The Daily Alaska Empire

Mist Over Pearl Harbor
(Philadelphia Record)

There have been stupid blunders in censorship
by brass hats in this war.

But, on the positive side, we have been getting
more and more eye-witness stories—due largely, we
believe, to Elmer Davis' work as head of the Office
of War Information.

One of the most revealing of these is the article
by Lieutenant Clarence E. Dickinson, U.S.N., in the
current Saturday Evening Post.

It tells of the adventures of fliers from an Am-
erican aircraft carrier approaching Pearl Harbor on
the morning of December 7. It had just delivered
12 planes to Wake Island—the only planes our forces
there had, as it developed during the heroic 16-day
defense of the island.

The carrier, Lieutenant Dickinson says, sailed
under "absolute war orders," though Tokyo and
Washington were still negotiating. The fliers were
told to "shoot down anything you see in the sky
and bomb anything you see on the sea."

These orders make the slipshod, lax defense of
Pearl Harbor on December 7 still more inexplicable.
If Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr., who gave
these orders, knew of the danger, other Navy men
at Hawaii must have known, too.

Another tantalizing revelation is the statement
by Dickinson that one ensign—later killed—thought
he saw through the mists near Wake Island "three
ghost-like shapes that resembled ships." The planes
closed in for a search but found nothing.

Were these ships part of the Jap carrier fleet
on the way to strike at Pearl Harbor? Did the en-
sign notify his superiors on board the carrier—as
the private manning the aircraft detector on the
islands vainly notified his superior officer when he
heard Jap planes?

It is possible that we might have surprised the
Jap fleet on its way to Honolulu and smashed it as
we later smashed their attack on Midway.

Complete answers to all the mysteries of the
war won't come until the war is ended, perhaps
never.

In the meantime, we are having a chance
to
read stories that show our service men are carrying
on the fighting traditions of American soldiers,
sailors and marines.