"And now it has come to us to stand alone in the breach and face the worst that the tyrant's might and enmity can do," "Winston Churchill in the summer of 1940," "Britain was unprepared for war" "As the army retreated across the Channel from Dunkirk, many must have blamed the"guilty men" - the politicians who'd rejected rearmament in favour of placating the dictators" "For a half-century, Britain's policy of appeasement was remembered with shame, but what brought Britain to the verge of defeat was not the guilt of the few lt was the collective illusion of a nation," "20 years before the retreat from Dunkirk, the body of an unidentified casualty of the First World War was brought from the battlefields of France across the English Channel to Britain," "Borne on a gun carriage, the coffin was drawn through London and in the presence of King George V, the Unknown Soldier was given a state funeral in Westminster Abbey," "In four and a half years, Britain had lost a million men" "Never before had there been such slaughter" "The shock to the system - the national system - of the First War had really gone very, very deep." "It's impossible now to think how deep it had gone, but that was the truth of the matter." "And the trench warfare of the last four years of the First War had really bitten into everybody's soul." "And remember, of course, there was to be no more war, lt was the war to end all wars" "All quiet on the Western Front... lt was such a horrible war." "The people that got killed..." "Our own example, my mother lost her two brothers" " one, 19, in the Somme and Uncle Arthur was a regular soldier in India..." "He didn't get home." "They diverted him to France." "He went through the early battles and then he got killed." "Such a lot of people went." "Such a lot of young men were killed on the Somme." "People were horrified and thought they'd never have another war." "All quiet on the Western Front" "Please, God, let it stay that way" "In those days, Britain was a superpower" "The Union Jack flew over a fifth of the surface of the globe" "Her Empire contained a quarter of the world's population" "But the war had brought her close to bankruptcy" "To cheer people up, the government organised an exhibition at Wembley its theme was the Empire," "It seems to me that someone must have said," ""Now we've got this terrible war over," ""we must do something to promote business, trade," ""to let the world know that the British Empire is still alive and well and to boost morale generally."" "What better than a British Empire exhibition?" "The new stadium was the setting for the royal opening ceremony" "The bands and choirs were conducted by the composer, Edward Elgar" "And did those feet in ancient times" "Walk upon England's mountains green..." "We were, of course, extremely patriotic people in those days and the British Empire was part of our life," "Patriotism ran through everything - like a thread through everything." "Through your school, through your family, through society." "We thought the Empire was a force for good in the world - a benign force," "And we thought that the British were a little bit better than most people, ln fact, the British - even working men, who at that time, many of them had rather a poor standard of life " "were nevertheless intensely patriotic and thought, generally, that a Britisher was as good as ten foreigners." "To fight the war, Britain had mobilised five million men," "All but a few were discharged," "Despite the demands of defence, there was no money to maintain large armed services" "Britain, like other victorious powers, was determined to disarm, especially now that no conceivable enemy existed" "The army was the first to be emasculated" "To justify the cuts, the government adopted the"Ten Year Rule" - an assumption for the purposes of military planning that peace would last ten years" "The navy - guardian of the imperial sea lanes - was drastically diminished" "By the start of the 1930s," "Britain was a weaker naval power in relation to her rivals than she had been since the 1 7th century when her fleet had been defeated by the Dutch," "Britain's most modern service, the air force, was all but grounded," "When the war ended, the Royal Air Force was the largest air force in the world and the only independent air force in existence, lt had 22,000 aircraft on charge," "1 ,600 of them in actual action on the Western Front," "And then, dramatically, in two years, it had reduced from that 22,000 on charge to only 120 serviceable aircraft in the whole of the Royal Air Force." "Tremendous drop." "And aircraft were being scrapped, chopped up, burned in every direction." "You could buy an SE-5 fighter for five pounds and a 504 trainer forjoyriding for ten." "Weakened by disarmament, the British put their trust in the League of Nations, set up in Geneva," "The League was to settle disputes by arbitration and in the last resort would fall back on "collective security", ln extreme cases, this meantjoint military action by member nations," "Britain's immediate concern was the preservation of its vulnerable Empire," "By the 1930s, she was scarcely strong enough to protect even the British Isles against a threat from Europe, and that was only a first commitment," "Another lay along the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal, on the sea lane to the brightestjewel in the imperial crown, India," "Further east, and dangerously exposed, were Burma, Malaya, Hong Kong," "The Empire was hugely overstretched, lt was in Asia that aggression began," "In 1931 , Japan invaded Manchuria - nominally part of China." "Japan had been a British ally since the start of the century, but in 1922, under pressure from America, Britain had ended the alliance." "With that, Japan became a potential enemy." "But an even greater threat was emerging much nearer home, in Europe." "Hitler gets an ovation when leaving for his first Cabinet meeting." "Hitler came to power on a promise to tear up the peace treaties and restore Germany's role as a major power." "The British were sympathetic." "There was a widespread feeling that Germany had been treated too harshly after the war." "From across the way, Hitler appears at his window and another milestone is marked in Germany's political history," "I think people were concerned, but I can't say that they felt alarmed at that stage." "I think there was a certain feeling in the country that, er... the Germans, one thing they do is love playing at soldiers" "and as they had no soldiers, they devised the Brownshirts and the Nazi movement as a good alternative." "But I don't think anybody suspected that they would break out into something as terrible as they did." "To the British government - a coalition of Conservative," "Labour and Liberal - the threat abroad was a long way off." "The only pressing concern was the desperate state of Britain's economy - a result of the world depression." "The threats abroad were rather remote, but the economic crisis was immediate." "Something had to be done almost overnight." "Otherwise, we were told - notjust by fools and people who wanted to frighten us, but by leading economists, the financial correspondents of every newspaper - an appalling crisis will affect the British people, which will have dreadful effects." "That was an immediate thing and so all attention was concentrated on that problem rather than on the developing European situation with its threat of war." "The wartime government had promised the survivors" ""a country fit for heroes to live in,"" "The pledge was not fulfilled, industry had lost ground to foreign competition and, in the early 1930s, one in five of the working population was unemployed," "Millions of families lived in abject poverty," "So you saw real hunger." "I mean, I've been really hungry... I'm not talking about starving in the sense of Africa, but I've known hunger pangs and not known where the next meal was coming from." "I've seen the desperation on my mother's face as to how to feed five children." "We used to go out and buy four penn'orth of scrag end of lamb and with that my mother would make a big succulent stew which would last us two or three days." "I can remember coming home one day being very hungry and there on the stove was this big stew," "and my mother started taking it out of the house." "I said,"Where are you going?"" "She said she was going to give it to a Mrs Bushell." "I said,"But I'm hungry." And I remember she slapped my face." "She said,"You're hungry, but they're starving."" "The strong man of the Cabinet was Neville Chamberlain," "At heart, he was a social reformer, dedicated to uplift and beating the Depression," "He'd come to prominence as Lord Mayor of Birmingham where his pride was a housing estate at Weoley Castle, built to replace the worst of the slums," "In 1933, Chamberlain went back to Birmingham for a special ceremony," "The number of new council houses had reached 40,000," "It was just like a palace because we'd had nothing down there and the house was dark down there and we'd got lights here." "And it was marvellous to think we'd got our own toilet and bathroom and we could move, and if we wanted to wash every day, we could." "It seemed such a godsend after waiting nine years." "I can remember when most every night at ten" "We sang an old refrain" "As we wandered in the moonlight" "Down Sunnyside Lane" "We heard the merry lark and if the night was dark I'd steal a kiss again" "As we wandered in the moonlight" "Down Sunnyside Lane..." "The people must be strong and healthy." "They must command an income sufficient to maintain themselves and their families at least in a minimum state of comfort." "They should be able to cultivate taste for beautiful things, whether in nature or in art," "and to open their minds to the wisdom that is to be found in books." "Chamberlain's priorities were soon upset, ln 1934, a government committee reviewed the state of Britain's defences," "The report recommended greater spending on defence and the creation of an expeditionary force able to fight on the continent, lt drew attention to German rearmament and identified Hitler as the ultimate potential enemy" "In 1935, Hitler had been in power for two years and German militarism was causing unease," "Yet the peace movement in Britain commanded mass support for its campaign against war," "Propaganda films denounced rearmament," "I'd fight tomorrow if I thought a war would end war, but that's what they told my father in 1914 and we're no better off now." "When there's a quarrel between two people, the police settle it." "Can't the League of Nations be strong enough to settle disputes between nations?" "I was in the last war and I thought that was the end of it." "Now here we are again exactly where we started." "Why can't governments get together to make war impossible?" "Write to your MP." "The peace movement launched a successful petition." "We got over 1 1 million signatures, a significant number of the adults in this country." "That was the beginning, I think, of the movement which was then to take over the '30s - a feeling against war." "The fear was there, ticking away like a bomb all through the '30s." "I think the peace petition began to make people think about it." "There we were, marching and fighting to stop war, to demand that the government form a pact with Russia and others to stop Hitler, and yet at the same time, in our hearts, I think there was realisation that the machinery was in motion." "It couldn't be stopped." "That bomb was going to explode one day." "Chamberlain urged the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, to come out for limited rearmament," "But 1935 was an election year and Baldwin was careful to reassure the voters," "Above all, we desire to go on working to maintain world peace and strengthen the League of Nations." "But it is clear from recent events that both our own influence in the world and that of the League itself will be weakened unless we make good the gaps in our defences." "I will never stand for a policy of great armament, and I give you my word - and I think you can trust me by now - that our defence programme will be no more than is sufficient to make our country safe and enable us to fulfill our obligation." "That much we must have." "When Italy invaded Abyssinia, the need to strengthen Britain's defences became indisputable, Italy had been an ally" "Mussolini's friendship was vital to British control of the Mediterranean and thus to the Empire's defence." "A further threat now developed in Germany where Hitler marched three battalions into the Rhineland." "It was a clear breach of treaties, but not unexpected." "Britain and France had spent months discussing their response, in the event but did nothing." "In the words of Anthony Eden, given Germany's strength and power of mischief in Europe." "Britain should conclude a settlement with Hitler while he was still in the mood lt was a classic definition of appeasement," "I think we should have stopped Hitler probably when he invaded the Rhineland, but there was a feeling - in Britain, certainly - that the peace treaty had treated Germany unjustly." "There was rather a reluctance, therefore, to intervene on that particular issue." "The French showed no sign of intervening whatever." "And so I think the hope was - again, it was a false hope - that if Hitler was allowed to reoccupy the Rhineland that that would be sufficient and the end of his demands." "That feeling was wrong." "The opposition to rearmament was crumbling, as Chamberlain noted at the annual conference of the Conservative Party," "There could be no doubt in the minds of any members of His Majesty's government who were present" "of the determination of the great audience to see the gaps in our defences filled at the earliest possible moment." "As Chancellor of the Exchequer, I feel greatly encouraged and heartened by what I heard this morning." "Britain shall spend 1 ,500 millions on arms in the next five years." "Not directed against any country, said the Chancellor, but because of our vast responsibilities in the world and for the preservation of peace." "This means no remission in taxation, but it gives security and it will reduce the figures of unemployment." "Security will bring prosperity." "Chamberlain made rearmament policy." "The air force was given priority." "Bombers and fighters would form a deterrent to enemy action against Britain." "The fear of bombing in these years almost amounted to an obsession." "Feature films added to people's fears." "Even the service chiefs joined in." ""There is the possibility," "" they wrote,"of air attacks so continuous and concentrated" ""that a few weeks of bombing might so undermine the morale of civilians people"" "as to make it impossible to continue a war,"" "People were frightened of bombing and gas attacks, I thought about it quite early on." "People would say, "They'll bomb us out of existence."" "People were frightened of it." "is London defenceless against attack from the air?" "RAF pilots have been giving the metropolis a lesson," "The power of the bomber was constantly pushed through the late 1920s into the 1930s," "All sorts of bogus statistics were traded about by which London would be bombed in ruins within a week and three million people would be milling about in the countryside." "You had a kind of conspiracy of air marshals, defence pundits and pacifists all saying that the next war would start with a colossal German strike at London." "The response of Parliament was to vote more money for the air force," "A specially built factory at Acock's Green in Birmingham," "To meet the shortage of skilled labour, aircraft factories were set up in areas of the motor industry," "Bernard Smith left the Rover Car Company to set up one of the new shadow factories," "The shadow factory scheme was a brilliant idea, lt was a unique way of using the resources of an existing motor industry" "to immediately double... ..for example, the output of the Bristol Aeroplane engine company." "The government were building these shadow factories, not that they very seriously thought that war was about to break out, but as a deterrent to the Germans," "When I first went there, the factory itself was three parts empty and there were very few people working there." "Lots