Wereas japanese diplomats conferring with the secretary of state on piece measures, planes were swooping down on pearl harbor. U. S. Filmses both and pictures taken by the enemy as they drop their load on civilian homes and schools. And a numberplanes of submarines took part in the attack. Battles of, the arizona was destroyed and four others were damaged severely. Three cruisers suffered damage. 200 planes were destroyed. Pacificday morning, the fleet appeared to be completely immobilize, turning 3000 casualties to the catastrophe. It has 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 book tv, a threehour discussion of that day, what led up to it and its aftermath. We have three authors joining us. And craigsteve twomey nelson. Each of you ask the question, why did japan attacked the u. S. . What was your conclusion . They really didnt know what they were doing. Didnt have ahey coherent Decision Making process. Nobody was responsible, they felt. And nobody was brave enough to step in and say, this war is crazy so lets stop. Felt thatople somebody else should be blamed for that kind of cowardice, especially the military men. There was no dictatorship but they felt that they had to keep , which is a const complicated system of passing off the risk of possibility to each other and backing off. Steve what was your conclusion . My was the same. It was almost a leap into an abyss. An attack more of hope than actual strategic calculations. We need to remember that the attack on pearl harbor was only a small part of what japan was doing that day. All across the pacific. We knew what was likely to be happening elsewhere. They were moving forces towards singapore and the philippines and the dutch east indies. Pearl harbor was an added element, primarily because they thought that the Pacific Fleet was the only thing in the pacific that could interfere with their plans elsewhere. But basically, the idea that they could win this war was on a very shaky foundation. Craig nelson . I think the great example comes in the most written about in American History who you will see across all of 1941 claiming that we could not the japanese could not possibly attack america and win. There was no way. He is still vocal that the rest of the navy is fearful that assassins are going to assassinate him and he was assigned on a battleship to keep that from happening and at the same time he did that, he planned the attack on pearl harbor. He had threatened to quit the service twice to make that happen. He famously is called the reluctant admiral. Attack wasay the reluctant. Oahu, 8 00 a. M. , what happened . One of the most thrilling parts was to hear the First Americans who were attacked which was the japanese aircrews coming across three california servicemen, saying it was their last day after a year of the station inc. Stationed in hawaii. This one final day they decided to use their pilots license to and hyper codes, which are little tiny canvas airplanes. These are the First Americans taken down by stateoftheart japanese fighters. To think of being in one of those little tiny planes and meeting the Japanese Air Force is just astonishing to me. At 8 00 a. M. , as they flew over oahu into pearl harbor . 96 ships in the harbor many them, the average age at that time of the servicemen is 19. They have no idea what is about to happen. Ine of my favorite quotes was didnt think they were sore at us. The japanese have created technological advantage with stateoftheart torpedoes. Off and theyeak strike the target. They created stateoftheart naval shells and those were the extraordinary explosions in the powder magazine. Over thatem arriving famous north shore of oahu. It is famous for sportsmanship now. They say i cant believe we are looking at a nation at peace. Steve twomey . The subtitle of your book is the 12 days since the attack. What happened . The reason for selecting that timeframe is that the japanese attacks left on november 26, 1941 from its secret Assembly Plant at the far northern extremity of japan. It was going to take 12 days to get to hawaii. Over 3000 miles. Days, the United States was collecting clues of one kind or another that Something Big was about to happen. I mentioned that we knew that the Japanese Forces were moving towards the southwest pacific. His,ew that from conciliar and it was hard for japan to mask the movements of those particular forces. We never knew about the advancing fleet that was also a part of this military offensive. During those days, there was considerable evidence accumulating that something was about to happen. Today,ght, 75 years ago september 4 is when december 4, is when washington earned destroying code machines. That is how we anticipated something was going to happen. Along the way, decisions were made, in many cases incorrect ones and the result was the end of that. Was the fact that it happened at pearl harbor a surprise . Pearl harbor had long been discussed as a possible target, even before a declaration of war. Up through 1941 the native the navy was discussing the possibility of surprise starting with frank knox writing to his counterpart at the War Department in january that he was concerned about the japanese attacking pearl harbor prior to the declaration of any war. That seem kept coming up, most noticeably most notably in a 41 in whicharch of 19 an army general in a navy admiral theorized pretty much exactly what would happen, it was as if they had gotten to the future and seen what could happen. They foresaw an air attack on hawaii from a force that we never would have detected. A surprise attack on pearl harbor, in theory, was not a surprise. The reality was a surprise, however. What was japan like in 1941 . What was going on . Injapan was already at war 1941. Japan had been engaged in a inld cup west that started 1937. Trying to conquer china. But theyuered cities didnt quite get the whole country under control and they kept saying that they were leaping from victory to victory, which was true but they