and Heritage Command were invaluable. Nearly all written within four to fifteen days by captains, acting captains and other officers aboard ships in the harbor the morning of 7 December, complete with additional statements by other crew members, these marvelous action accounts, along with online damage reports, were used in concert with other online documents such as ships’ histories and citations accompanying awards - plus hard copies of ships’ deck logs from the National Archives - to reconstruct the stories of the ships struck in the attack.
Another online work, Sensuikan! by Bob Hackett and Sander Kingsepp, proved invaluable. Their website provided operational histories of Japanese submarines in World War II, with over 200 initial submarine Tabular Record of Movements (TROMS) that were stories and battle histories. The TROMS, regularly updated, are helping fill in numerous historical blanks and connect World War II events and people from the two former enemies.
As was the case in each of the two prior histories I’ve been privileged to write, this story was given life by those who lived it, or were close to those who “had gone before.” Age and its infirmities are all too rapidly diminishing their numbers; nevertheless, their legacy grows stronger and shines more brightly with each passing day. Of those listed as “Interviews with the Author,” fifteen were on Oahu that day: Margaret (Littmann) Baccelli, Clifton E. Dohrmann, Raymond Emory, Edward E. Hall, Joseph Honish, Andrew Hoover, Earl Hinz, J.R. Johnson, Frederick K. Kamaka, James K. Poppleton, Sherry (Sardis) Richey, Ira Schab, Raymond Turpin and two more to whom this work is dedicated. All were kind, thoughtful, and generous in sharing their time and recollections in telephone or personal interviews, letters, written recollections recorded long ago, E-mails and photographs. Every single one provided recollections and information that brought substance, enthusiasm, and excitement to the work, and breathed life into the story.
Particularly, I want to acknowledge a grand lady and her husband, Mary Joleen “Joey” Border and Robert Lee “Bob” Border, who opened their lives and took me on a journey to Pearl Harbor and back on the Matson Line’s SS Lurline and the great battleship, USS Tennessee. When we met, Joey had just turned 83, and Bob was 85. I lost count of the hours spent with them, always with more questions than time or memory could answer. She gave complete, unfettered access to the one small diary she had religiously kept one year in her entire life - 1941, which permitted me to pose more questions, probe deeper and help them recall lost details of days long ago.
Her first diary entry at the end of the first day of that tumultuous year was little more than a month after her twentieth birthday, and less than two weeks after she was first introduced to Bob in the junior officers’ wardroom on board the Tennessee. The diary was a wonderful treasure trove, a window into another time, when life was far simpler and more innocent. It was also a window into the inner life, heart and soul of a beautiful young woman at perhaps the most joyful time of their lives, for it told of his pursuit of her, her response to him every step of the way, their falling in love, marriage, and their trials that first year. The diary, with its revelations, and their responses to the numerous questions asked, painted a marvelous, unforgettable picture that will be with us always.
Joey and Bob made the mosaic more vivid with copies of personal letters, telegrams, military records, newspaper clippings, individual and family photograph albums and treasured keepsakes, high school and Naval Academy class yearbooks, access to another treasure, the two diaries of Karl Border, Bob’s older brother, and to Bob’s Aviation Log Book. Finally, after three years and nine months and many hours of questions, answers and discussion, the manuscript was nearly complete. They had read bits and pieces, and shortly I would be ready for them to read the entire history, which contained their story. It was not to be, not for Joey.
On Tuesday, 14 August 2007, I learned from Bob that Joey had entered the hospital two days earlier. After a necessary surgical procedure, she began to decline. Always strong, private, proud, and wanting no expressions of sympathy, she told Bob and the hospital staffs emphatically she wanted no visitors. Bob, now 89 years of age, drove to the hospital and visited her all day, every day. On 18 September, I wrote them a letter, asking Bob to take it to the hospital and read it to her. The letter told her the manuscript was complete, we were anxious for her to return home and read it. She took her magnifying glass, read the letter herself, handed it back to Bob and told him to put it on her desk. She would answer it when she got home.
On Sunday, 7 October, Bob brought her home for a brief stay before returning her on Wednesday to the rehabilitation hospital to which she had been transferred. Ironically, that night I took the evening at home to watch television and saw the Navy football team defeat the University of Pittsburg in triple overtime - as did a somewhat weary Bob Border after he returned to their apartment in the retirement home. Joey left us that night, quietly, in her sleep. Her journey was over, and I suspect she was cheering Navy all the way - while God was taking her home.
And so, Mary Joleen “Joey” (Springer) Border, this acknowledgment is for you. You have taken all of us on a voyage toward love and the mysterious, “…the source of all true art and science.” This book is for you and Bob.
About the Author
Bill McWilliams was born in Brownsville, TX, raised in small towns in Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado and received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY, through competitive examinations in the third congressional district of Colorado. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree, and during a career of service in the Air Force, earned a Master of Science degree in Business Administration from The George Washington University while attending the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base, AL. He later attended the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, PA, where he completed ten months of senior management training, equivalent to a Masters degree in public administration.
His Air Force service included assignments as: a flight and classroom instructor in undergraduate pilot training and fighter training; a seven month combat tour in the Republic of Vietnam where he flew 128 fighter-bomber close support and interdiction missions; and a United States Air Force Academy Air Officer Commanding and flight instructor for cadets receiving familiarization training in light aircraft. Later he served in the Republic of Korea for two years, and at the Air Force Tactical Fighter Weapons Center in Las Vegas, NV. After leaving the Air Force he served more than eight years in systems engineering and management positions in industry, including a concept development study for the integrated defense systems for one of the Air Force’s newer fighters, the F-22 Raptor; systems engineering for the missile sight on the Army’s Bradley Fighting Vehicle and the ground mapping and navigation sensors for the Navy’s Tomahawk Cruise Missile; management system evaluation and auditing in various production programs, including Hughes Aircraft Company’s satellite production program.
He has broad experience in interview, investigative research, management system evaluation and improvement, process improvement and auditing work, in both the public and private sectors. While serving in operational and management positions, he conducted investigations and published reports on contentious and sensitive management, civil service, and military personnel issues, and participated, in various capacities, in investigating and reporting causes of fourteen major, U.S. Air Force aircraft accidents and hundreds of incidents. He negotiated government employee-union contracts, resolved trade union disputes and personnel complaints, worked with state and local governments as a major installation commander, and led and completed numerous management system analyses, evaluations, and audits, then internally published results.
His writing includes a major 1,144 page Korean War history and true story, A Return to Glory: The Untold Story of Honor, Dishonor, and Triumph at the United States Military Academy, 1950-53; articles, columns, and letters published in: newspapers in San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay, and Thousand Oaks, CA; Los Alamos, NM; Elko, NV and Bryan, TX; Air Force Maintenance Magazine; VFW Magazine; base and company newspapers; a variety of Air Force safety publications; the United States Military Academy Association of Graduates magazine, Assembly; fraternal and professional organization newsletters.
