Silver Lining

It was the worst attack on American soil ever, until the tragedy of 9/11. Some 2,350 people died; 1,178 more were injured. Nine ships of the U.S. fleet were sunk and 21 ships were severely damaged. Three of the 21 would be irreparable. Over 200 of our aircraft were destroyed or damaged. Japanese casualties were minimal. A pall of defeat hung over the American psyche, blotting out any rays of hope in fighting back. It was a tremendously successful attack on the part of the Japanese - or was it?

Not according to Chester, visiting the scene of devastation right after the attacks. A young helmsman piloting a boat around the tragic scene, and upon returning to the dock, asked Chester, who was surveying the scene as part of his job, “What do you think after seeing all this destruction?"  Chester replied, much to the shock of everyone in earshot, “The Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could ever make... or God was taking care of America.  Which do you think it was?"  Shocked and surprised, the young helmsman asked, "What do you mean by saying the Japanese made the three biggest mistakes an attack force ever made?" Chester explained.  Mistake number one: the Japanese attacked on Sunday morning. Nine out of every ten crewmen of those ships were ashore on leave. If those same ships had been lured to sea and been sunk--we would have lost 38,000 men instead of 3,800. Mistake number two: when the Japanese saw all those battleships lined in a row, they got so carried away sinking those battleships, that they never once bombed our dry docks opposite those ships.  If they had destroyed our dry docks, we would have had to tow every one of those ships to America to be repaired.  As it is now, the ships are in shallow water and can be raised. One tug can pull them over to the dry docks, and we can have them repaired and at sea by the time we could have towed them to America... And I already have crews ashore anxious to man those ships. Mistake number three: every drop of fuel in the Pacific theater of war is in top-of-the-ground storage tanks five miles away over that hill; one attack plane could have strafed those tanks and destroyed our fuel supply.  That's why I say the Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could make or God was taking care of America.

They say to look for the silver lining in every dark cloud; and surely, if America had a dark, ominous cloud - which struck with several bolts of devastating lightning - it materialized on December 7, 1941. America wanted to avoid the war that was raging in Europe, to stay clear of the terrible cost of blood and treasure. Yet America was taken by her western collar and shaken violently and brought to war. Yet, in all that grief, all that uncertainty and anxiety...Chester found the proverbial silver lining. Moreover, he turned it to gold for America. You see, while Chester was there at the beginning of America’s entry into World War II, he was also there at the end of it, securing surrender from the Japanese who thought they had so overwhelmingly disabled the American Pacific fleet, on board the USS Missouri, in Tokyo Bay, signing the terms of surrender for the United States. After his death, the US Navy even named a class of super-aircraft carriers in his name. You might not remember Chester by his first name, but his last name is the one you do know - Nimitz.