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The Dark Days of '42

© Earl Rickard

Both December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001 are forever wrapped in infamy. But the relatively quick reaction of overwhelming military force displayed in Afghanistan had no equal sixty years ago. The Pearl Harbor attack served as the first act in a six-month dirge of diastrous war news--the dark days of '42.

After six decades the surprise and shock of Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor overshadows the other events of that infamous day. The carrier raid on the Hawaiian base was only the opening shot in a massive Japanese offensive against the Far Eastern posssesions of the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands. In his famous speech of December 8, 1941, President Roosevelt chanted the litany of Japanese aggression: "Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya. Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands. Last night Japanese forces attacked Wake Island, this morning Japanese forces attacked Midway Island." Some of thses attacks, such as Wake Island and the Philippines, were initial air attacks only; ground troops came later, except at Midway.

On December 10, the unfortified American possession of Guam fell to the Japanese after a brief fight. On the same day, 100 miles northeast of Singapore, Japanese dive bombers and torpedo planes sent Great Britain's newest battleship Prince of Wales and the venerable battle cruiser Repulse to the bottom of the South China Sea.

On the following day, the 447 United States Marines defending the tiny mid-Pacific atoll of Wake Island gave the Japanese invasion force a tougher time than they expected. The Marines' shore battery sank the Japanese destroyer Hayate, and planes from Marine Fighter Squadron 211 sank the destroyer Kisaragi. The rest of the invasion force scurried back to their base in the Marshall Islands. Twelve days later the Japanese returned with an armada containing heavy cruisers and an aircraft carrier; facing annihilation, Wake Island's commander surrendered after a spirited attempt to repel the Japanese landing. The surrender came two days before Christmas.

The holidays brought more bad news. On Christmas Day the British surrendered Hong Kong. On New Year's Day 1942, General Douglas MacArthur, American commander in the Philippines, declared Manila an open city. As the Japanese marched into the capital, MacArthur's force of 65,000 Filipinos and 15,000 Americans retreated into the Bataan Peninsula on the opposite side of Manila Bay for a last-ditch defense.

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