GOD AND THE "THREE ERRORS"
It was December 17, 1941, and Admiral Chester Nimitz, appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was assuming command on the upper deck of the submarine USS Grayling (SS-209). The change of command ceremony would normally have taken place aboard a battleship, but all of the battleships at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, had been sunk or damaged during the attack launched ten days earlier. Besides, Nimitz was a submariner, I don't think he cared too much. There was really a spirit of despair, despondency, and defeat; one would have thought that the Japanese had already won the war, considering also the resounding successes of the Japanese forces in the South Pacific. On Christmas Day 1941, Admiral Nimitz took a tour through the destruction the Japanese had caused on Pearl. Large sunken battleships and navy ships crowded the waters on all sides. When the boat returned to the dock, the young sailor asked, "Well, sir, what do you think after seeing all this destruction?" Admiral Nimitz's response shocked everyone present: "The Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes a strike force could make, or God was watching over the United States." Shocked and surprised, the young sailor asked, "What does that mean sir?" Nimitz explained: “Mistake number one: the Japanese attacked on Sunday morning. Nine out of ten crew members of those ships were ashore with permits. If those same ships had been pulled out to sea and sunk, we would have lost 38,000 men instead of 3,800. Mistake number two: When the Japanese saw all those battleships lined up, they were tempted to sink them and didn't bomb our dry docks once. If they had destroyed our dry docks, we would have had to tow each of those ships to the mainland to be repaired. Today the ships are in shallow water and can be floated. A tugboat can take them to the dry docks, and we can have them repaired and out to sea before they have reached the mainland. And I already have ground crews eager to man those ships. Mistake number three: Every drop of fuel in the Pacific theater is in storage tanks on shore, five miles up that hill. An attack plane could have machine-gunned those tanks and destroyed our fuel supply. That is why I say that the Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes a strike force could make, or that God was taking care of the United States. " President Roosevelt had chosen the right man for the right job. A leader was desperately needed who could see the light amid the clouds of despondency, despair, and defeat.
Fortis Leader for Fortis Leader
-The Pacific & Asia Source (with own notes):
“Nimitz, reflections on Pearl Harbor”, by William A. Edwing.
Colorized photo by Johnny Sirlande for Historic photo restored in Color View less