Youre watching live in depth on booktv. December 7, 194,a day of infamiliary. Even as japanese diplomats were con ferring on peace measures, japanese plains were swooping down on pearl harbor. They dropped their death on the air base, civil homes and schools. A hundred japanese planes and midget sub marines took part. The arizona was completely destroyed and four others severely damaged. Three other battleships and three cruisers suffered damage. Nearly 200 planes were destroyed and that sunday morning the Pacific Fleet appeared to be completely immobilized by this sneak attack. Nearly 3,000 casualties added to the catastrophe. Its been 75 years since over 2400 american sailors and soldiers were killed in the japanese attack on pearl harbor, december 7, 1941. Starting now on booktv, on cspan2, a threehour discussion of that day, what led up to it and its aftermath. We have three authors joining he did you ask the question why did japan attacked the you want negative to United States quick. My conclusion was they did not know what they were doing to be exact reckon nobody was responsible they felt nobody was brave enough to say this war is crazy so lets stop and somebody else should be blamed but with uh dictatorship to feel that they had to keep up appearances so it was very a complicated to pass on the responsibility to each other mine is the same almost of deep into the abyss and was more of an attack of hope more than of a strategic calculation. Remember coming attack on o pearl harbor was only a small part of what japan was doing bad day all across the pacific. We we knew what was likely to be happening elsewhere as its were moving forces toward singapore malaysia the dutch east and that was their primary objective and that was an added element primarily i think because physically it was the only thing in the pacific that could interfere with their plans elsewhere but basically day idea that it was on a fairly shaky foundation. The great example is yamamoto the will see the the japanese cannot possibly attack americans it is suicide you cannot win the war but the rest of the ndp is fearful and actually he was assigned to stand the battleship to keep that from happening and then he plansing e attack on pearl harbor he had to quit the service twice to make that happen he is famous call the reluctant admiral the attack on america was reluctant. Host december 7, 1984 84. Guest , what happened . Learning about the americans that were attacked those japanese air crews came in and as they did they said farewell it was a last day after being stationed they were going to return to california cahan but they decided to use their pilots bisons better low tiny airplane seats to the First Americans taken down by the fighters on their way to pearl harbor disallows low 20 planes it is astonishing to me but those with the first casualties. Host 8 00 in the morning as they flew a in to oahu bike. 96 ships the average agesare9 19 they are tiny kid they have no idea about what is to happen i need not even know they were sore at does that is so far removed they were. With stated the art torpedoes as they fall into the water than they strike the target to create a state of the art naval explosions that would hit the arizona and then you see them with that famous north shore of oahu and they said cannot believe were looking at this. Host steve twomey your subtitle is the tool days to the attack, what happened quick. The reason for collecting noat timeframe the japanese left the november 26 from their secret Assembly Point that would take them 12 days to get to hawaii over 3,000 miles and during those 12 days, the United States was collecting clues of one kind or another. I mentioned that we knew the Japanese Forces were moving toward the southwest pacific from the agents on the coastt and the commercial ships to mask the movement with the military offensive. About and something was about to happen. Into that is how much we anticipate but judgments and decisions were made in many cases and the results representative the end of the period. Host was pearl harborar a surprise . As th with the japanese attack in then to discuss pearl harbor. End in january was concerned prior to the declaration and that kept coming up in noticeably and a report in march in which the army general and a navy admiral pretty much the rise exactly what would happen as if they had gotten into the future to see what had happened they foresaw the air attack on hawaii, of course, we never would have detected. A surprise attack on pearl harbor was not with the reality was. What was going . well, remember japan was already at war in 1941 and had engaged in this conquest from this exit plan already and fighting china up. And they conquered the east but dont get the country under control. And leaping from victory to victory but theyre not winning the war. So people are starting to wonder if this war that was quickly supposed to be over in one month after four years it had not ended and the most acute sign of this mindanao which way it was going but the system went into effect april 1941 and the main target was race with a huge stable of the japanese diets. Y have r as long as they have price their healthy but they dont have the of rice. It is imported and even then they have to denuded dilute it. But before 1941 all major to dard politician cities have a rationing system which was quite scandalous they cannot really questioned the authority because of the war economy and there is no independent press to speak of in 1941 with the manchurian it newspaper they were trying to boost their circulation t with the campaign but once you start that selfcensorship it is difficult to turn back around but from now on we are criticizing you. You. So that was escalated and bye wr 1941 there was more regulations of the everyday aspects of peoples life that they felt uncertain they also knew of going into china in