ofjigs and fixtures and a few fuselages and wings." "And we thought at the time - the chaps I was working with - that it was a bit of a joke to be building planes and we thought,"Whatever for?"" "Because at that time we didn't think that there was going to be a war." "British aircraft designers had taken the prospect of war more seriously," "The result was the monoplane" " a forerunner of the aircraft that won the Battle of Britain," "The first of the modern generation to come forward in the great expansion of the Royal Air Force was Sydney Camm's Hawker Hurricane which you see here." "The Hurricane was the first of the new generation of aeroplanes to exceed 300 mph." "Tremendous speed in those days." "300 mph made it as fast as any competitive aeroplane anywhere in the world." "What's more, it had eight machine-guns, which were deadly, and a great new advance in armament together with this advance in performance and, thanks to the Hawker method of construction, an easy aeroplane to build." "The Cinderella of the services was still the army," "The chiefs of staff wanted an expeditionary force able to fight across the Channel, but the government insisted that public opinion would never stand for a continental war," "We used to discuss the question as to at what point do the chiefs of staff resign." "And we came to the conclusion that you didn't resign just because you disagreed with government policy." "If the government weren't going to send an army to the continent, you had to accept that." "But if they said, "We're going to send an army, but you can't have any more tanks,"" "then you say, "Then we won't be responsible."" "The army was in no position to fight a modern war" "The battery is charged by tanks, bogus tanks and just as well, since the 18-pounders fire at them point blank." "A direct hit and he swerves to the right, his steering gear out of order." "It was quite an experience to be with the First Division, which should have been the spearhead of the force, should have stopped the German invasion of the Rhineland." "We had the same machine-guns as we finished the 1914-18 war with - the Lewis gun." "We had flags for men." "I had in my platoon, which should have been about 45 to 50, I had three or four men." "But we were essentially a cadre for reinforcing the Indian Army and our forces in India and not for an expeditionary force in France - we relied on the French to do that." "The public was blissfully unaware of the army's weakness," "At the coronation of King George Vl, the soldiers of the Empire looked magnificent, and in these years of illusion, that was all most people expected of the army," "The British Empire between the wars was a facade, lt made us feel strong, that was all that pink in the map." "all those dominions and colonies, but it was really a sentimental association for the white dominions, we are concerned," "We had no common foreign policy." "We had no common defence policy." "There were no operational plans for the fleets and the armies." "So really the Empire existed only as a facade and the sort of thing that we saw most are jubilees and coronations, on parade," "God save the King!" "God save the King!" "We're marching along and we're singing this song" "Gentlemen, the King!" "The crowds in the street round the tramp of our feet" "Gentlemen, the King!" "And if the army, the navy, the boys in the sky" "Shout"Are you downhearted?"" ""No!" we reply" "We're marching along and we're singing this song" "Gentlemen, the King!" "The chiefs of staff were well aware of the state of Britain's defences," "They now endorsed appeasement," "Warning of war in the Far East, the Mediterranean and Europe simultaneously, they wrote,"We cannot exaggerate the importance of political action" ""to reduce the numbers of our potential enemies,"" "In 1937, the easy-going Mr Baldwin stepped down as Prime Minister and the ablest of his colleagues took over," "Neville Chamberlain combined great drive with faith in his own judgment, lt didn't take long after Neville Chamberlain became Prime Minister" "for him to make it absolutely clear that he was determined to be his own master in foreign affairs, and this was a change from Baldwin." "Baldwin was bored to tears by foreign affairs and never took much action over them." "But Chamberlain proved very quickly that he felt very differently... and that he was going to be the master." "He passionately believed that a combination of rearmament - at a certain pace " "and getting onto better terms with the dictators was the best formula for peace." "That was the root of Chamberlain's foreign policy." "At the same time he agreed with his Chancellor of the Exchequer that rearming too fast could do great damage to the economy, which he'd nursed back to health." "It was within that framework, really, that every decision was made and what Churchill has called "false measurements" were taken." "For 4 years, Churchill argued that the government was underestimating the extent of Hitler's military preparations and that Britain had fallen far behind," "But his was a lonely voice," "Churchill did his utmost in Parliament, but he had a very small following." "And he was a curious politician in that he had held every state department you could think of and yet had not become Prime Minister because he antagonised so many people whom he attacked when they were opposing him." "When he was at the Treasury, he would hit the Admiralty over the head hard and at the Admiralty, he'd hit the Treasury." "They'd all been attacked one way or another, so they didn't like him much." "And Chamberlain didn't want him in the government because he didn't want somebody pressing all the time for more arms." "He wanted somebody who would quietly keep that going and keep the Treasury happy about the amount being spent." "At 10 Downing Street, Neville Chamberlain was very much his own man." "He had little regard for the experts at the Foreign Office, who favoured taking a firmer line with the dictators," "Early in 1938, Anthony Eden, the Foreign Secretary, resigned, predicting that with the collusion of Mussolini, Hitler would take over Austria," "Germany moves into Austria," "These pictures may stir emotions in you which you may find hard to repress, but sit calmly - they will teach us something," "They illustrate the seriousness of the times and reinforce our determination to meet difficulties with courage," "Britain did not interfere, neither did France." "Chamberlain told Parliament, "Nothing could have arrested what has happened" ""unless this country and others were prepared to use force,"" "He was determined that Germany's action would not deflect him from appeasement," "Hitler had sworn to redress the injustices of the Treaty of Versailles," "With his annexation of Austria, he was well positioned to tackle his next objective Czechoslovakia - now threatened by German divisions from the south, north and west." "The peace treaties had left a German-speaking minority inside Czechoslovakia," "These Sudeten Germans now became the pretext for the war Hitler wanted to launch, ln Downing Street, Chamberlain was determined to stop him," "Late on 28th August, he decided to frustrate Hitler by persuading the Czechs to surrender the Sudetenland," "Chamberlain, and not his Foreign Secretary," "Lord Halifax, would play the principal role," "Appeasement was his policy and he would put it to the test," "He wrote about his mission to his sister," ""ls it not positively horrible to think that the fate of hundreds of millions" ""depends on one man and he is half mad?" ""l keep racking my brains to try and devise some means of averting a catastrophe," ""l thought of one so unconventional and daring" ""that it rather took Halifax's breath away,"" "The hour of need has found the man" " Mr Neville Chamberlain," "Mr Chamberlain has never wavered in his determination to establish peace in Europe," "At the hour when the dark clouds of war hung menacingly above us, he took a wise and bold decision," "Well may we call him Chamberlain the Peacemaker, lt's almost impossible to describe to people brought up in the jet age what the news that Mr Chamberlain was flying to Bertesgarden meant to the British people, and, indeed, the world," "It was a very brave act, morally and physically." "He was, after all, an old man." "And there was a tremendous mixture of feeling in the country," "First of all, admiration..." "Three cheers for Chamberlain," "Stunned surprise - absolutely electrifying..." "Shock." "And, perhaps most important of all, the feeling that all hope was not lost, that we were still in with a chance." "Before he set off for his meeting with Hitler," "Chamberlain had told the Cabinet that due to their failure to rearm," "Britain and France were not in a position to fight Germany," "They walked up the steps for the frank and friendly talk," "Two men carrying between them the fate of 20 million," "Chamberlain couldn't negotiate from a position of strength because the strength was not there," "So he went into the meetings with Hitler in a weak position... ..and hoped, first of all, that he could buy time," "but, secondly, that he might convince Hitler that there was no conceivable gain to be got from war." "I think those were his priorities." "High up in Hitler's retreat, looking over the Austrian Alps," "Chamberlain told Hitler that if it could be done without force, he would not object to the detachment of the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia," "Hitler gave a reluctant promise not to give the order to march," "At their second meeting one week later, the stakes had been raised," "Hitler announced that German troops would occupy the disputed territory in ten days," "Chamberlain was profoundly shocked, but he agreed to put the proposal to the Czechs," "He returned to a Britain preparing for war, for the air raids all believed would come within days," "The slit trenches in the parks testified to Britain's unreadiness, I was writing stories about air-raid precautions and civil defence every day, but there are one or two pieces that went under my own name." "There was one where l put the question:" ""How strong are the country's passive defences now?" ""There is only one honest answer." ""lf peace could be guaranteed until the end of 1939," ""we could afford to view the rate of progress with equanimity," ""but for any emergency which might arise, say, before the end of this year," ""the whole of the civilian population," ""and London in particular, is still highly vulnerable."" "To judge from Hitler's behaviour in Berlin, the emergency would come at the end of the month," "But Hitler did acknowledge Chamberlain's efforts to defuse the crisis, I'm grateful to Mr Chamberlain for all his efforts... I have further assured him, and I repeat now," "That when this problem is solved ...there will be no territorial problems for Germany in Europe" "Chamberlain was inclined to accept Hitler's ultimatum, but public opinion was turning against appeasement and the Cabinet decided that Hitler's demands were unacceptable," "On September 28th, the news came that Hitler had agreed to another conference." "The Prime Minister was the hero of Europe," "Four strong men converge on the German town of Munich to make it for one day the centre of the world," " Mr Chamberlain," " The Munich Conference was an anti-climax," "Britain and France had already conceded the Nazi leader's claim," "Hitler was sullen, He'd been cheated of his war," ""That damn Chamberlain," he was heard to say," ""has spoiled my parade into Prague,"" "Next morning, Chamberlain invited Hitler to sign a paper committing them both to the peaceful settlement of disputes," "Hitler was unenthusiastic, He hardly read the paper before he signed it," "To Chamberlain the paper was a triumph, the prelude to a general settlement in Europe and even to peace for our time," "He came home to scenes of wild relief," "Our Prime Minister has come back from his greatestjourney and he said;" "The settlement of the Czechoslovakian problem, which has now been achieved... ..is, in my view, only the prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace." "This morning, I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler... ..and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine." "The British rejoiced, but Chamberlain's private view of Hitler was ambivalent, as he told Lord Home on their way back from the Munich conference," "I don't know that he ever worked out Hitler's state of mind properly," "He told me, when we were coming back on the aeroplane from Munich, he thought Hitler was the nastiest bit of work he'd had to deal with, but you had to deal with people like that in international diplomacy" "and there was no escape negotiating with him." "Um..." "is there a contradiction there?" "Did he really feel that he was mad and yet negotiated with him as a normal human being?" "I think he felt that you had to negotiate with him... ..even though he described him as mad." "He was the leader of Germany and he was the only fellow who could say yes to peace or war." "A minority was appalled," "By bowing to Hitler's threat of force, Chamberlain had paid too high a price, I can't describe our feelings about Chamberlain adequately." "I find it very difficult to find words." "He was regarded, I think, universally by working-class people, particularly by those who were Labour-inclined, as the arch-enemy." "And Munich, for us, was the climax," "We felt that he'd betrayed the country and made war more inevitable, not less," "They had a very powerful army - the Czech Army - and they could have put up a good deal of resistance to Hitler, who wasn't fully armed and ready for war." "But that had been denied them by this agreement." "We'd bought time, perhaps, but they'd lost time." "Con O'Neill was a junior diplomat at the British Embassy in Berlin," "When the Munich meeting was finally over, I was so depressed that I sent in my resignation immediately within the next day or two." "I was glad then and for many years that I had taken that resigning action, but now I have to confess that I think I was wrong." "I think probably we made certainly as good, possibly even better, use of the year's interval in rearming," "Above all, in beginning to get our fighter aircraft into squadron service," "The pace of Allied rearmament, especially air power, now overtook that of Germany, but its cost was a bigger worry than ever," "The problem with rearmament from Britain's point of view was that we really had no longer got the financial resources or the economic base to carry it on the scale that our defences and imperial defences needed," "That was the heart of the dilemma as to how much you did and how quickly." "So you find, by the beginning of 1939, the Chancellor of the Exchequer warning the Cabinet that if rearmament went on at the current rate," "Britain would be bankrupt within a year or two years." "The rattle of a German army on the march echoes in Europe." "Where that march may end, no man can foretell, least of all the man who gave the order." "Here, before our eyes, unfolds the drama of a nation dying," "Only five months after Munich, Hitler invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia, ln Britain support for appeasement was replaced by a determination to resist Hitler's next demand." "Even Chamberlain changed his tone, sounding a Churchillian note of defiance." "The German invasion of Czechoslovakia." "Ask yourself now the question asked by the British Prime Minister, ls this the last attack upon a small state?" "Or is it to be followed by others?" "is this, in fact, a step in the direction of an attempt to dominate the world by force?" "The British government assumed that Hitler's next objective would be Poland," "At the end of March," "Chamberlain offered the Poles Britain's support in the event of a German attack," "Giving our guarantee to Poland from a military point of view was a totally crazy thing to do." "I don't know whether the Poles thought it crazy." "I'm afraid I did even at the time because there was no reason to suppose that we could help the Poles and, of course, we didn't." "But we had, to this extent, compelled ourselves to be courageous by giving that guarantee to Poland." "An Anglo-French mission now arrived in Moscow in a belated and