were not winning the war. Wonder,ere starting to this war that was supposed to be over in one month, after four years it hasnt ended. What is going on. The most acute sign of this prolonged war that they didnt was going was their hunger. The rationing system had been put into effect in april of 1941. The main target was the rice, which has such a huge place in japanese diet. They dont have anything else. Rice is the thing and as long as they have rice they are healthy. But they dont have this rice. Anothere to do with kind and even then they have to dilute it with potato or something. In early 1941, by the fall of 1941, all the major metropolitan cities had to do this rationing system. It must have been scandalous to quite a worrying sign. We cant really question the authority because it is already in a semiwar economy and they. Re not really an independent since 1931, since the manchurian incident, the major newspapers have been very friendly with the military and they had been their to boost reputations by launching this jingoistic campaign supporting the war effort. Once you start that kind of selfcensorship it is quite from now on we are criticizing you. In 1937, that got escalated one notch, again and by 1941, there were more stipulations about every aspect of peoples life, people must have felt quite they went into china in 1941. The de facto total when it came to it. They felt that japan they were told that japan was cornered into this impossible situation on economic flight. Only because they wanted to survive well and because they wanted to believe that they were doing this for their asian neighbors as well, to decolonize them. Sinceas part of the claim 1931. Selfpity and emotion because of uncertainty but also wanting to get on with life each day. On and securing enough for the family. Attack china in 1937 . Ms. Hotta because for a number of reasons. Military bravado had something to do with it but there was a north, fear from the coming from the soviet union. The rewards of imperialism, because japan arrived too late. The powers had reaped benefits from imperialism in china and they were happy to keep it divided until they realized that, perhaps, this very westernized and very charming shanghai check might be the next leader of china so they decided to keep it unified. Like. T japan didnt they were the ones that should be protecting chinese and, by extension, asian in trysts interests. They invoked a sense of moral doctrine. They felt that they had a special regional interest in that fear. Craig nelson, how significant theit too when fdr moved naval base for the pacific to pearl harbor . Did that threaten japan . Mr. Nelson not really. Fdr was convinced he could get them to calm down. America was very close to china at this time and we have a poll that americans were thinking chinese were natural allies against fascism much more than the british. But he was convinced that he had kimball. Richardson and richardson lost his job. Fdr was convinced that by keeping them it would make japan nervous and keep them from going plundering further in it did not work. One of the great conflicts that thate at this moment is the United States is looking at the japanese leaders as being like the nazis. A unified force of fascism united behind a common dictator and a common way of life. None of this was true. The japanese leadership changes hands 50 times. 15 times. The army was fighting with the navy, the army was fighting within itself. They just lurched from crisis to crisis. It was the most chaotic government one has ever seen. It is very difficult to prepare a defense strategy. Steve to me, geopolitics had a big role. Mr. Twomey you cant separate what was about to happen from what was happening in the atlantic. Theact of a war in atlantic was paramount in ofsevelts mind in terms using American Resources to keep the british in the war against , and by the time of pearl harbor there was a shooting war in the atlantic ocean. American naval ships were escorting british convoys to britain. Roosevelt had given orders to shoot on sight any german surface ship or submarine they encountered and that was happening. A couple of american destroyers had been sunk with loss of life prior to pearl harbor. His focus was the atlantic and as a result he was stripping ships from the Pacific Fleet in hawaii much to the objection of admiral kimball, commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet. The last thing roosevelt wanted was a war in the pacific, precisely because it would affect his ability to help the british. The british are getting sustained, in part, by the resources coming from the far east and any war was going to disrupt that chain of resources. Plus, the American Navy would ship ships back to the atlantic if there was a war there. Roosevelt wrote to someone, i think it was the member of his cabinet, saying i dont have enough ships to go around a war in both places. His preference was to keep it in the atlantic. Regiontics was a major major reason. Welcome to book tv on cspan2. This is where we have one author or one topic discussed for three hours, we hear phone calls and social media comments as well. This month is the 75th anniversary of the attack on pearl harbor. Here the phone numbers. East and8200 on the central time zones. A 201 if you live in the mountains and world war ii veterans, we would love to hear from you as well, or world war ii era folks who remember pearl harbor. 