Early 1942

The Japanese planning included several other offensive operations that would commence at sunrise local time in Malay and the Philippines. The result would be the expulsion of American and British troops from these areas. By February the Solomon’s had also been taken and Australia was under direct attack. The Japanese were able to land forces on the northern part of Australia in early March and in spite of everything the Australians could muster, were pressing south. Everywhere the Rising Sun was ascending.

Two committees were created to investigate the Pearl disaster, one by the President and another by congress. The committees filed conflicting reports just before the new year and the newspapers picked up the controversy. The congressional report blamed the President and the military for committing the fleet to battle without adequate planning and congressional approval. It blamed the military for ineptness. It blamed the President for the lack of military readiness. The Presidential committee blamed the congress for military budget cuts and other congressional actions that adversely impacted the readiness. The military leaders were looked upon as inept. Congress was painted as a villain. The only government agency not seriously impacted by the action was the FBI. Its competence in apprehending the Japanese spies had been considered an adequate response.

The nation was divided too. Japanese Americans from the west coast of the United States were interned and moved to camps in the central plains. This action was taken to prevent sabotage but in a sense it protected the internees from the remainder of the population which was alternately venting its anger on anything Japanese and the American government. The fact that a person was an American citizen was unimportant, if he looked Oriental he was the enemy. Over three hundred deaths of Japanese Americans occurred during early 1942 which were the result of the hatred for anything Oriental. The internment camps, as bad as they were, probably saved lives.

The American Navy was devastated by the First Battle of Pearl. The only forces which hadn’t been ravaged were the submarines. Even though they had lost one of their tenders and the use of the submarine support base at Pearl they were still an effective force. In the late thirties the submarine command in the Pacific had been split into three segments but with the loss of the bases in the central and south Pacific, the command was pulled back to one central command at Pearl. This brought a coherence to the submarine force, essential for the effort before it.