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Fascinating Horror
  • 04/10/2024
"On the 7th of December, 1941, at the height of World War II, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United State of America..."

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Transcript
00:00On the 7th of December, 1941, at the height of World War II, Japan launched a surprise attack
00:18on the United States of America, which had until then been a neutral country.
00:25At 7.55am the first of two waves of Japanese aircraft were launched from carriers off the
00:31shores of Hawaii. From a clear blue sky they honed in on Pearl Harbor, a naval base on the
00:39island of Oahu, and decimated it and the ships which were moored there. The attack, which was
00:46launched without warning, has gone down as a pivotal moment in the history of the world,
00:52an atrocity that caused America to finally enter, and ultimately help put an end to, the war.
01:00Much has been written about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Indeed, so much material exists that to
01:07give any kind of full account would take hours. For this video, however, I wanted simply to share
01:15some stories from that infamous day that have stuck with me ever since I first encountered them
01:20many years ago. Each gives a vivid snapshot of what it must have been like to be caught up in
01:26an unexpected, prolonged, and one-sided attack by a foreign military power, and each one also
01:33serves to demonstrate something important... that situations such as these can be powerfully
01:40and sometimes absurdly disorientating. Nothing illustrates this better than the reactions to
01:47the beginning of the attack. When Japanese planes started dive-bombing and strafing Pearl Harbor
01:53many people watching were unable to reconcile what they were seeing.
01:58As the first dive bombers came in for their first run Colonel William Farthing, watching from the
02:04east, mistook them for friendly planes engaged in a training exercise. He remarked casually to a
02:11colleague, "...very realistic maneuvers. I wonder what the Marines are doing to the Navy so early on a Sunday."
02:20Elsewhere, even those caught up in the attack were convinced it was a training exercise.
02:26Fireman Frank Stock was on board a small launch in the harbor, along with several other men, when
02:32the attack began. He assumed that the bullets hitting the water all around were being fired
02:38as part of a live-fire training exercise. Startlingly realistic, but nothing to worry about.
02:46Stock was disabused of this notion only when one of his friends was hit. Onlookers, seeing the
02:53Japanese flag painted on the side of the attacking planes, assumed that they were watching the red
02:59team in a planned exercise. The first explosions were mistaken for accidents, and in some places
03:07the first attacks were taken to be a lone American pilot gone rogue. One witness recalled waving to
03:14the pilot of one Japanese plane as it passed overhead. The pilot waved cheerfully back before
03:21turning and diving towards the harbor, intent on causing death and destruction. By eight o'clock
03:28in the morning the attack was underway, but not everyone on the ground fully realized it.
03:34On board the battleship Nevada, leader Odin McMillan was preparing to conduct the ship's
03:40band through a rendition of the national anthem. He and his men had noticed several explosions in
03:46the distance, but had put them down to a training exercise. As they launched into the star-spangled
03:52banner, however, a Japanese plane passed overhead, spraying machine gun fire in their direction.
03:59Luckily, every shot missed its mark. Unsure what else to do now that they had begun,
04:05McMillan and the band played on, pausing only momentarily when they were strafed again by
04:11another plane. They completed the national anthem in its entirety before downing instruments and
04:17sprinting for cover. Elsewhere a sailor on board a submarine in the harbor was intent on carrying
04:24out his assigned morning duty, to raise the flag on the flagstaff at the stern of the vessel.
04:30It took him three tries to complete this task. On his first attempt he was sent running back
04:36to the conning tower with the flag in his hands as a bomber dived towards the sub.
04:42On his next attempt he was able to clip the flag in place before running for cover again
04:47as another plane came in to attack. Returning for the third time he was just able to raise the
04:54flag before yet another plane sent him scrambling. Despite the situation unfolding around them,
05:01several men watching from a nearby oil barge couldn't help but cheer as he finally completed
05:06his task. As the attack went on US forces scrambled to respond. It wasn't an easy job.
05:16The attack was so unexpected that on board some ships ammunition was still locked away, and guns
05:22had to be made ready before any fire could be returned. When the attack began Botswain's mate
05:28Thomas Donoghue ran for the number four gun on the deck of the Monaghan, but found that there was
05:33nothing to fire. His fellow sailors were still frantically soaring through the locks on the
05:39ammunition stores. Undaunted, Donoghue fetched a set of wrenches and started throwing them at
05:45the low-flying planes as they passed overhead, hoping for a lucky hit. He was disappointed.
05:52When a sailor called up from the magazine to ask what he needed, Donoghue, calm under pressure,
05:59dryly replied, "...powder. I can't keep throwing things at them." This remark, however, came back
06:07to haunt him when he was indeed sent powder. Just powder. No actual ammunition with which to use it.
06:15Making the best of a bad situation, Donoghue used what he had available to fire off some hollow
06:21practice shells which were lying around on deck while he waited for the delivery of live ammunition.
06:28In the chaos and confusion of the attack machinist's mate David Gilmartin found himself
06:34on the top deck of the Utah. Having been hit, the ship was listing heavily to one side...
06:41so heavily, in fact, that one railing was already underwater. Falling into that water was not a
06:47welcoming prospect. Oil slicks, some of them burning, were everywhere. Choosing the opposite
06:55direction, then, Gilmartin made a run up the steeply sloping deck towards the other railing,
07:01but couldn't quite make it and slid back down.
07:04Stealing himself, he took another run up the slowly worsening incline and again slid back
07:11down towards the water. Before he could try a third time a nearby sailor caught his attention
07:18and yelled for him to get rid of the cigarettes. Puzzled by this bizarre instruction, Gilmartin
07:24looked down at his hands and found that he was holding a carton of cigarettes,
07:29and had been holding it the entire time. This was why he hadn't been able to grip the slanting deck.
07:36His levels of stress had been so acute that he simply hadn't noticed the box in his hand.
07:42Immediately Gilmartin threw away the cigarettes.
07:46On his next run he managed the climb with ease and was able to escape to safety.
07:53These are just a few of the stories which demonstrate the chaos of Pearl Harbor.
07:58There are many more, including ones which have a hint of the absurd to them. There's the story
08:04of a sailor who was injured by a gallon jar of mayonnaise sent flying by a bomb blast, or the
08:11story of another man who took a moment to replace a phone that had been knocked off its hook by a
08:16bomb before fully realizing that the building he was in had been all but destroyed. These moments
08:23of absurdity sit alongside real, visceral tragedy. Incidents where thousands of lives were lost in
08:31the space of moments, or where sailors were trapped in overturned vessels, unable to escape,
08:37facing one of the worst deaths imaginable. These stories indicate just how chaotic war
08:45or disaster can be, and how difficult it is to predict how people will react.
08:50Faced with a terrifying and unexpected situation, almost nobody behaves as they might imagine they
08:56would. Under immense stress humans act irrationally and strangely. Their vision narrows,
09:05their perception alters, their priorities shift, and this is something which must be taken into
09:11account when trying to understand the sometimes startling ways in which ordinary people react
09:18when the worst does happen.

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