NBC Red
News (6:13) [preempting The Olivia Santoro Show]
December 7, 1941, 4:30 pm EST

0:00: Report from London: The attack is the topic of all conversation. The general feeling is that the British government will lose no time in declaring war on Japan, but will probably wait until the American congress takes action.

1:37: Upton Close from San Francisco: There's more behind this that meets the eye. Close recalls the Manchurian Incident of 1931. Close called the Japanese Consulate General's office in San Francisco, who told him that the attack was a complete surprise to them. They implied that it might also have been a complete surprise to the Japanese government in Tokyo. That might prove to be true. The Japanese military might have double-crossed their own government. It might have been a coup engineered by German agents, using German ships. It might have been a fanatical element of the Japanese military. It might even have been a political move to put the antiwar element of the government in power who would want to make amends to the U.S. Upton close repeats Hull's reaction to Japanese message, and Roosevelt's message to the Emperor sent yesterday.

7:33: NBC says they're going to a report from Honolulu, a only a few seconds later Upton Close is back, saying, "We're going on again." He tries to make sense of Japan's motives. If it was only meant to anger the U.S., it doesn't make sense. Again, it might be the Germans who engineered this with the Japanese. The actual bombing has stopped. We'll learn more when some aviators who were shot down and can still speak, or some paratroopers are gathered in.
"The War Department has invoked the Espionage Act against the publication of military information regarded as secret. We all know that, and uh, we can't any longer state anything about army strength outside the continental limits of The United States. As to, the uh, watch over the Japanese community, It's interesting that we learn that on the Atlantic coast in New York and in Norfolk, special watch--police watch--has been put over the Japanese--there are very few Japanese there to watch. Here on the Pacific coast where there are more Japanese than anywhere else, uh so far we have no word whatever of anything untoward having happened. I think we can take the word of the local San Francisco Consulate General that the Japanese community has been totally surprised by this action, and so far there is no, uh, indication here whatsoever that any sabotage has broken out or that any Japanese spies or saboteurs were warned in time to go into action. Of course, uh, the people around 'Little Tokyo' in Los Angeles are on the [?]. So far I think they've conducted themselves very well, so far as we can learn by the dispatches, said that the sheriff has sort of has taken charge there at 'Little Tokyo' and has gathered up a number of volunteers and they have set up a volunteer watching post, and they're watching the Japanese, but they haven't had any reason to do anything. And people on both sides of the fence there are remaining calm and decent, which is certainly good news."

They're waiting for confirmation of the ships sunk west of San Francisco. That too could have been done by Germans. "Of course the general comment on the street is that if the Japanese really did this a-purpose, uh, they uh, are pretty foolish, and yet if they did it on purpose they have certainly got guts." That's the way the people on this coast are taking it."

"If this was purposeful attack on the part of the Japanese, intended by the government, we're in for an exceedingly bitter war in the Pacific--a war in which all the bitterness of racial hostility will come out, because the average American will resent to the very marrow having been attacked this way."

Again, this might have been engineered over the heads of the Japanese government. No declarations of war have been made yet. There's been speculation on what to do with Nomura and Kurusu. They might have been surprised too.
13:46 (4:43 p.m. EST, 11:13 a.m. in Hawaii): KGU report from Honolulu: No one would believe from the two radio stations that we were under attack until bombs dropped in the city. Report based on reporters who have been out on the island today. A civilian pilot was shot at but landed safely with some damage. After machine-gunning Ford Island, the first Japanese planes moved to Hickam Field to attack the planes there. At Pearl Harbor, three ships were attacked. The Oklahoma was set afire. Communications seem to be down. Army has ordered all civilians to stay off the streets. Even now it's difficult for some people to believe that an air attack has actually happened. It's thought that the planes came from the south. After the Hickam attack and the attack on Wheeler field, the bombers came in. Governor has proclaimed a state of emergency. Traffic is at a standstill in some areas. The Japanese planes seem to come over the city with no intimation that these were Japanese planes. It was very difficult for people to believe that these were Japanese planes. A report just came in that 350 people were killed in a direct bomb hit on the barracks at Hickam Field.

18:23: (4:48 p.m.) From New York: Announcer reads a telegram to President Roosevelt from the President of NBC offering the use of all of their services. Many NBC stations will remain active on a 24 hour basis.

19:17 (4:49 p.m.) Special Broadcast from Washington: More on Roosevelt's meeting with his cabinet and congressional leaders later tonight. Senators Elbert D. Thomas (D-Utah), Walter F. George (D-Georgia), and Representative Luther A. Johnson (D-Texas) give interviews about declaring war. There's no doubt that a declaration of war would be approved providing the Japanese government was responsible and the facts are true. The United States will be more unified than ever before.