half-hearted attempt to negotiate an alliance with Russia, lt was hoped to put muscle behind the guarantee to Poland and to reduce the military odds in Germany's favour," "But the Germans surprised the world by striking a deal with Stalin," "Von Ribbentrop leaving Berlin ushers in an incomprehensible chapter in German diplomacy," "Where is the Anti-Comintern Pact or the principles of"Mein Kampf"?" "What can Russia have in common with Germany to throw over the Peace Front?" "Newspapers fastened on the amazing turnaround and one or two found a humorous angle," "Chamberlain's last diplomatic move had come too late," "All he could now do was prepare his country for certain war," "Limited conscription had been introduced," "Volunteers rushed to join up as their fathers had done 25 years before," "The army formed the expeditionary force the government had resisted for so long," "On September 3rd, two days after Hitler invaded Poland," "Chamberlain broadcast to the nation," "This morning, the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German government a final note," "stating that unless we heard from them by eleven o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us," "I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received... and that, consequently, this country is at war with Germany," "You can imagine what a bitter blow it is to me that all my long struggle to win peace has failed," "What happened to Britain in the 20 years before the outbreak of the war and our finally getting into war at that time, a war which we could not afford to wage and which we were bound to come out of ruined even if we won it," "the basic reasons for that were in the illusions of a generation, on the one hand." "You can'tjust single out guilty men, as people have done, like Chamberlain or Baldwin." "This was a generation." "They were partaking of the common beliefs and hopes and illusions of the whole broad spread of public opinion." "If anybody's going to be guilty, it is the illusions of the British people." "In a mood of quite unjustified optimism, the British Army set off for France, lt would be six months before the illusion of British invincibility was shattered by the threat of defeat," "An empire has sprung to arms, its gallant manhood marches through France, singing a new song in the old spirit," "Roll out the barrel" "We've got the blues on the run" "Zing!" "Boom!" "Ta-ra-rel!" "Ring out a song of good cheer" "Now's the time to roll the barrel" "For the gang's all here!" "Benito Mussolini was a born actor," "He had remarkable powers of leadership and the capacity to inspire, but his dream of creating by conquest a second Roman Empire was fated to collapse, Italy was too backward and too weak to engage in major wars," "Mussolini's eldest son, Vittorio, now aged 73, visits his father's tomb in Predappio in Northern Italy," "Mussolini had been shot by Italian communist partisans at the end of the war," "Vittorio remembers the ambitions of his father" "My father, Benito Mussolini, had a big dream" "He wanted a strong and fierce Italy, respected for its law and order and highest form of social justice" "He wanted a new Italian character, worthy of its Roman heritage and the brilliance of the Renaissance" "Such a race could have been amongst the future leaders of the world" "To recapture the power and glory of ancient Rome had been the dream of Italian nationalists since unification in 1870" "They believed that to make the nation great must be the first objective of government" "For many Italians, reality was far from glorious" "Many lived in extreme poverty and emigration offered the only hope of a decent life" "In the First World War, thousands of young men had fought for a better future, Italy had joined the Allies in 1915 in return for a promise of colonies" "When the promise was broken, Italians felt cheated" "Half a million men were killed in a war that crippled the economy and spawned social tensions which made ltaly all but ungovernable" "At the end of the First World War, Italy was in a state of total chaos, and on the brink of a communist revolution" "Rioting, anarchy, endless strikes" "Aggression and violence of every shape and form" "When we, the Italian soldiers, came back from the trenches after three hard years of living and breathing the air of all the dead men around us, instead of being welcomed back by the Italian flag, we were met by the red communist one," "as well as stones and insults," "As political groups fought for power in the streets, many ex-servicemen joined a new, ardently nationalist movement, the Fasci di Combattimento, the Fascist Party its uniform was the black shirt, its objective;" "to destroy communism and liberalism and build a powerful, authoritarian Italy," "Their leader was Benito Mussolini, a revolutionary socialist of peasant stock who became a nationalist and fought in the war" "He was a talented popularjournalist and a gifted speaker who attracted mass support by telling Italians that he would make them great that fascism would sweep away corrupt and inefficient government, revise the peace settlements in Italy's favour and create a new empire based on Rome, the cradle of Western civilisation," "Ugo Peretti was a founder member of the Fascist Party in Milan and a veteran of many street fights" "There used to be some extremely violent battles with deaths on both sides" "When we managed to catch our attackers, we'd take them back to the centre and give them a beating" "We'd also give them a nice glass of castor oil, which turned out to be a very effective weapon" "I must say that they used to be more afraid of the castor oil than the truncheon" "In October 1922, Mussolini felt strong enough to make a bid for power and his private army of fascist action squads staged a march on Rome" "The leader himself remained in Milan ln fascist folklore it became the overture to Mussolini's revolution" "To prevent a fascist coup, the government had asked the king to call out the army" "But the king, fearful of civil war, refused" "He asked Mussolini to form a government" "At first Mussolini shared power with other parties, but within three years he had created a single-party state" "Mussolini found Italy in a state of chaos, civil war, almost" "There's no doubt that he turned Italy into a country that enjoyed law and order, that had no strikes and where the trains ran on time" "You didn't have the street fights between fascist squads and Marxists which were so common before fascism" "However, as far as we, the anti-fascists, were concerned, he secured law and order at the expense of freedom" "It's very easy to describe the repression" "There was no freedom of the press, you could not publish a newspaper, nor could you write for an existing newspaper and say things against fascism" "You couldn't hold public meetings and say what you thought Parliament was wiped out" "You could not vote for the MP of your choice" "Workers had to behave and get on with their work without being a nuisance" "And trade unions were practically instruments of fascism" "That was the nature of fascist oppression" "Mussolini's staunchest opponents were the communists ln the early years, the party's newspapers were burned in the streets" "Many anti-fascists emigrated" "Of those who remained, some 6,000 were imprisoned or exiled" "Mario Vigna was a member of the Communist Party in Ravenna" "In 1930 l was arrested and taken to the police headquarters where l was badly beaten up," "Because I wouldn't tell them the names of my comrades, they tested my resistance by sticking a red-hot iron into my chest" "But I said nothing, not a word" "After that terrible experience I was sent to Rome, tried and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment" "Fascism was, of course, a totalitarian state ln fact, this word, adopted by every totalitarian state since, can be traced back to that famous phrase of Mussolini's, written on every wall in the country;" ""Everything within the state, nothing outside the state," ""nothing against the state,"" "But as people in Italy often said jokingly then, it was a totalitarian state, revised and diluted by the almost total lack of respect for its laws" "This was due to the nature of the Italians, who didn't pay much attention to the severity of fascist laws and their penalties" "There were two other moderating influences, the monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church" "Unable to dominate either institution," "Mussolini took pains to gain the support of both" "The status of the Vatican was raised to that of a sovereign state and the Church restored to its position of authority in Italian society" "There were positive achievements too, all much magnified by fascist propaganda" "Mussolini launched badly needed public works," "Productivity rose - on the farms, in the factories and in the mines" "Grateful foreign tourists noticed that the trains ran on time" "And by taxing bachelors and rewarding mothers" "Mussolini reversed the decline in the birth rate, 93 women produced 1 ,300 children between them" "The battle for births, as it was called, produced a new generation of Italians," "As regards the Italians, he wished above all to change their character" "He thought this was necessary because centuries of subjugation and disease had turned the Italians into rather weak and servile people" "He wanted to improve their morale through education and their physical prowess through sport and special military gymnastic programmes" "Also there was an education, which we could call warlike, that was meant to teach the Italians, who are on the whole a peace-loving people and not at all aggressive, how to fight a war should the necessity arise," "The regime's prestige abroad was boosted by spectacular feats of daring, ln 1933 the Air Minister, General Balbo, led 24 flying boats across the Atlantic" "They broke all records, an achievement that earned them a hero's welcome in New York" "New York gave General Balbo and his flyers a roaring welcome as they paraded up Broadway in traditional style amid a hail of paper" "As the airmen passed along the Grand Canyon of skyscrapers, the scene resembled a heavy snowfall" "Hundreds of thousands lined both sides of the street, from the Battery to City Hall, and cheered the smiling general" "We were proud, We used to talk about martyrs and heroes lt was important for us to be able to do that" "No one ever talked like that before the First World War" "Now we'd talk about sacrifices and the dead" "Not only that, but past glories, Roman glories et cetera" "We were all glad to feel we belonged to a strong, noble country that was renowned" "We liked this situation," "Mussolini was the"dux" or"duce", the leader" "It has been said of him that he was more popular in Italy than anyone had ever been and probably ever will be" "Mussolini saw himself as the national role model, the personification of the masculine virtues," "No, the people followed Mussolini rather than fascism" "People were carried away, fascinated by him" "He had a special kind of magnetism which enchanted the people" "We supported Mussolini rather than the Fascist Party" "In public Mussolini was a great actor" "He knew how to charm the people and make everyone feel involved" "Mussolini was a powerful figure" "A glance, a gesture was enough to send the crowd into raptures" "People used to become oblivious of everything but their idol and shout with tremendous enthusiasm," "There and then they had faith because the Duce wanted them to have faith in fascism" "That fascist faith for which the applause would go on and on and on" "Fascism was supported mainly by the lower middle classes and the middle classes" "Agricultural workers in certain areas were also attracted to fascism, but they did so primarily because it was in their tradition to respect the authority of the state" "The situation was a bit different where the workers were concerned initially they were anti, but as the old ones died and the new generation grew up, they too supported fascism" "To start with, a lot of people belonged because they believed in it" "Some belonged for other reasons ln fact, there were those who joined the party because they needed work" "To become a state employee it was necessary to produce the party membership card, which was also known mockingly as the meal ticket" "An essential characteristic of the regime was the cultivation of militarism," "Mussolini was determined to change the nature of Italians and make them dynamic and instinctively aggressive," "Like Hitler in Germany," "Mussolini declared that war alone could make a people truly noble" "Only blood could turn the blood-stained wheels of history" "To remain healthy, he said, a nation should make war every 25 years" "Much of Mussolini's overblown rhetoric was part of the show" "He talked about 8 million bayonets and an air force large enough to blot out the sun" "But it was a show with a purpose" "Only an aggressive, self-confident Italy, prepared to make war when the right moment came, could earn the respect of the world" "From the age of eight, all children were made to march with guns" ""Better one day as a lion," said Mussolini,"than 100 years as a sheep,"" "The main objective was internal lt was meant to create a fighting spirit, and to give the impression that the country was a very important one and that fascism was going to achieve historic goals, which it would have to do sooner or later through conflict" "This sort of boasting was also meant to impress countries abroad" "But where that was concerned, he was more cautious" "He would play the role of the warrior and the peacemaker according to the occasion" "In the role of European statesman, Mussolini was an opportunist" "He was anxious that Italy be accepted alongside Britain and France as one of the arbiters of Europe" "His moderation earned him powerful friends abroad, including Austen Chamberlain, then Britain's Foreign Secretary" ""l trust his word when given" ""and I think that we might easily go far before finding an Italian" ""with whom it would be as easy for the British government to work,"" "In 1933 Hitler became leader of a resurgent Germany lt was an event that was bound to change the European balance of power" "Mussolini was wary of Hitler's declared designs on Austria" "An Anschluss, or union, would bring Germany to Italy's northern frontier" "An independent Austria was vital for Italy" "The state funeral of the Austrian Chancellor Dolfuss in 1934 confirmed Mussolini's fears, for he had been murdered by the Nazis in an attempted coup" "Mussolini held Hitler responsible" "Dolfuss had been a close friend" "He sent Italian troops to the border with Austria" "The coup fizzled out" "Once in Rome, we went immediately to Villa Torlonia and met Mussolini, who was extremely angry and told us that his friend Dolfuss, whose wife was, at the time, the guest of Donna Rachele in Riccione," "had been brutally and barbarically killed in Vienna under Hitler's orders" "Adding, as is well known, that the German dictator was a barbarian, a criminal and a pederast" "Italy had a powerful fleet, but her second-class status in the Mediterranean, dominated by Britain and France, was a running sore, an affront to Italian self-esteem and a barrier to dreams of overseas expansion" "Although Mussolini hadn't travelled much abroad, he never discouraged the young ones from seeing the world for themselves" "I remember him saying to us after a cruise," ""Did you notice, when you came through Gibraltar," ""nobody crosses it without Britain's go-ahead?"" "Italy was shut in and this bothered him, and he meant to put an end to it" "By comparison with the British and French, Italy's empire was insignificant" "There was Libya, but oil had not yet been discovered, Italy controlled Eritrea and Somalia and adjacent to both was Ethiopia, for many years an object of Italian ambition" "People said Italy shouldn't conquer Ethiopia, Why not?" "Hadn't England done the same?" "It had conquered India, the Middle East, half the world," "We said,"Why them and not us?"" "We were not agree to that point." "We were all convinced that Italy too deserved its fair share of all that land around the world which had been shared out between England and France" "Ethiopia, ruled by the Emperor Haile Selassie, was