Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 1
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o) CENTS Czn PAY HP MORE! DM AIL 'Ay THE WORLD'S GREATEST NEWSPAPER VOLUME C. NO. 293 IEEG. IT. S.
PAT. OFFICE. COPYRIGHT 1941 BZ THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE. MONDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1941. 36 PAGES.
THIS PAPER CONSISTS OF TWO SECTIONS SECTION ONB TJUTPT? rpTTTk "CTMrpC illJil 1 VVU JlilX CHICAGO F.LSEWHERB AND SUBURBS TUBES CENTS QR1 IT Jl JUg Ir uilUiLULrLrUJjJ Ms AT YOUR SERVICE We All Have Only One Task (An Editorial.) rTf 1 rv fJCfy War has been forced on America by an insane clique of Japanese militarists who apparently see the desperate conflict into which they have led their country as the only thing that can prolong their power. Thus the thing that we all feared, that so many of us have worked with all our hearts to avert, has happened. That is all that counts. It has happened. America faces war thru no volition of any American.
Recriminations are useless and we doubt that they will be indulged in. Certainly not by us. All that matters today is that we are in the war and the nation must face that simple fact. All of us, from this day forth, have only one task. That is to strike with all our might to protect and preserve the American freedom that we all hold dear.
NIPPON TROOPS LAIiD IN MALAYA; BATTLE BRITISH Tokio's Ships Flee After Attack. SINGAPORE, Dec. t55). The Japanese landed and engaged British forces in northern Malaya, 300 miles north ci Singapore, today and bombed jthls great British naval stronghold, causing small loss of life among civilians and property damage. ITwo British cruisers were sunk at tsmgapore with direct hits, according to a Columbia Broadcasting system tmZetin.1 An official report from northern Malaya said all Japanese surface craft fled at high speed under Eritish fire after leaving a few troops on the beaches.
The troops jsrere heavily machine gunned, the frport faid. Earlier reports from the north said the Japanese landed about 300 men at Sabak, near the Thailand border, at 1 a. m. (noon Sun-clay Chicago time) and that they yrrre attempting to fight their -way toward Kota Bahru, 13 miles to the north. Repulse First Attack.
Kota Bahru, the site of an airdrome, is near the northern terminus of a railway leading to Singapore, 300 miles to the south. A previous attempt to land troops at Kota Bahru was reported repulsed by the British. The Singapore raiders met a vigorous anti-aircraft fire when the attack came at 4:10 a. m. (3:10 p.
m. Sunday, Chicago lime). Two flights of planes bombed the city. They struck before an alarm could be sounded. JThe Japanese planes disappeared as soon as British fighters took to the air.
Fedestrians Killed. Casualties Mere limited to night watchmen and a few early morning pedestrians. A mighty force of men, guns, ships and planes stood ready at this bastion for Britain's anticipated declaration of war against Japan today. Ashore were thousands upon thousands of soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and American and British planes by the hundreds. Operating from this giant Continued on pace 6, column 4.
COLOR MAP OF JEW WAR ZONE A full page color map of the new war zone in the Pacific ocean, from the west coast of North and South America to the east coast of Asia, will be printed in all editions of tomorrow's Tribune. This map will contain detcdls such as mileage between the American mainland end our island possessions, the location of American, British, and Japanese naval bases, and other information that will be needed for a complete understanding of the clay's war news. This will be the first of a series of war maps which the Tribune will reproduce in full color. 5) Parliament Convenes Today; Expected to Declare War RAIDERS BLAST HONOLULU, AIR AND NAVY DASES Hint U.S. Battleship Sunk in Fight.
HONOLULU, T.H., Dec. 7 m. War struck suddenly and without warning from the sky and sea today at ther Hawaiian Islands. Japanese bombs took a heavy toll of American lives. Cannonading offshore indicated a naval engagement in progress.
The Berlin radio broadcast a Tokio announcement that the United States battleship West Virginia had been sunk and the battleship Oklahoma set afire by shelling in an engagement between the Japanese and the American and British navies. Another American warship was declared hit, and it was said the. naval battle "still is going on." Army and navy and Wh ite House officials in Washington were inclined to regard the reports as German propaganda and classified them as "rumors." Mutual broadcasting system's New York listening post reported it had heard a broadcast by a Panamanian short wave station which stated a Japanese aircraft carrier had been sunk off the Hawaiian coast. Waves of Planes Attack. Wave after wave of Japanese planes streaked over Oahu Island in an attack which the army said started at 8:10 a.
Honolulu time, and which ended at around 9 :25, an hour and 15 minutes later (at 1 :55 p. m. Chicago time). Witnesses said they counted at least 50 planes in the initial attack. The attack seemed directed principally at Hickam field, huge army airport three miles northwest of Honolulu, and Honolulu, where the islands' heaviest fortifications are located.
officials would not comment on a German broadcast asserting that 300 American planes were damaged in Japanese air raids on Hawaiian air The planes streamed thru the sky from the southwest, their bombs shattering the morning calm. Most of the attackers flew high, but a few came low, five of them below a hundred feet elevation to attack Tcarl Harbor, the great naval base. Oil Tank Set Ablaze. An oil tank there was seen blazing and smoking. An unconfirmed report said one ship in the Continued on page 12, column 2.
THE WEATHER MONDAY. DECEMBER 8. 1041. Sunrise. 7:06 a.
m. Sunset. 4:19 p. m. Moon rifes at 8:57 p.
m. Venua is evening alar. Mars. Saturn, and Jupiter are nigbl luminaries. CHICAGO AND VICINITY: Partly cloudy to cloudy and windy, becoming colder by afternoon.