620,000 or so veterans are still surviving from world or to according to the v. A. 2027488202. If you cant get through on the phone lines, you can join our facebook discussion at facebook. Com book tv or you can tweet us. book tv is our twitter handle. Let me tell you just a little bit about our three offers. Hotta. Egin with eri her book came out just a couple years ago and she has also taught at Oxford University in the past. She was born in tokyo. , his go to steve twomey book is called countdown to pearl harbor, the 12 days to the attack. Andon a Pulitzer Prize worked at the Washington Post for many years and has taught at new york university. Inally, craig nelson his most recent book was called pearl harbor from infamy to greatness. Some of his other books include and author of the first heroes, the extraordinary story of the two little raid. Hotta, who are some of the Major Players in japan leading up to pearl harbor . Ms. Hotta it is ironic that you ask that question because i thought that all the japanese counterpart countries like germany, italy or u. K. , they have famous figures and key statesman. The problem with japan was that we really didnt have effective leaders. They had a handful of who, by theleaders sheer force of their weak personalities, remained in power. And i think the utmost example is emperor here at emperor hito, who is basically outside of the decisionmaking process because he is not supposed to interfere with politics. He did feel like he had veto power but he was reluctant to use it according to his postwar confession. Could he have stopped pearl harbor . I think so. Many people would disagree but i think the fact that he felt he needed to explain why he didnt intervene and exercise veto power after, that is very telling. That he shouldt explain and he probably could have done so. His reasoning was that if he didnt go along with the decision of the military and , it will beernments up to him to pursue diplomacy and military. He would be undermining the military, he probably felt that there could be a diplomatic breakthrough within the tooframe which is really, optimistic in hindsight but he might have felt it. Was, for minister three years, Prime Minister of japan leading up to the war. Weak, another ineffective leader that managed to perpetuate power because of his indecisiveness. He was from the second noblest family in japan, almost like the second emperor. He was a prince. He felt that Prime Minister ship was beneath him and even if he made a mess of something, somebody else would cover for him. That was his attitude all the way through. A very, he allowed bombastic and rather maniacal foreign minister to reach an alliance with germany and italy in the fall of 1940. He didnt really pursue the opportunity to back out of that. Barbarossation against the soviet union, the alliance should have no longer impress onat would the American Mind that japan was serious about negotiation with washington. Okedhe went ahead and the operation into china, which he had had at like cold bath or Something Like that i dont know the exact quote but he was waiting to hear from the japanese, replying to ,his proposal that he roosevelt, came up with which was really conciliatory. If japan decided to withdraw into china, its troops, roosevelt would make sure the chinese peninsula would be neutralized. It would have meant a whole different postwar history for that region as well. Roosevelt wanted to make indochina the switzerland of Southeast Asia which would have tipped the balance. One thing roosevelt tried to do with the most recent indochinese occupation so that he would have a chance to save his face. Conaway didnt pursue that. He again made this deal with the military, ok, i will let you mobilize for the war and continue this rhetoric if you let me go talk to roosevelt in person and have a conference, possibly in hawaii. Hawaii is coming back as a weak point of the peace conference location. Roosevelt seemed quite keen to but you never know how Truly Engaged he was. Roosevelt was not really a verse to this kind of theatrical thing where it great things got decided by great men, like churchill. Craig nelson, you are nodding your head yes about roosevelt. This is the great moment in pearl harbor history, because the last civilian Prime Minister that we have was very sincere about setting this up. Mr. Nelson he did all these manipulations within the japanese government to do it but eri, was you left out, how he liked to eat. The 51 andint out swirl it in the water and put it in his mouth. This is what a prince he was. Sudden, he spent his first term being very prowar and then he became Prime Minister again and he became antimilitary. The roosevelt and ministration hawks saw that previous position and said that they can take it seriously. Were dealing with is having a ship standing by to take him to alaska where he would meet with the president aboard a battleship, it was so close to happening. Why did they pass . Mr. Nelson i dont think they trusted the japanese at all. The secretary of state. His vote was the decisive vote. His ambassador in tokyo was pushing for this meeting very hard and he thought it was a sincere offer and he also thought there was nothing to lose. By agreeing to some sort of conference. Know, almost to upfronts, one of those soviet American Summits where everything is decided long before they get there, he wanted to know exactly what the outlines of the deal were, what it was going to be. When they couldnt get that he was determined not to have that meeting. To mark the 75th anniversary, cspans American History tv is joining book tv for the first hour of this indepth. American history tv is on cspan3 every weekend with our title films, tours of historic places, and much more. For viewers interested in American History and want to know more more about pearl harbor, you can watch next saturday, december 10, starting at 8 00 a. M. Eastern time. The december 7 ceremonies will be from both the pearl harbor and world war ii memorial in washington, d. C. , firstperson accounts from veterans and civilians. Live viewer collins. Iewer callins that is next saturday. We are live here. We are glad our audience is with us as well. We will put the phone numbers on screen. Lets take some calls from our viewers. Lets go to roger in ohio. Caller i am glad you are talking about this. There is a story i heard in the 1960s. Guyosedly it was told by a camp. S a pow in a the guy that did it was supposedly anyway, the japanese had invaded manchuria. The russians had troops on the manchurian