poor, backward and black" "And it practised slavery ln fascist eyes, therefore," "Ethiopia was ripe for a white man's war of liberation" "There were also economic arguments for conquest" "Mussolini needed more than just raw materials, which Italy totally lacked" "Mineral water is the only thing Italy has a lot of" "He needed mines, he needed raw materials" "He also needed land for Italy's increasing population" "In the '30s we were increasing in number quite a lot" "We needed to find a place for millions of Italians across the waters, and that is why we went to Ethiopia" "Before beginning his expansion into Ethiopia," "Mussolini asked Britain and France for their permission" "The French gave their consent through Laval in January 1935" "The English, on the other hand, remained ambiguous for months" "A year earlier, Mussolini's daughter Edda had visited London" "He had asked her how the British would react to an Italian invasion" "Before I left, my father said," ""Tell everybody that we're going to Ethiopia," ""Tell everyone from the porter at the station to the taxi driver,"" "I did tell everybody," "As regards the ordinary people, they didn't even know where Ethiopia was, basically they didn't care" "Then I met MacDonald, who was the prime minister at the time I insisted on knowing if the English would go to war against Italy" "He said no, "Well, I said, "that was my main concern,"" ""Fine," he said," "Then I added, "But will you take any action?"" ""Yes, of course, but we won't make war,"" ""That's settled," l replied, I don't know if we shook hands across the table, I can't remember" "Then he said,"Let's go and have a cup of tea on the terrace,"" "Throughout the summer and autumn of 1935, an armada of Italian troop ships sailed for Italy's colonial bases in Africa" "The build-up began with three divisions" "To be on the safe side, Mussolini raised it to ten" "It was a war for Italy and Italy was involved" "The young ones like myself thought it was our duty to take part" "Our grandfathers and fathers had brought about the unification of Italy and we thought the moment had come when it was our duty to make Italy great" "On 3rd October 1935, Italian troops invaded Ethiopia" "It was the biggest and best-equipped army ever to have fought in Africa ln all, one and a half million men, Mussolini expected a walkover" "But Ethiopia's lightly armed and barefooted soldiers resisted valiantly" "Within weeks the Italian advance bogged down" "But rifles and spears were no match for modern weapons and certainly no match for Italy's bombers" "They had the sky to themselves ln a secret order, Mussolini approved the use of poison gas" "In a convention ratified seven years earlier Italy had renounced chemical warfare as uncivilised and its use in Ethiopia was kept from the public in Italy until after the war" "When the news caused an outcry abroad, Italy issued denials" "Photographs of victims of gas attacks were described by the Italian embassy in London as cases of leprosy" "But the evidence could not be refuted and Italy was condemned across the world, ln the League of Nations Britain led a futile attempt to restrain Mussolini by imposing limited sanctions" "Action must now be taken." "It is for the members of the League of Nations collectively to determine what that action should be." "All but four member nations voted for sanctions" "Nobody wanted collective military action to force Italy to withdraw" "The sanctions were painful, but all the League accomplished was to consolidate Italian support for the war" "The Italians were deeply hurt and considered the sanctions a clear injustice and an obstacle in their rebuilding programme," "Mussolini had warned England and France of his plans in Ethiopia and had not been opposed instead they later imposed sanctions" "The party launched a battle to beat sanctions" "Following the example of the Queen, a quarter of a million Roman matrons handed in their golden wedding rings to swell the national reserves of bullion" "Their husbands donated bedsteads to the cause" "Anything of metal, anything to feed the Duce's war machine" "What Italians did not know was that the war and the collapse of Italy's foreign trade was wrecking the economic revival of the '20s" "With victory in April 1936, there was blind rejoicing, from the King and the Pope to the people" "Alone against the world, Italians had proved themselves as a nation of warriors" "Rome was again the capital of an empire and its creator," "Mussolini, was admired and applauded as never before," "Mussolini had brought fascism to its peak lt would be several years before the Italians began to count the cost of his ambitions" "With Ethiopia, Italy had lost valued friends and from now on fascism was to go into gradual decline" "Mussolini's addiction to war now drove Italians into a second expensive adventure, the intervention of 50,000 troops in the civil war in Spain ln battle his army did not distinguish itself and at home the official newsreels failed completely to arouse enthusiasm" "Mussolini later admitted that two wars had bled Italy white" "The diplomatic consequences were even greater" "The Ethiopian war had taken Italy out of the Western camp and Spain was drawing her closer to Nazi Germany" "What drew the two dictators together was only partly ideology" "Each needed the other" "Hitler had taken advantage of the commotion over Ethiopia to reoccupy the Rhineland" "Mussolini, impressed by this show of force, saw Hitler as an ally he could influence, I think that...it was the fact that Germany, for him, meant...a young country in a position of ascension, if you can say that." "And because of that, he had better be with them than to be with the countries that he was considering somewhat decadent." "That is the reason why, I think, he forced himself to ally himself with the Germans." "Fundamentally I think that Mussolini was not a lover of Germany or a lover of Germans." "But he felt that he could not avoid being allied with the Germans because of the power which was coming out of the German people ln November 1936," "Hitler and Mussolini formed what they called the Rome-Berlin Axis lt was a turning point in Italian history," "Mussolini would lose control of his own foreign policy and Italy would become a German satellite" "The fascists now began to imitate the Nazis," "Mussolini ordered his army to adopt the German goose-step" "He called it the"passo romano"" "The soldiers did their best to conform" "But what shocked even hardened fascists was the Duce's imposition of anti-Semitism in a set of laws discriminating against the Jews," "I've always thought they were a mistake," "Mussolini introduced the anti-Semitic laws because he was obliged to by his alliance with Hitler" "Our people, however, have never been racist, I was born in the Italian city of Ferrara, where the burgomaster has always been a Jew," "Renzo Ravenna" "A lot of the founders of the Fasci di Combattimento between 1919 and 1921 , in many Italian cities, were Jewish," "Hatred was never felt nor displayed against the Jews ln Italy they were never persecuted as they were in Germany" "The new relationship was put to the test when Germany invaded Austria in 1938" "Only four years earlier, Mussolini had blocked this ambition of Hitler by sending troops into the Brenner Pass," "But Germany was now a major military power," "Mussolini earned Hitler's undying gratitude by condoning the invasion in advance" "After the Anschluss," "Hitler was perfectly placed to threaten his next objective, Czechoslovakia ln the autumn of 1938, Europe was on the brink of war" "The Munich Conference of September 1938 gave Mussolini a final opportunity to play a role on the European stage" "By relaying to Hitler the British request for a last-minute meeting and by presenting as his own a settlement drafted by the Germans, he was able to pose as a saviour of world peace ln reality he was an extra," "the decisions at Munich were made by Chamberlain and Hitler" "Later Mussolini would recall with pride how Chamberlain had licked his boots," "Mussolini returned to Italy to frenzied shouts of "Duce"" "For the first time, Mussolini was acclaimed as a peacemaker" "In January 1939, the hope that Mussolini would side with Britain and France brought the British prime minister on a mission to Rome" "Mussolini had first proposed a general settlement to the British on 5th October 1935" "This general settlement guaranteed Italy's cooperation in Europe against Germany" "In return, Britain was to give Italy equal rights in the Mediterranean and a share in the sphere of influence in North Africa and the Middle East" "Mussolini continued to put forward this proposal to the British right up to the outbreak of war in Europe and even during ltaly's period of neutrality" "Chamberlain wanted to detach Mussolini from Hitler, but Mussolini's price was too high" "Four months later, Mussolini's foreign minister, Count Ciano, arrived in Berlin to sign a full-scale military alliance with Hitler" "The German occupation of Prague two months earlier had caught Mussolini unawares" "Briefly he had considered switching to the side of Britain and France" "But it made more sense to stay with the stronger side" "During the discussions," "Ciano had stressed that Italy would not be ready for war until 1943" "The Germans were evasive and Mussolini ordered Ciano not to press the point" "The agreement was signed" "A week later Mussolini wrote to Hitler reminding him of Italy's need for a breathing space of three years," "Hitler did not reply ln August Ciano discovered that Germany was about to attack Poland," ""l returned to Rome completely disgusted with the Germans," ""with their leader, with their way of doing things," ""They have betrayed us and lied to us," ""Now they are dragging us into an adventure which we do not want," ""which may compromise the regime and the country as a whole,"" "Mussolini had walked into a trap" "He had repeatedly promised Hitler that the two fascist nations would march together, but his armed forces were in no state to fight a major war" "In propaganda films, Italy's army was portrayed as among the most formidable in Europe, but Mussolini had neglected the military preparations his ambitions required" "His soldiers carried rifles introduced in 1891" "By the end of the Second World War they had still not been replaced" "His three armoured divisions existed only on paper" "The army had no proper tanks" "Military vehicles required for important parades were sometimes borrowed from the police, Italian artillery dated back to World War I" "In the Fascist Grand Council Mussolini berated his generals for the army's deficiencies, but the fault was his, Italy's limited resources had been thrown away in four years of war in Ethiopia and Spain," "As evidence of Italy's unreadiness, he now sent Hitler a shopping list that deliberately exaggerated Italy's needs," "To fight alongside Germany, Italy would need 1 7 million tons of supplies," "Hitler, bowing to the inevitable, released Mussolini from his military obligations," "Most Italians were unaware of these high-level exchanges," "Fascist propaganda had not prepared them for Hitler's invasion of Poland in September 1939" "In Italy we lived a normal, carefree life, blissfully unaware of what was happening outside our borders" "So we worked, we sang and we marched" "The distant noise of war wasn't heard" "Or perhaps we didn't want to hear it I was on holiday and the hotel I was staying in had given a big party" "A lot of happy and cheerful people had been there" "The following day, through my hotel window, I saw a crowd of people, all extremely upset and shouting and running in the direction of the station" "Cars, old carts and lorries were everywhere" "Barefooted people, people on bikes" "Everybody looked exceedingly worried" "This was, of course, the outcome of the news they'd heard that morning, that is to say, the outbreak of war," "Life continued as usual Italy remained neutral, or non-belligerent, as Mussolini preferred to call it" "He vacillated, ashamed to be neutral, unwilling to join Hitler until a German victory seemed certain and, in spite of his alliance, still tempted to try to bargain with the Allies" "During the period of non-belligerence," "Mussolini continued to put forward his proposals to Britain" "On several occasions he let them know that he was prepared to break the pact of steel if Britain and France were ready to make concessions in the Mediterranean and give Italy the guarantee that she would be given protection against Germany," "Mussolini's proposals were ignored" "In May 1940, Mussolini's doubts were swept away by Hitler's successful offensive on the Western Front," ""Italy," he announced,"cannot remain absent when the fate of Europe is at stake,"" "On 10th May, German armies invaded Holland and Belgium," "Mussolini waited" "Ten days later his generals said that the end of the war was in sight lf he waited much longer, he might miss a place at the peace table and a share of the spoils" "Not until 10th June, a fortnight after the British retreat from Dunkirk, did Mussolini take his long-suffering country into yet another war" "The German victory was complete" "The Germans had been betrayed by Italy in 1914 and looked like being betrayed by them again in 1939" "Well, what was the fate going to be of an ally that could not be trusted?" "Everything at this point persuaded him to enter the war" "Hitler's military success, aided by Mussolini's propaganda machine, pointed to a quick and easy victory," "The people cheered as they had done for 1 7 years" "But as the crowd left the square, there was a change of mood" "Looking out of the window from Palazzo Chigi, where l was at the time, we didn't see any youths excited about the prospect of a war" "We saw instead rather thoughtful people who were going home with folded flags, asking themselves those questions they hadn't thought of in the square" "On 22nd June, a full week after the Germans occupied Paris," "Mussolini decided that Italian prestige required an Alpine offensive against the fatally weakened French," "The attack was a farce, Italy's greatly superior force suffered heavy losses and was saved only by the collapse of France," "In the years that followed, defeat in battle became the norm," "Mussolini's addiction to minor wars of conquest had led him to throw his country into a war of major powers for which he had left Italy unprepared and hopelessly ill-equipped" "His grand design of turning easy-going Italians into a nation of cold-blooded warriors was always an illusion," "Mussolini united and modernised Italy" "He influenced Europe," "But he misused his enormous personal power and misled his people" "Years later, a fellow countryman looked back on Mussolini's hold on the Italians" "He wrote;"They saw in him only the tenor for whom they raved," ""as they had raved years before for Caruso," ""As one does with tenors, they enjoyed his long notes and the melody" ""without paying attention to the words," ""lf they had listened more carefully," ""they would not have been surprised by the catastrophe later," ""for Mussolini had announced it,"" "Many years before the attack on Pearl Harbor, officers of the Japanese navy drew up their first operations plan to destroy the American fleet in the Pacific," "It was based on the latest technology and the best military advice available," "When it was finished, the plan became a cornerstone of Japanese defence policy," "The date was August 15th 1907," "The greatest double-cross in history," "Jap envoys talk peace in Washington," "Jap planes without warning bring war to America," "Our Pacific outpost in the Hawaiian islands is ruthlessly bombed as Japan's perfidious declaration of war," "Death and destruction unleashed on a nation at peace," "Our battle cry is, "Remember Pearl Harbor, "" "That is how Pearl Harbor is remembered to this day, ln an unprovoked attack without prior declaration of war," "Japanese naval bombers killed 2,403 unsuspecting Americans and knocked out the United States Pacific Fleet," "To Americans it was an act of simple treachery, but history is usually written by the winners and some contemporary Japanese historians see their country as a victim," "When you look at it from the Japanese point of view and take into account the