the summer of 41 and that was retaliated by the american embargo so low they fell to that japan was cornered into this situationua of the economic side only because they wanted tond survive. They also wanted to believe there were doing this for their asian neighbors as well that was part of the claim in the official rhetoric. So they have these emotions and uncertainty also wanting to get on with life in and just move on. Host why did japan attack china . For a number of reasons but there was a genuine fear coming from the soviet union. Also there was a sense of imperialism because all of western powers said they were happy to keep it divided until they realized that perhaps they were westernized and Chiang Kaishek maybe it next leader of china sunday decided to keep a unified which japan did not like. Said they felt they should be protecting chinese and byan extension, asian interest on bill whole. It was their backyard basically and they felt they had a special regional interest. At host , a craig nelson how significant was it when fdr move to the naval base to pearl harbor . To death threat in japan . Not really. He thought that would calm down their ambitions against the chinese we were very close at the time actually they were thinking they were our natural allies in the fight against russia. But he was convinced he had to fight twice on the issue in fact, he lost his jobha fighting with fdr on the topic. Specifically it was to make japan nervous but that did not work. But i want to explain one of the great conflicts we see a it this moment is the United States is looking at thehe japanese leaders like we would look at the nazis unified force of fascism united behind a commonon dictator and way of life but none of it was true the japanese leadership would change 15 times over the course of the war. The navy was fighting with the self the army was fighting. They were fighting with everybody they just went from crisis to crisis the most chaotic government and one of my points that it is difficult to go up against an enemy. Politics played a role . To make a guess you cannot separate what was about to happen from what was happening in the atlantic. The fact of the war in the atlantic was paramount in roosevelts mind in terms of using American Resources to keep the british in the war against the germans. In fact, there was a shooting war in the Atlantic OceanAmerican Naval ships word escorting convoys to britain and were given orders to shoot on sight for every submarining countered and that was happening in fact, a couple of destroyers were sunk with loss of life prior to pearl harbor. So as a result he was scripting ships in hawaii much to the objection of the Pacific Fleet. Last thing roosevelt wanted was a war precisely because of the ability to help of british they were sustained in part from those resources coming from a the far east and any war would disrupt that chain of resources but the american eight navy would shift the ships back and very famously at one point roosevelt wrote to a member of his cabinet as saying is simply dont have enough ships to go around to fight a war in both places and his preference was the atlantics but yes geopolitics was a major reason for what wasng happening. Host about them to booktv on cspan to with our Monthly Program where we have one author or one topic discussed three hours with your phone calls and social media comments. This month the 75th anniversary of the attack on pearl harbor. World war ii veterans really above to hear from me who or those who remember pearl harbor. 620,000 veterans are still surviving according to the veterans administration. Us, book tv is our twitter handle. Well get to your calls just as quickly as we can. Let me tell you just a little bit about our three authors. Lets begin with eri hotta. Her book is called japan, 1941 and came out just a couple years ago and he is also taught at Oxford University in the past. Born in tokyo. Craig nilsson im sorry, steve twomey next. His book is called countdown to pearl harbor, the 12 days to the attack. He won a Pulitzer Prize for feature writing at the Philadelphia Inquirer and then worked to Washington Post for many years and has taught at New York University and City University of new york. And finally, craig nelson, his most recent back is called pearl harbor from infamy to greatness. A former Vice President and executive editor of harper and rowe, high peeran and random house. Some of his other books include rocket men exepic story of the first men on the moon and author of the first heroes. The extraordinary story of the doolittle raid. Guest guest would who superior of the Major Players heading up to pearl harbor. Guest its eye ron yankee you ask the question because i thought that all the japanese counterpart countries, like germany, italy uk, they have figs, key statesman, the problem with japan is they didnt have effective leaders. They had a handful of fairly ineffective leaders who, by the sheer force of their weak personalities, remained in power, and i think the utmost example is hirohito, who is host emperor. Guest empour empour ore. He wait to supposed to inter fear will politics over the felt like he had a veto power was what reluctant to use it, according to his potion war confession. Host could he have stopped pearl harbor. Guest i personally do. Many people disagree but i think the fact that he felt he needed to explain why he didnt intervene and exercise a veto power after immediately after a few years after the war. Thats very telling because he probably himself felt that he needed to explain and probably could have done so. His reasoning was that he thought if he didnt go along with the joint decision of the military civilian government, that was put up to him, to pursue diplomacy or military or he would be undermining the military. Probably felt there could be a diplomatic breakthrough within the time frame, which