Japanese state papers and documents, as well as the testimonies of survivors, I don't see that Japan really wanted to start the war against America," "I think war broke out because there was a strong desire on the American side to force Japan into war," "That desire came from the top," "In Japanese eyes, America and the British Empire were major obstacles to Japan's territorial ambitions," "Most of these were directed at the mainland in Asia, at China, where Japan had been at war since 1931 ," "The roots of Japan's conflict with her neighbours go back to the 19th century, for Japan's road to war was also her struggle to come to terms with the ways of the West," "Until the 1850s the Japanese had lived in deliberate isolation," "Their history and their culture were their own." "Their emperors came from the oldest ruling house in the world." "It was the intrusion of foreign traders and the fear of colonisation by the West that compelled them to modernize." "Japan adopted a parliament, a penal code and even a peerage, as in Britain," "She also acquired an ambition, to become, like her mentors in the West, an imperial power," "It was Britain that Japan took as her guide, ln 1902 they entered into the Anglo-Japanese Treaty," "Japan was quite convinced she would not make any mistakes as long as she followed the British example in diplomacy," "Western powers had followed Britain in developing their international relationships to suit their own convenience." "They all went about securing their own colonies and ruled over them." "Japan came on the scene rather late in the day, but she followed the rules in a most exemplary fashion," "Early in the century, Japan held a substantial presence on the mainland of Asia." "Korea was a protectorate." "Further north, Japan held extensive rights in South Manchuria and neighbouring provinces." "In all, Japan's empire stretched from Taiwan in the south to Sakhalin in the north." "With an eye to further expansion, her naval and military leaders identified the powers they thought most likely to block her supremacy in Asia." "The first lmperial Defence Policy was drawn up in 1907." "There a hypothetical enemy was actually decided upon." "The army would be at war with Russia and the navy with America." "Thereafter all drills and military exercises were carried out with this in mind." "Since these two countries were depicted as Japan's potential enemy over a long period, the idea gradually arose among the young officers that it was Japan's fate to go to war with both of these countries, I think it was inevitable." "In 1904 Japan issued her first direct challenge to a Western power." "In a territorial dispute over Port Arthur, on the coast of mainland China, the Japanese army fought imperial Russia for several months." "It was one of the first wars to be recorded in moving pictures." "On land, it was the Japanese who won." "To save the day, Russia despatched its Baltic Fleet to the Far East." "The fleet took seven months to sail halfway round the globe, only to be wrecked in less than a day by Japanese warships." "The world was impressed." "Not for centuries had there been such a rapid rise to international power." "There was special praise from Britain, whose alliance with Japan had been signed two years before." "For the British had built the ships and trained the officers that defeated the Russians." "Later, in the First World War, Japan fought on the side of the Allies." "In the victory celebrations in London," "Japanese soldiers and sailors marched alongside their British and American comrades," "When Japan's future emperor Crown Prince Hirohito paid a state visit to Britain," "Anglo-Japanese ties became closer still." "His visit to the fleet at Portsmouth with the Prince of Wales was one of the highlights of his tour." "In contrast, relations with America were strained by race discrimination." "For decades California's farmers had relied on cheap Japanese labour, but in the 1920s fear of the so-called Yellow Peril led to a total ban on Japanese immigrants." "Among those who had been able to enter, discrimination extended to their children's use of swimming pools." "They would clean the pools every Friday." "The reason" " Saturday, when the pools were clean and the water was nice and clear, the white boys and white girls would come in and swim." "Sunday and Monday too." "Then, on Tuesday, the Hispanics, or the Mexicans as they were called then, were allowed to come in, and they would cavort for a day or two." "And when they got through and were no longer using it, then the blacks were admitted and welcomed to the pool." "Then, either Thursday night or Friday, just before they cleaned the pools, they would allow us Asian-Americans to come in and swim." "If we went to a theatre, we had to pay the full price admission, then we had to go up to what they called Nigger Heaven." "Way up at the top." "And occasionally even on certain streetcars, we had to sit in the back." "And so there was a tiered discrimination against us, based upon whether we came from Europe or the Hispanic group or the Asian group." "On the west coast we were at the bottom of the totem pole." "When the Covenant of the League of Nations was drawn up in Versailles, an anti-racism clause had been on the agenda," "The refusal of the Anglo-Saxon powers to include it caused bitter resentment among the Japanese." "Moreover, when the spoils of defeated Germany were divided up," "Japan was allowed a much smaller share than she considered to be her due," "More humiliation followed when the great powers met in Washington in 1921 to discuss disarmament," "Japan was made to limit her navy to just over half the size of the British and American navies," "The Japanese were left with clear superiority in the Pacific, but national pride was hurt," "The naval representative, Admiral Kato, was so upset that he vowed one day to turn the tables on the Anglo-Saxon powers in the Pacific," "But nine years later the restrictions were extended," "The serving admirals and officers were angered by the situation thus created, whereby America was now in a position to defeat Japan in the event of war," "My own opinion is that by this time America had succeeded in breaking the back of the Japanese navy and thus had already beaten her chief potential enemy without a fight," "Britain added to Japan's gradual isolation," "Under American pressure, she scrapped the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, causing offence to a wartime ally who valued the treaty as a symbol of Japan's membership of the family of major powers," "But these tensions at the diplomatic level tell only part of the story," "To young Japanese, Americana was all the rage," "The fruits of westernisation soon turned sour," "America's Great Depression in 1929 had a devastating impact on Japan and Japanese nationalists blamed the attachment to Western values for the ills of their own society," "Japan could not feed its population, which had been growing at a rate of a million a year," "The farmers worked plots that could barely support one family," "Much of Japan's staple food, rice, had to be imported," "To pay for the rice, Japan exported silk." "Silk prices collapsed and as Western countries erected tariff walls to protect their own industries," "Japan's export trade sank to its lowest level ever," "Millions went hungry." "Unable to reduce its surplus population by emigration." "Japan turned to a drastic solution." "the acquisition of living space in China, the great land mass 400 miles to the west," "China was Japan's manifest destiny," "Poverty-stricken, seemingly ungovernable, torn by warlords, banditry and civil war," "China needed law and order as badly as Japan needed space, or so Japan's leaders were able to reason," "China had remained an independent country, but in the 19th century she had been forced by European invaders, notably Britain and France, to lease settlements to foreign powers," "The biggest was in Shanghai, where Britain, America and other powers ran their own affairs independently of nominally sovereign China," "Both Britain and America wanted to protect China, or rather they wanted to defend their economic interests there," "Their policies towards China had always been economically motivated," "From the American point of view, any Japanese advance into China would upset the balance of power in the Pacific, and wasn't distractiable for that reason." "For Japan, the gateway to China was Manchuria, where Japan already had commercial rights to the railway and a garrison to guard it," "This overseas force, called the Kwantung Army, was in many ways a law unto itself," "In 1931 , radical Kwantung officers decided to colonise Manchuria," "They manufactured an incident by blowing up a section of the railway," "They then presented it to the outside world as an unprovoked attack by Chinese troops," "Only years later did the full story emerge," "The fact that the Manchurian incident arose as a result of a Japanese plot was known only to a very few people, I think Japan managed to conceal it very skilfully," "I've recently managed to find one of the soldiers who was directly involved in the incident," "According to him, Kawamoto and two other soldiers went off down the railway line at about 10,30 at night," "Kawamoto gave the order to halt," ""You two keep guard on both sides, " he said," "Kawamoto was doing something furtively behind him," "Suddenly he shouted for them to get down and the railway line blew up," "Then Kawamoto said, "The Chinese army has just blown up the Manchurian railway," ""Let's go immediately and tell everyone, "" "Within hours of the explosion, the fighting spread to the outskirts of Mukden, the capital and headquarters of the Kwantung Army," "A senior staff officer there, Tadashi Katakura, recalls the need for a quick decision, whether to cover up and press on or withdraw," "There was a meeting of the chiefs of staff following a phone conversation with the army commander, who'd returned," "We all wore Japanese kimonos except lshihara, who was in his military uniform," "Before the meeting, four of us talked under a willow tree in the headquarters garden," "We agreed it looked like a plot concocted by Ishihara and Itagaki and we discussed what we ought to do," "We agreed that unless we worked together to settle the incident, not only would the army have to retreat from Manchuria but Japan would lose all rights and interests in the country," "So we decided to back the plotters," "Unhindered by a weak and embarrassed government in Tokyo, the Kwantung Army swept across Manchuria," "Manchuria became Manchukuo, a puppet state under Japanese protection," "As titular head of state, Japan secured the services of Henry Pu Yi, the last emperor of China," "China appealed to the League of Nations, but the League was an instrument of conciliation, not an international police force, lt sent an Englishman, the Earl of Lytton, to investigate," "His report condemned Japan," "Manchuria, you will see on this map, is a part of China situated north of the Great Wall." "It is about the size of France and Germany combined." "The trouble began on 18th September last year, when Japanese troops occupied the town of Mukden." "The excuse given by them was that Chinese soldiers had blown up a section of the South Manchuria Railway and fired upon a Japanese patrol." "We found that the Japanese occupation of this large part of China was notjustified on the ground of self-defence" "and that the new state which had been set up was a Japanese protectorate rather than a genuine case of Manchurian self-determination." "The issue is very critical and the peace of the world hangs in the balance." "Lytton's verdict was overwhelmingly endorsed by the League to the fury of Japan's delegate Yosuke Matsuoka." "I call on His Excellency Mr Matsuoka, delegate of Japan." "China has long been derelict in her international duties as a sovereign state..." "Matsuoka accused the Western imperial powers of hypocrisy, pointing out they had been the first to acquire interests in China, and with that, he and Japan walked out of the League." "At home, Matsuoka was treated as a hero." "Defying the great powers," "Japan had made off with a share of the decaying Chinese Empire." "As for the League, it had shown itself to be ineffective and it was never to recover its authority," "A fleet of merchant ships carried Japanese reinforcements across the Yellow Sea to Manchuria." "In their wake went settlers, farmers and industrial workers who would exploit Manchukuo's potential," "Japan had found new living space." "In propaganda films made to encourage civilian migration," "Manchukuo was celebrated as a land of opportunity where Japanese families could prosper, protected from Chinese bandits by the ever-watchful Kwantung Army." "But many of the settlers had been conscripted and living conditions came as a shock." "I thought Manchuria was like places which I saw in American movies, but life in reality was very cruel." "The weather was cold and food was bad." "We couldn't eat Japanese food, only millet and barnyard grass." "We Japanese have miso soup, but in their soup there was something sour and salty." "Anyhow, there was no nutrition, only cold." "Not only I but everyone wanted to go home, but we had been sent from home like soldiers." "We couldn't give up so easily." "In the house, we could see the stars through the holes in the ceiling." "On a cold night I needed padded bedding and an overcoat on top of that." "Outside there were wolves, I knew that I'd come to a horrible place." "The local Chinese were treated severely." "Some collaborated." "Many worked as coolies for the Kwantung occupation army," "In a remote area some Chinese were doing roadworks," "They escaped but some Japanese soldiers caught and tortured them, kicking and beating them in front of us." "We were 15 or 16 years old," "Those elderly Chinese men weren't young enough to be spies or anything." "I was watching and wondering why they were doing such violent things to the Chinese people." "Reflecting back, we used to think the Japanese were a superior race." "Chinese and Koreans were lower-class." "Even in our pioneer group, some of them despised the Chinese." "We all did." "Japan's military elite now controlled foreign policy." "By law, the army and navy enjoyed direct access to the emperor and effective independence of the government." "The army was deeply conservative, suspicious of political parties, academic freedom, disarmament and the West." "Many middle-ranking officers joined ultra-nationalist groups, demanding colonial expansion." "Civilian government gradually collapsed." "In a six-year period the army forced three prime ministers out of office." "Two more were assassinated, as were several cabinet ministers." "The violence reached a climax in 1936, when fanatical officers staged a revolt." "Soldiers broke into the houses of ministers and officials." "Several were murdered before the government, backed by the emperor and the navy, restored an uneasy peace." "This cabinet in Tokyo fell victim to an attempt to seize power by part of the Japanese army." "Admiral Okada, the prime minister, was shot by assassins in his home." "The veteran Count Saito was also shot." "The recent speech by his son, Ambassador Saito, has a dramatic significance." "Japan is a spoiled child who may go astray any moment, who may run amok at the slightest provocation." "The one source of stability in Japan was the emperor, Hirohito." "The first of the emperors had begun his reign in 660 BC." "He and his successors were believed to be arahitogami, human and at the same time a god." "Hirohito was a slight and timid figure, but all the warring factions owed him allegiance and emperor-worship was central to the life of his people." "Every school had to have a special little shrine called a honden for photographs of the emperor and empress, together with a copy of the Imperial Rescript." "Every time we passed in front of this shrine, we had to perform a deep bow." "There were different degrees of bowing, from light to deep, according to the occasion, but when it came to anything to do with the emperor, we had to lower our heads by 45 degrees." "When we looked in the direction of the photographs, we didn't look at them directly." "We had to bow so deeply and so long that if we wanted to see the photographs, our only chance was to roll our eyes upwards very briefly." "I remember when I was five years old, the emperor came and visited a military exercise in Hokkaido." "A week before the visit, the police went to every house, ordering any invalid lying in an upstairs room to come down to the ground floor." "They said no one should be on a higher level than the emperor." "The emperor's constitutional position was hedged about with ambiguities, but no one has ever denied that if he had cared to command, all Japan would have obeyed." "After the war, Hirohito was made to renounce his godly status, but up to his death, his hold on the affections of his people was as strong as it had been in his days as the divine ruler of Japan." "By 1936 a rearmed and bellicose Japan had occupied much of China to the north of the Great Wall." "It was time to develop relations with the expansionist powers in Europe." "The Anti-Comintern Pact, with Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany, was designed to protect its signatories from the Soviet Union." "It was the first treaty between Japan and the Axis powers." "For Japan, intent on expanding into China, it was some insurance against interference from the Russians." "In Manchuria the quality of iron ore and coal was poor and the pressure to expand further was compelling." "On July 7th 1937, a restless Japanese army turned a trivial incident into another opportunity for conquest." "Japanese infantry were training at night by the Marco Polo Bridge near Peking." "They were divided into groups, one representing an imaginary enemy." "At 10,30pm the exercise had just ended." "Within a minute, two or three shots came whizzing over our heads." "They were from the Chinese soldiers on the embankment." "You can generally tell the difference between blank and live ammunition." "When it was fired it made a bang and came straight over our heads and we could hear it landing." "Staff Sergeant lwaya told the battalion commander what was going on and the commander immediately ordered a muster." "By this time it was beginning to get light," "8th Company was ordered to advance again as far as Ryobyo, the place they'd been the night before." "When we got to the bridge an enemy officer appeared and shouted, "Stop!"" "One of our officers went to speak to him" ""We've been ordered here as we were yesterday, " he said." "The Chinese officer said, "No way" and returned to his men." "As soon as he got back, the Chinese started firing at us, I was the commander of the 3rd Light Machine-Gun Platoon and had seen plenty of action." "So I took a machine-gun from a soldier and blazed away at the enemy, forcing them to pull back." "This was the start of the Sino-Japanese War." "It quickly escalated as Japanese forces made for Shanghai, the biggest commercial city in the East and the home of thousands of expatriate Americans and Europeans." "The army's own newsreels recorded the triumphant advance." "The fate of Manchuria had attracted little notice in the West." "As an American newspaper remarked." ""The American people don't give a hoot in a rain barrel who controls North China, "" "But an attack on Shanghai was a challenge to Western interests." "Here's where it started, the Marco Polo Bridge south-west of Peiping." "A bridge destined to be as famous in China's fight for independence as the bridge at Concord is to American history." "The first clash brings China's new army to the scene, this time determined to resist the invader, and the fat is in the fire." "With Japan quickly pouring 20,000 men into the Peiping area," "Chinese infantry forces are quickly reinforced." "Greatest damage is caused by Japanese bombing raids, with many parts of Chinese towns and cities reduced to a shambles." "Wounded pour into the city from the outskirts, where the 29th Route Army threw back the Japanese after fierce fighting," "Red Cross facilities are overtaxed but the traditional rickshaw bears the brunt of the transfer of the wounded to the rear." "But reinforcements go forward to bolster the heroic defence of the 29th Route Army." "Within a month of the encounter at the Marco Polo Bridge, the assault on Shanghai began." "The navy struck first in amphibious landings." "The army followed." "And then the bombing began." "Thousands of Chinese civilians fled into the European enclaves." "But there was no room for all the refugees." "To escape the terror, men, women and children fled into the countryside." "The lucky ones got away in trains, but there were not enough trains." "With most of eastern China overrun by invaders, the flood of refugees became the biggest exodus in history." "Some 20 million Chinese trudged westward for hundreds of miles." "China's government in Nanking appealed to the League of Nations." "The League was powerless." "But in the vastness of China, the Japanese army's lines of communication became hopelessly overstretched." "The advance bogged down and casualties mounted." "Japan was trapped in a war too big to win and impossible to abandon." "Her soldiers were hardy and brave." "They had been taught that death in battle would be rewarded by a place of honour among the spirits of their ancestors." "The ashes of the war dead were brought back to Japan." "In solemn ceremonies at a sacred temple, the Yaskuni Shrine, they were presented to bereaved families." "The names of the war dead were placed in the inner recesses of the temple, where even the emperor came to bow." "Japan's ancient martial tradition demanded total obedience to superior orders." "Surrender on the battlefield was profoundly dishonourable." "A defeated enemy was beneath contempt and this the citizens of China were now to discover." "After the fall of Shanghai the Japanese army pushed westward up the Yangtze valley to the capital, Nanking." "Nanking fell in December 1937," "If Shanghai had been hell for the civil population, there is no name for what now took place." "In ten days Japanese soldiers shot and bayoneted and beheaded tens of thousands of Chinese civilians and prisoners of war." "Shiro Azuma was a private soldier who kept a diary during the massacres," "He himself killed several captured Chinese soldiers and lived to regret what he had done." "It was mass murder." "When I went to the Yangtze river, corpses just covered the ground." "I couldn't help stepping on them to go to the boat." "The number was limitless," "Some people never examine their conscience." "They want to say that I'm exaggerating, that there was no massacre at Nanking." "There are people who try to play down what we had done and I have to fight against them." "If we don't reflect on our actions, we never improve." "We were tried and brought to court by your country, for the Japanese have never reconciled themselves to what they've done in the past." "Hitler thought the Germans were a chosen people and the Jewish race were inferior." "They discriminated against other races too, We did the same." "The Japanese were superior, the Chinese inferior." "We used to call a Chinese person a "colo", a small stone, "Let's kick it,"" "We despised the Chinese, That's why we could be so cruel to them." "Because we were so overpopulated, we didn't take human life seriously." "We didn't respect ourselves, so why should we have cared for the Chinese?" "News of the atrocities had reached the West from doctors, missionaries and journalists." "In America anti-Japanese feeling found an outlet in demands for economic sanctions, but President Roosevelt was determined not to provoke Japan." "America showed its reluctance even to contemplate war when the US gunboat Panay was sunk by Japanese aircraft while patrolling the Yangtze river." "All that was needed to keep relations on an even keel was an apology and an offer of compensation from the government in Tokyo." "It was a great mistake." "It was an unintentional and unexpected occurrence." "The Japanese government and people wish to express their sincerest and profoundest regrets to the American government and people on account of this deplorable incident." "By the summer of 1938, the Japanese army had occupied all the sea ports and the richer parts of China." "But the cost of Japan's colonial war was crippling the economy." "Raw materials, especially scrap iron, were removed from the market and diverted to defence production." "By 1938 the armed forces were absorbing 70% of government spending." "The results were spectacular." "The army had 2,000 first-line aircraft, including fighter bombers as effective as any in Europe and America." "The navy, defying the disarmament treaties of Washington and London, had built the largest and most powerful battleships afloat." "Many of the navy's 3,500 pilots had years of experience in combat." "On the other side of the world an equally formidable military power." "Nazi Germany, invaded Poland." "By May 1940 Hitler's Wehrmacht had overrun much of continental Europe." "The Japanese were dazzled." "Foreign minister Matsuoka flew to Berlin to sign a new pact of mutual military support." "Henceforth Germany, Italy and Japan would spring to one another's defence if a co-signatory were attacked," "But the meeting also endorsed the claims of the Axis powers to supremacy in Europe and Japan's right to impose a new order in Asia." "For Japan now needed even further territorial advances to sustain her existing empire." "Beyond China, the Philippines, lndo-China and the Dutch East Indies had the raw materials for which Japan's voracious military machine was desperate." "Above all, there was oil." "The navy alone was consuming 400 tons of it an hour and Japan's reserves were running out." "To get reliable supplies of oil," "Japan would have to invade her neighbours to the south." "The first objective was French lndo-China." "By agreement with the defeated government of France." "Japan occupied the north of the colony." "Ten months later Japan swallowed the rest of lndo-China, securing a base for further expansion in South-east Asia." "By now alarm bells were ringing in London and Washington," "From that moment on, Singapore, the key British base in the Far East, was within range of Japanese bombers," "Should Singapore fall, the Dutch East Indies would easily come under Japanese occupation." "All this was seen by President Roosevelt as very dangerous because it meant Japan could dominate the whole of Asia and the Pacific." "Roosevelt's response was immediate." "On 26th July he banned all exports to Japan of oil." "His move forced Japan into a corner." "She could either fight her way out or capitulate." "The Japanese were loath to start a war just to assure the country's oil supplies, but they felt that this was what it had come to." "Even though it would mean fighting America to get that oil from the East Indies, there was no other way out, that's how they saw it." "There was a widespread feeling that Japan was unlikely to win a long-drawn-out war with America and people wondered how Japan could have got into such a situation." "Even most military leaders had little confidence that Japan could fight a long war with America, but a short war, that was something else." "Many felt that after one or one and a half years of fighting." "Japan might well be in a good enough position to call a halt and to offer peace." "Japan's leaders were divided." "The prime minister, Prince Konoe, urged continued negotiation with Washington." "The military leaders pressed for war." "On September 3rd they compromised." "If there was no agreement with Washington by the end of October," "Japan would attack the Far Eastern possessions of America," "Britain and the Netherlands." "At the imperial palace the plan was put to the emperor." "He revealed grave doubts." "Pulling a paper from his pocket, he read out a poem composed by his grandfather." ""All the seas in every quarter are as brothers to one another." ""Why, then, do the winds and waves of strife rage so turbulently throughout the world?"" "The emperor didn't want war with America, but his position had always been to respect the established political system." "I'm only speculating, but it may well be if the emperor had stepped in firmly and made clear his strong opposition to war, then it might not have happened." "He couldn't have done that, lt would have set a constitutional precedent." "There was the danger of provoking a military revolt." "The Army Minister, General Tojo, now took over the government, replacing Prince Konoe." "The deadline for negotiations was extended to the end of November and an special envoy was sent to Washington to continue the talks." "In an attempt to avert war in the Pacific," "Saburo Kurusu comes as a special envoy of the Tokyo government." "In an interview he says;" "Gentlemen, you all know how difficult my mission is, but I'll do all I can to make it a successful one for the sake of two countries, Japan and the United States." "The talks became less and less cordial," "Washington insisted the Japanese withdrew from China before lifting the oil embargo," "Tokyo refused." "By now the Americans had broken the code between the Japanese envoys and their masters in Tokyo." "They knew that attack was imminent, but exactly where or when it was coming remained a mystery." "Karusu continued to negotiate." "But as he talked, a Japanese task force of six aircraft carriers, two battleships and an escort of cruisers and destroyers was crossing the Pacific, bound for Pearl Harbor." "The naval commander who drew up the operational plan for the attack on Pearl Harbor is still alive." "In his Tokyo home he has a model of the aircraft carrier from which he helped direct the attack." "In order for us to succeed, the torpedoes had to find their target unimpeded." "The water at Pearl Harbor is shallow and there was a chance the torpedoes might get stuck in the sea bed, so we called in specialists who could sort this out." "Secondly, we had to use large aerial bombs." "We aimed to attack the harbour by horizontal penetration, so accurate knowledge of local landmarks was crucial." "In an attack like this it's more important to have a good pilot than a good bomb-aimer." "We also used high-speed bombs, which are smaller and easier to control." "It was the use of these three main weapons that we had to perfect." "The attack on Pearl Harbor caught the US Pacific Fleet completely by surprise." "Most of the warships were tied up at their moorings and in two hours 19 ships, including eight battleships, were sunk or badly damaged." "Nearly 200 American planes were destroyed on the ground." "But the Japanese missed their principal target." "The fleet's three aircraft carriers were at sea and escaped the attack." "To the high command in Tokyo, Pearl Harbor was a pre-emptive strike, an attempt to disable the only power that could block a Japanese conquest of South-east Asia." "Even President Roosevelt gave Japan's planners their due." ""Our enemies, " he said, "performed a brilliant feat of deception," ""perfectly timed and executed with great skill, "" "Four years later the Japanese empire was in ruins." "The military technology she had pursued so keenly had been turned against her with lethal effect." "Like Hiroshima and Nagasaki," "Tokyo itself had been flattened by American bombers," "Japan's new constitution was written by the victors." "In it, Japan renounced war and the emperor his divinity." "What Japan had aspired to was imperial grandeur in the European mould." "Too late, she discovered that imperialism by military conquest was no longer an ambition the world could tolerate." "Another war, not for me." "This time America should keep out and I know I will." "If war breaks out in Europe, I think this country should heed the advice of its first president and avoid all foreign entanglements." "I haven't the slightest idea of European affairs." "A surprise attack brought a reluctant America into the war in 1941 ." "For most of the previous 20 years the United States had been an island, cut off by choice from the world's affairs," "In 191 7 the United States joined the First World War." "In the following year, with fresh troops and new tactics, the Americans came to the rescue of the French and the British, who were exhausted by a long and bloody conflict and on the verge of defeat." "America's