is really too optimistic in hindsight but might have felt it because somebody else in the government, Prime Minister, from conway, who was for three years Prime Minister of japan out of four years leading up to the war on and off. He is another weak, ineffective leader who managed to perpetuate his bauer because of his weakness and indecisiveness. He was from the second novelist from the japan almost like the second emperor, and because he was a prince and he felt that Prime Ministership was really beneath him, and even if hi makes a mess of something, somebody else will cover for him. That was his attitude all the way through. He escalated the china war in 1937. He allowed a very bombastic and rather maniacal minister to reach an alliance with germany and itfully the fall of 1940. He didnt really pursue the opportunity to back out of that infamous alliance when they had a chance after the operation when hitler attacked soviet union and the alliance should have no longer held, and that would have impressed on the American Mind that japan was really serious about the peace negotiation with washington. He didnt pursue any of that. Then he went ahead and okayed the southern occupation of couples of southern indochina which roosevelt was really said he felt like he had a cold bath or Something Like that. Dont know the exact quote. He was waiting to hear from the japanese, a reply to this proposal that he roosevelt came up with which is really conciliatoriy. If japan decided to with draw from southern indochina, its troops, roosevelt would make slur that the whole of indo chinese peninsula would be neutralized which should have minute a whole different history for at the region as well. Roosevelt wanted to make indochina the switzerland of Southeast Asia which could have tipped the balance. One thing roosevelt tried to do for conway was not to link the chronic china war problem with the most recent indo chinese appears so that he would conway would have a chance to save his face. Conway didnt really pursue that. He again made this deal with the military, okay,ll let you mobilize for the war and continue with this really bombastic war rhetoric, if you let me go talk to roosevelt in person. And have a conference, possibly in hawaii. Hawaii kept come can back as a midpoint of the peace conference location. And i think he believed that it was possible because roosevelt seemed quite keen to do it. We never know how truly engage head was but roosevelt was that adverse to this kind of theatrical statesmanship where great things were decided by great men in one sitting two sittings like in churchill. Host craig nelsonnor,er noding your headey about roosevelt attending a conference. Guest the great moment in pearl harbor history because the last civilian Prime Minister that we have, was very sincere about setting this up and really all of these manipulations in the japanese government. You left oust he liked to eat and he was followed by geisha with a bowl out water and he would swish around fish in the dish and put it in his mouth. He spent the first term being very prowar and promilitary, and all of this, and then he became Prime Minister again and then became antimilitary. The Roosevelt Administration saw the hawks and the previous stands said, we cant take their seriously, and conway went so far as to have a chip standing by to take him to oklahoma where he would meet with the prosecute aboard a battleship and then the Roosevelt Administration passes on it and if hey that idaho gone through pearl harbor would not have happened. Host why did was it passed on. Guest didnt trust the secretary of state and his vote was the dissf vote. His ambassador in tokyo was pushing for the meet can very hard. The thought it was a sincere offer and thought there was nothing to lose by agreeing to some sort of conference but hall wanted to know almost upfront a soviet american era summits where everything is decided long before they get there. Hull wanted to know exactly what the outlines of the deal were going to be, and when they couldnt get that he was determined not to have that meeting. Host well, to mark the 75th areas of pearl harbor, cspans American History tv is joining booktv for the first hour of this in depth. Now, American History tv is on cspan3 every weekend with archival films, tours of historic places, lectures in College Classrooms and much more. Now, for viewers interested in American History, and want to know more about pearl harbor you can watch next saturday, december 10th, start agent 8 00 a. M. Eastern at 8 00 a. M. Eastern time. American history tv on cspan3 will have the december 7th december 7th ceremony from both pearl harbor and the world war ii memorial in washington, dc, first personality accounts from pearl harbor veterans and civilians, fdrs speech to congress requesting a declaration of war, and live viewer callins with historians. Thats all live on American History tv on cspan3 next saturday. Well, were live here and glad our American History tv audience is with us as well. Well put the phone numbers up on the screen and lets take some calls from viewers. Roger in east lake, ohio, youre on the air. Caller im glad you guys are talking about this. Theres been a story a story i heard back in the 60s ive been wondering about. Supposedly it was told by a guy who was a p. O. W. In a philippine p. O. W. Camp, and was supposedly high up in anyway, the japanese had invaded manchuria, and the russians had troops on the manchurian border to protect the country and what was supposed to have happened, according to there is guy, is that the japanese and the nazis were attacked at the same time, forcing russia to run a twofront war and then host roger, all three of our authors write about that. Craig in the son. Guest what was going on was. Actually was going on with the soviets were invading russia and the japanese were completely taken aback. They had