intervention turned the tide." "In November Germany abandoned the war and sued for peace." "We take our hats off to you, Mr Wilson..." "President Woodrow Wilson had dictated the terms of the armistice and promised the Germans a magnanimous peace," "In December, in France, ecstatic crowds welcomed Wilson as the peacemaker," "You're the right kind of man in the right kind of place..." "But at the Versailles peace conference, France and Britain demanded retribution," "At their insistence, the treaty imposed on the Germans was punitive," "Wilson had given in," "But he feared that the treaty contained the seeds of another war," "There were Americans who had a deep, abiding sense of isolationism, of distrust of Europe, and that distrust festered during World War I and was exacerbated by the terms of the peace." "It was said that all Americans had gotten out of the war was the flu, the terrible influenza epidemic that took so many lives." "The war had brought prosperity to American industry, supplying arms to the Allies, ln peacetime, mass production fuelled domestic demand and brought riches to many." "But America's wealth in the '20s was anything but evenly spread." "Worst off were the farmers, a quarter of America's population." "In the 1920s and again in the '30s, demand and prices fell drastically." "There was a prolonged slump in the farming states, made worse by the drought." "Millions of families were destitute." "In 1929 the stock market collapsed." "America and much of the rest of the world sank into the Great Depression," "The tremendous crowds gathered outside the Stock Exchange are due to the greatest crash in the history of the New York Stock Exchange and market prices." "The economy had tilted out of balance." "During the 1920s, wages had lagged far behind productivity and profits." "Too many Americans could not afford to buy the goods they were producing." "In 1932, the cruellest year of the Depression, wages of those who were in work dropped to as little as twenty, ten and even five cents an hour." "That winter, according to an estimate by the magazine"Fortune", a third of the population was without any income whatever, and the welfare system, such as it was, began to collapse." "The US, in the '30s, had the most serious depression this country had ever had." "It started in 1929, of course, and it was steadily downhill until the spring of 1933." "And it's hard to describe the situation where plants that were producing, say, radios, were closed down, where workers who wanted to work had no jobs, where people who'd love to have had a radio had no means to buy one." "It was just a complete stagnation, it was a paralysis." "It wasn'tjust that the economy created this." "There was terrible hardship" "People that had been well off committed suicide because of the losses" "They lost everything they had, Others sold apples in the street" "The despair until the New Deal came was just profound and deep and seemingly hopeless." "It was on everyone's mind constantly, how to make a living, how to earn an extra nickel." "The fear of losing yourjob, the difficulty of getting another one." "I remember tramping the streets of Minneapolis trying to get odd jobs." "Movie usher, shirt salesman." "So you couldn't escape this." "We were struggling to survive in the richest country on earth." "It didn't make any sense." "1932 was election year, and in Franklin D Roosevelt and his concern for the man at the bottom of the economic pyramid, the Democrats found a leader and a theme." "It looks, my friends, like a real landslide this time." "Hoover leaves the White House for the last time as president to share the car of the president-elect in the ride down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol and inauguration ceremony," "There was a less than cordial personal relationship between the outgoing and incoming presidents," "The ride from the White House to the Capitol was almost entirely in silence, with the incoming president bowing and waving his hat and his hand to people and the outgoing president looking as if he'd swallowed a banana." "The outstanding thing that one would remember out of it was the serious and anxious look upon people's faces as you rode to the Capitol for the ceremony, and the realisation that we lived in a country that could make this kind of fundamental change" "in a peaceful atmosphere and that when we were required to exert leadership, leadership was present and a programme was forthcoming which did result in overcoming the main difficulties that we'd encountered." "It is pre-eminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly." "Nor need we shrink from honestly..." "Unlike his predecessor in office, Roosevelt had ideas." ""The country," he said,"demands bold, persistent experimentation" ""in an emergency at least equal to war itself,"" "So first of all let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." "To take 4 million men from the breadlines and give them jobs, which was provided for their families" "Roosevelt has allotted $400 million to the Civil Works Administration, headed by Harry L Hopkins." "President Roosevelt has organised the Civil Works Administration." "He has instructed me to put 4 million men to work in 30 days." "These men will not receive charity, but regular work, thereby becoming self-sustaining American citizens." "Americans wanted leadership and change," "Roosevelt gave them both," "His New Deal, an all-out attack on the Depression, was the most intensive period of reform in American history." "For every man who gets a job, a family of four will become self-supporting, removing the spectre of hunger from 4 million American homes." "The key to unemployment was a huge public works programme, for example the Grand Coulee Dam." "Well, the world has seven wonders, as travellers always tell" "Some gardens and some flowers, I guess you know them well" "But now the greatest wonder in Uncle Sam's fair land lt's the King Columbia river and the big Grand Coulee Dam" "She heads up the Canadian mountains where the rippling waters glide" "Comin' a-rollin' down the canyon just to meet the salty tide" "From the wild Pacific Ocean where the sun sets in the west" "Down to the big Grand Coulee country in the land I love the best..." "There was a monstrous big hole here." "Bigger than you could imagine because everybody looked like flies in the hole." "Every direction you looked there was somebody working, but they were so small." "You couldn't imagine how big it is today." "At that time it didn't look like it'd be anything of this magnitude." "...the biggest thing that's built by human hands" "On the King Columbia river it's the big Grand Coulee Dam" "What Roosevelt actually done in the New Deal was put new lifeblood into everybody." "You know, that there was something worth living for again." "We weren't gonna die." "All we had to do was get off our butt and get on our feet and go to work." "The New Deal, with its 30,000 projects, preoccupied Roosevelt to the exclusion of foreign affairs, ln the Far East, Japan had invaded Manchuria, and in Germany, Hitler came to power," "But for Roosevelt, pulling America out of the Depression took priority over everything else," "During the '30s, Roosevelt, with his background and knowledge of the rest of the world, he himself, I think, was convinced that his problems were domestic and he shouldn't concern himself with the rest of the world." "And actually, when one looks back, it's hard to picture, except the emergence of Hitler and what he kept saying and doing." "it's hard to picture places that demanded America's attention to the degree that America's domestic problems demanded attention." "It wasn't only that America had pressing concerns of its own." "This was a nation of immigrants, and in the heartland of America, the Midwest, isolationism was a way of life." "These people that I knew and grew up with in the Upper Mississippi Valley, they'd come to get away from Europe, to get more land and be free of obligatory military service, be free of the endless quarrels of Europe." "There isn't a province of Europe that hadn't been soaked in blood one time or another." "They wanted to build a new life." "This looked like the promised land." "In any case, physically, the Mississippi Valley surely must have seemed the safest place on earth from the quarrels of nations," "and I guess it was." "It's not stupidity, it's not ignorance." "It's a new way of trying to live." "And I grew up in that." "The isolationist movement grew naturally out of that." "A powerful stimulus was the memory of the First World War," "Americans believed that they, alone among the belligerents, had gone to war for altruistic reasons." "In the end they felt they had been betrayed, by the peace settlement, by the refusal of the Allies to pay their war debts and by the Great Depression, for which many Americans vaguely blamed the Europeans." "These ideas gave rise to strong emotions, reflected in Hollywood films." "I remember going to a movie as a boy, early teens, seeing"All Quiet On The Western Front"" "and having a dreadful sense of the carnage of World War I, the hopelessness on the soldiers' faces." "And a deep feeling of resolve, that never again would this country engage in such a terrible kind of event." "The revulsion against foreign entanglements attracted 12 million Americans to the peace movement." "An alliance of isolationists and pacifists became a coherent political force, with a spokesman in Congress." "We want no war." "We'll have no war, save in defence of our own people or our own honour." "There is but one war that I would like to see this world engage in." "That is a war which would find civilisation making war against the private munitions makers the world over." "And now, my dear..." "Hollywood spread the notion that America had been tricked into the war by an unholy alliance of politicians, bankers and munitions manufacturers," "I don't like evasions." "There's too much of that stuff going on." "All right, let's get down to business." "Munitions is our business and it's up to us to make it America's business." "What good are steel and shrapnel if there's nothing to shoot at?" "There's too much sentimental talk about the last war." "What did it really cost us?" "400,000 casualties." "Nothing." "It gave us the greatest year of prosperity any nation's ever had." "But that war is worn out." "There's another one in Europe now." "Every minute we delay getting into it costs a million dollars." "All we need is a good slogan." ""The country's honour." There's your perfect slogan." " Gigantic." " Just what we need." " Superb." " Lifeblood of America." " Save your country's honour." " Save our industries." "In 1934 the Senate set up an investigation of the entire munitions industry," "Day after day the merchants of death trooped into public hearings to answer charges that they had fomented war to boost their profits," "I believe it was the peace movement that stimulated the forming of that committee," "The interest in munition makers came about when revelations of how they had operated during World War I came out and it was felt that they were a really evil influence." "The hearings led Congress to pass a series of laws compelling the United States to remain neutral in other nations' wars." "Roosevelt signed the Neutrality Acts," "But to his dismay they explicitly prevented him from discriminating between aggressors and victims." "It sent the message that the isolationist sentiment in this country was very strong, that we had emerged from one great war and we didn't want to get involved in another." "The idea was to let the world know that if there's another war in Europe, we expect to stay out of it." "Overseas the world order was collapsing." "When Mussolini invaded Abyssinia in 1935, the Neutrality Act was applied to both sides," "In the following year, Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland in flat defiance of the peace treaties." "In China, Japanese forces had overrun Manchuria and were attacking Shanghai, where America had important commercial interests." "Newsreel pictures of the bombing horrified Americans, but the Roosevelt administration took no action against the Japanese." "I think all of us who were in China and saw what was going on were outraged." "What should be done?" "Obviously we felt it was wrong for us to..." "not impose some sort of sanctions." "We were supplying most of Japan's petroleum." "We were supplying Japan with raw materials of war, scrap iron and so on." "We were selling them aircraft engines and various things like that." "We thought the least we should do would be to stop supporting Japan in that way." "In October 1937 in Chicago, the heartland of isolationism." "Roosevelt tried to change course to awaken America and warn aggressors." "His message came to be known as the Quarantine Speech." "War is a contagion, whether it be declared or undeclared." "It can engulf states and peoples remote from the original scene of hostilities." "And mark this well." "When an epidemic of physical disease starts to spread, the community approves and joins in a quarantine of the patients." "America hopes for peace, therefore America actively engages in the search for peace." "One thing about the country was that it was isolationist." "I think my father knew this and knew the dangers of it and felt the time had come to exert leadership through a speech, and this was the occasion that was chosen to make that speech, to make sure the sentiment was changed and redirected" "and based upon a solid base." "After he had made the speech, I think he wondered whether he had judged his timing." "Roosevelt's supporters kept their heads down, isolationist congressmen threatened to impeach him," "He was too far ahead of public opinion." "Only two months later, on the Yangtze river in China." "Japanese aircraft attacked the American gunboat Panay." "Roosevelt took no action." "The first thing I knew was a big explosion." "Three heavy bombers flew over and dropped their entire load on us." "There were a lot of injured lying around and several of the men who would have manned the machine-guns could not make it." "I tried to load one of the machine-guns myself and as I did I was hit in both hands." "The captain was badly injured, broken hip, so I went on the bridge to take over command." "The Japs had no reason to say they didn't know what they were doing." "We had two large horizontal flags, one forward and one aft." "They couldn't help but see who we were." "Commander Anders was rescued after the attack, but two men had died in the bombing." "Nevertheless, America accepted Japan's apology and its assurance that the attack was a mistake." "More probably it was a test of America's nerve." "Commanding 70,000 First Army troops." "General Drum denounces an arms shortage, that forces have wooden weapons, but says that Germany, before rearming, trained millions with pasteboard cannons and make-believe machines." "During these international crises," "America began to look at its sadly neglected defences." "The army was smaller than Romania's." "It numbered 227,000 men, but there was equipment for only a third of them." "There is far to go." "And with each non-firing of the non-loaded trench mortar guns, there is explosive appeal for speed in making this nation strong." "When Chamberlain visited Hitler during the Czechoslovak crisis of 1938," "America remained firmly on the sidelines." "The Prime Minister on that visit without precedent, his desperate attempt to avert the catastrophe." "Hitler demanding the Sudeten portions of Czechoslovakia." "Chamberlain seeking an arrangement." "Eight months before, Chamberlain had rejected a proposal by Roosevelt for an international conference to save the peace," "Chamberlain said it would cut across his plan for appeasement of Germany and Italy," "Roosevelt had deep misgivings about appeasement, but though he wanted to influence events, he was not prepared to make commitments," "Public opposition to foreign entanglements was still too strong in America," "What transfixed Americans in 1939 was not the prospect of war but the World's Fair in New York." "I remember the World's Fair vividly." "I was a 16-year-old high-school boy and went to the fair, which was only about two or three miles from my home," "I am a smart fellow as I have a very fine brain." "There was a keen sense of exuberance about the fair, a promise of the world of tomorrow." "The particular exhibit that probably caught attention as much as anybody else's was the Futurama of General Motors." "There was a sense of a utopian urban civilisation," "And now we have arrived in this wonderworld of 1960," "The World's Fair exhibit modelled with such artistry and skill that we must continually remind ourselves the world we are now seeing is a vision," "I would suppose that a good deal of that sense of hope and exuberance came from the fact that the United States was protected, it thought, by 3,000 miles of ocean from the troubles of Europe, lt could look toward what kind of a tomorrow it wanted" "in this land, free of foreign concerns." "I wonder if the years ahead will be as bright as this." "We haven't seen anything yet, darling." "Well, this is merely a sample of the real world of tomorrow." "By the outbreak of war in September 1939, public support for absolute neutrality was already waning." "Now, on the day Britain and France declared war on Germany," "Roosevelt spoke to what he called the whole of America." "This nation will remain a neutral nation, but I cannot ask that every American remain neutral in thought as well." "Even a neutral has a right to take account of facts." "Even a neutral cannot be asked to close his mind or to close his conscience." "Of course his sympathies from the beginning were clearly with Britain and France and the Allies," "And then when the war started, he began quietly, yet rather persistently, to help Britain and France as fast as he thought he could, taking into account the isolationist sentiment in the US." "Warplane shipments begin immediately, and many military aircraft ordered before the war are ready for their journey to Great Britain." "One month after the Germans had overrun Poland," "Roosevelt had the votes in Congress he needed to repeal the arms embargo," "Under the so-called Cash And Carry Law," "Britain and the Allies could buy American arms if they were carried in non-American ships," "The Allies have an inexhaustible supply of planes and other war materials." "The isolationists fought on against direct involvement in Europe," "Like so many Americans." "I too am wishing for victory for one side engaged in Europe." "But I am wishing more than for that." "For the avoidance, for my country, of the waste, the cost, the debt, the futility, the deaths, the cripples and the heartbreak that can be America's only reward" "for participation in another European mess." "If they feel like a war on some foreign shore" "Let them keep it over there lf some fools want to fight and think might makes right" "Let them keep it over there" "From coast to coast you'll hear a million mothers pray" "Whatever happens, please don't send my boy away" "Wherefore you, Uncle Sam, but stay out of thatjam?" "Let them keep it all for them ln the summer of 1940, Britain stood alone against Germany," "The British public's demand for action brings into power Winston Churchill, man of action," "Churchill appealed to Roosevelt for immediate aid for Britain's ill-equipped armed forces," "Roosevelt temporized." "He was running for re-election and feared support for Britain would lose him votes." "But Churchill cultivated Roosevelt in an exchange of letters, much to the frustration of the isolationists." "Churchill was, of course, a great orator and he played Roosevelt like a violin because he knew exactly how to appeal to FDR." "He did a beautiful job with his correspondence and he was a great leader." "We understood what his objective was." "His objective, as he'd hoped for and now would come to pass, was to get the US in at England's side, which is what a British leader should indeed want." "To buttress their rearguard action, the isolationists formed a new movement, America First." "Just as dictatorship rules in nations at war, the US would be a dictatorship the day we got involved." "And lost, perhaps beyond recovery, would be the historic and hard-won liberties of our American ways." "Shall we again fight for dubious democracy abroad or stay out and save genuine democracy at home?" "War's madness abroad or payrolls, peace and progress at home?" "That is our choice." "Nor is it a selfish choice." "Congress is a servant of the people and must answer to our bidding," "Millions of letters to our congressmen must demand they pass no measure which would involve us in Europe's or Asia's wars." "Drive it home that a people has risen in revolt against any force which would send our men or money into Europe's wars." "Let every train to Washington every section from all the nation carry our no-war command to Congress." "The information we had about England's ability to survive led us to believe there was a good chance England was not going to survive." "The basic thing I know in my mind was we're going to be on hand to help pick up the pieces." "We are strong." "We hope we will be a strong, aloof country that can help reorganise the world." "That was very basic in my thinking." "In New York, Lindbergh, who has since resigned as colonel in the army air corps, speaks to a rally of the America First Committee," "France has now been defeated and despite the propaganda and confusion of recent months," "it is now obvious that England is losing the war." " l believe..." " ..and I have been forced to the conclusion that we cannot win this war for England regardless of how much assistance we send." "That is why the America First Committee has been formed." "It was a short-sightedness, selfishness, if I may say so, failure to observe what was really involved, how our interests would be endangered." "We couldn't afford to let Hitler win." "With Europe behind him, with Europe at his back, he could fight us all over the world for a generation." "It was the course the war was taking, more than the appeals of politicians, that defeated the isolationists," "With the bombing of Britain, a wave of sympathy spread across America." "I'm speaking from London, lt is late afternoon and the people of London are preparing for the night." "Everyone is anxious to get home before darkness falls, before our nightly visitors arrive." "Here they come." "These are not Hollywood sound effects." "This is the music they play every night in London, the symphony of war." "The Blitz changed American opinion." "The polls showed a majority prepared to aid Britain even if it drew the United States into war." "The British are heartened by news from America, 50 destroyers are added to their fleet." "In September 1940 Roosevelt bypassed congressional opposition to an appeal from Churchill for 50 destroyers." "They were exchanged for British bases." "But 1940 was Roosevelt's re-election year," "Campaigning in Boston for a third term of office, he was careful not to move too far ahead of public opinion again." "What he said was, and I'll never forget it." ""And while I am talking to you mothers and fathers," ""l give you one more assurance." ""l have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again." ""Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars."" "There was no "except in case of attack", no "but if" Period." "I remember hearing it on the radio, and the applause, and saying,"By gosh, he must mean it." "How's he going to get out of it?"" "He did have a devious side and that came out at no point more clearly than in these months of 1940 and 1941 , ln good part, I think, because he faced a situation" "where, even if he never admitted this to himself, he was leading the nation toward war and he couldn't say this." "Shortly before election day," "Roosevelt took a gamble that voters would accept the introduction of conscription," "The first number drawn by the Secretary of War is serial number 158." "The first number and a scream flash across the nation." "In every walk of life the muster begins." "And as the lottery goes on for 1 7 hours, a mighty manpower is created." "Number 158 in Oakland, California, laundry worker Kwang Kwong Fu," "San Francisco and senior class president William Bernard Barriman," "San Lorenzo and American-born Toshio Okado." "At Palo Alto, John Kennedy, the ambassador's son, got the 18th number drawn." "Soon after Roosevelt's victory," "Britain's plight became desperate," "Churchill wrote to Roosevelt to say Britain was stripped to the bone, running out of supplies and, even worse, out of money to pay for more." "She could not hold out much longer," "Roosevelt was cruising with the navy in the Caribbean." "For two days, without consulting advisors, he applied his fertile mind to Britain's problem." "He pondered this question at some length and finally came up with this very ingenious solution." "He said to newsmen when he returned," ""Let's forget the silly old dollar sign." ""When a neighbour has a fire and you have a garden hose that will help him put it out," ""obviously it's in your interest to let that person borrow your hose," ""Let's think about this problem that way," ""America has the goods." ""America needs the protection and security that a fighting Britain can provide," ""and we lend Britain the goods and they fight the battle in our behalf as well."" "The result, the Lend-Lease Bill, touched off a final epic battle between the interventionists and the isolationists, who accused Roosevelt of warmongering and exceeding his presidential powers." "The president's supporters fought back." "Senator Pepper was Roosevelt's man in the Congress." "The time has come when the decent, god-fearing nations of the earth must rise up and put down international brigandage and piracy, which have today made ours a lawless world." "When I introduced the first Lend-Lease Bill, and began to speak for it in the Senate and around the country, one afternoon I got to my office from the Senate and the superintendent of police called me." "He said,"What do you want me to do with your effigy?"" "I said,"My what?""Your effigy." "Didn't you know you were hanged in effigy?" ""ln front of the Senate wing of the Capitol this afternoon by a group of women."" "I said,"No, I was on the floor."" "He said,"A group of women had an effigy of you."" "They had a Claude"Benedict Arnold" Pepper placard across the chest and they'd tied a rope around the effigy's neck and strung him to a limb of the tree," "They were shaking their fists at it." "The police went and cut it down." "In the Capitol the historic bill is passed." "A night session sees the Senate vote 60 to 31 for it." "It was a bitter fight and it was in many ways a major turning point in American foreign policy." "The debate was, in a sense, the last cry, the last major stand of the isolationists." "And when they were sharply outnumbered in the voting, it was very clear that their weight had really subsided in American councils of foreign policy." "Lend-Lease aid for Britain," "Billions of dollars' worth of war materials." "The crucial question was the escort of convoys." "Every month Britain was losing 400,000 tons of shipping to German U-boats." "Gradually the US navy became directly involved in the Battle of the Atlantic." "Lieutenant Noah Adair was a watch officer in the first American ship hit by a German torpedo." "I had finished my watch and I was out on the bridge and looked down." "I saw a torpedo passing past our bow." "Another man on the stern, I found out later on, had seen one pass astern." "And then, almost simultaneously with that, we ourselves were hit." "The explosion hit right in the No.1 fire room and destroyed the interior of the fire room and opened up a gash in the side of the ship from the water line right on down to the keel of the ship." "There were 1 1 men that were killed and about 21 , I believe, that were wounded." "All those that were killed were in the fire room." "As America prepares, the war comes ever closer." "On the Atlantic, vast convoys brave sub-infested waters." "US patrol planes keep ceaseless vigil..." "We were doing the same thing we'd be doing if we were at war and on convoy duty." "If we could get a sonar contact on the submarine, we'd drop depth charges on them." "It was quite similar to being at war." "That summer, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met in a remote bay in Newfoundland." "For nearly two years they'd kept up a lengthy and intimate correspondence and now, with their naval and military chiefs, they spent four days coordinating plans." "They meet, and Mr Churchill hands the president a letter from the king." "The two greatest leaders of the freedom-loving world are ready for the historic conference." "The meeting marked America's re-entry into the world and the end of two decades of isolation." "Onward, Christian soldiers" "Marching as to war" "With the cross of Jesus" "Going on before" "Much of the discussion focused on Japan and what should be done if she joined her two Axis partners in the war, Italy and Germany." "After Japan's aggression in China," "Roosevelt had already embargoed exports of scrap metal to Japan." "When the Japanese occupied the whole of lndo-China, he cut off the most vital commodity of all, oil." "Japan sent negotiators to Washington." "Simultaneously the cabinet in Tokyo made plans for war." "The negotiations dragged on fruitlessly." "At the end of November radio intercepts told Roosevelt that a Japanese attack was imminent, but no one knew where it would come." "Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii," "On each anniversary of Japan's attack, the band of the US Pacific Fleet repeats the concert that was played on board the USS Arizona in 1941 ." "For the soldiers, sailors and airmen sent to Hawaii in that year," "Pearl Harbor was an enjoyable posting." "Despite warnings of the possibility of an attack, nobody believed that the Japanese forces could reach halfway across the Pacific." "Japan had a reputation in those days for being imitative." "They copied everything but put out a shoddy copy." "Our military people were convinced that they couldn't build anything very well." "They didn't believe that Japanese planes were very good or their trucks were very good, their mechanical stuff very good." "They didn't think they could be very good fighter pilots or bombing pilots because they couldn't see well and wore glasses," "So there was a tendency to look down on the Japanese, to minimise them." "At five minutes to eight on the morning of December 7th," "Japanese carrier-borne aircraft launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, 19 ships were sunk or disabled," "188 American aircraft were destroyed on the ground and 3,500 men were killed and wounded," "It was a Sunday and I was at home resting." "I got a call from the White House saying the president wanted me to come down." "I threw things together and went down and walked in and up to his study and he was sitting up there shuffling his stamps around." "I had expected chaos and excitement and tension and it was exactly the opposite." "It was quiet, no confusion of any kind." "So I said to him, "Why did you get me to come down here?"" "He said,"Because war has begun."" "And yet there was a feeling that he wasn't surprised, he wasn't taken aback and he wasn't worried." "December 7th 1941 , a date which will live in infamy." "The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the empire of Japan," "Four days after Pearl Harbor, Hitler declared war on the United States." "A future secretary of state remarked," ""At last our enemies, with unparalleled stupidity," ""resolved our dilemmas, clarified our doubts and uncertainties" ""and united our people for the long, hard course that the national interest required,"" "Aim." "Fire." "Aim." "Fire." "Aim." "Fire." "The annual ceremony of remembrance above the remains of the battleship Arizona." "More than 1 ,000 of her crew had died when a bomb detonated her forward magazine." "I think the differences just disappeared." "That was the greatest single example of a country that was widely divided being unified within almost minutes by a single stroke." "If you ask me if there had been no Pearl Harbor, would we have gone into war, when would we have gone into war," "I couldn't answer, I don't know." "The Japanese just did the dumbest thing in all military history and that did it."