Tuesday, partly cloudy and cold. Wednesday, increasing cloudiness, rather chilly. ILLINOIS: North Tartly cloudy and windy and slightly colder in afternoon. Tuesday, partly cloudy with seasonable temperature. ISouth Fair to partly cloudy and windy, no decided change in temperature.
Tuesday, lair with seasonable temperature. TEMFERATCRES IN CHICAGO For Si hours ended 3 a. m. Dec. 8t .1 a.m...! 4 a.m..
a.m. .32 10 a.m..34 11 a.m.. 35 Noon. ..37 1 p.m.. 38 2 p.m.U9 3 p.m...
37 4 i 5 9 p.m.. 37 10 p.m.. 38 1 a.m.. 38 2 a.m.. 38 6 a.m.
..27 6 a.m. ..27 7 a.m..t-0 8 a.m. ..27 ti p.m.. 7 p.m.. t.
'HI 8 p.m...37 CONGRESS GETS F. D. ft. MESSAGE IN CRISIS TODAY Report Fleet Acts to Contact Foe. WAR MAPS AND PICTURES The Tribune today presents a full back page of large end comprehensive maps of the nnw theater of war in the Pacific.
On page 8 is a full page of pictures illustrating all phases of the developments which followed yesterday's attack by Japan upon the United States. BY ARTHUR SEARS HENNINC. IChleaso Trlbon Frets ttcrslea. Washington, D. Dec 7.
The United States and Japan are at war. Japan declared war on America and Great Britain today and at the same time carried out a surprise attack on American territory, inflicting many casualties and serious damage to American warships and land defenses, The army tonight estimated 104 soldiers were killed and 300 wounded in repeated bombing raids on Hawaii. The navy losses there were described as heavy." No civilian casualties were mentioned. Other attacks were made by the Japanese on the Philippines and the island of Guam. F.
D. R. Message Today. Presumably the United States navy based on the Hawaiian Islands and units stationed in the far. east are already on the move against Japan.
Tomorrow at 12 :30 p. m. 1 1 :30 a. m. Chicago time) President Roosevelt will address a joint session of congress to ask recognition of a state of war with Japan.
The prospect is that congress will. vote war with Japan before tomorrow night by an overwhelming majority, if not unanimously. While the. President was conferring tonight with his cabinet and Democratic and Republican leaders in congress, men of all parties and groups, interventionists and noninterventionists, were going on record in favor of declaring war on Japan. Many were in favor also of declaring war on Germany on the ground that Hitler incited Japan to attack the United States.
War on Nazis Suggested. Participants in the White House conference said that the question of declaring war on Germany was not discussed and that Mr. 'Roosevelt gave no inkling of how far he intends to go in asking recognition of war with the axis powers. Sen. Tom Connally chairman of the senate foreign relations committee, said as he left the White House that a declara-tion'of war between Germany and the United States is in the offing, either by America or by Germany in accord with the axis pact.
Japan loosed war operations against the United States on the eve of the dissolution of the negotiations here for a peace agree- WAR BULLETINS LONDON, Dec. 8. Monday (AP). A Reuters (British) news dispatch from Shanghai today quoted an unconfirmed report circulated there saying American owned Wake Island in the Pacific had been ltcupied by ihtf Japanese. Reuters said the Shanghai rumors had it that the occupation of Wake was accomplished peaceably.
Los Angeles, CaL, Dec 7 (AP). A broadcast from Tokio said tonight that 63 American soldiers had been disarmed at the International settlement in Tientsin, China. Los Angeles, Dec. 7 (AP). Radio Tokio reported tonight in a broadcast that Japanese naval ships have surrounded the Island of Guam and that an oil reservoir and hotel have been set afire.
Washington, D. Dec. 7 (AP). Philippine Commissioner Eli-zalde said that President Quezon told him in a telephone conversation tonight that "everything is calm and fully prepared" in the Philippines. VICTORIA, B.
Dec. 7 (AP). The western air command sent out a call today to all royal Canadian air force personnel attached to that command to report immediately. It was announced that all leave for airmen under its jurisdiction had been canceled. Washington, D.
Dec. 7 (AP). The war department today requested all radio stations to broadcast this bulletin: The secretary of war directs that all firms and manufacturing plants who have defense contracts or are working on defense orders will at once institute proper measures against sabotage." Fort Lewis, Dec. 7 (AP). All men who have been released from the 9th army corps during the last months because of reaching the age of 28 were called back to active duty by the army today.
day Jap Raiders Bomb 2 Isles in Philippines Washington, D. Dec. 7 (P). The White House announced tonight that during President Roosevelt's conference with legislative leaders and the cabinet he. received word from Gen.
Douglas MacArthur that "enemy planes were over central Luzon In the Philippines about 7 p. m. Chicago time; that a bombing attack has been made on Davao at the southern end of the southern island of Mindanao, and that another attack has been made on Camp John Hayes at Baguio in the northern mountains of Luzon. So far no essential damage had been reported." 17. S.
Transport Reported Sunk. New York, Dec. 8 Monday Reports of the torpedoing of three American transports were- received here early today. There was an official announcement that a lumber laden army transport had been torpedoed between California and Hawaii, but the statement did not say whether the vessel sank. The second report, originating with NBC at Manila, had the transport General Hugh L.
Scott sunk about 1,600 miles from Manila. Another transport, the former liner President Harding, was reported seized or sunk in the Yangtze river, just south of Shanghai. The Tokio radio heard by NBC in Los Angeles reported Japanese bombers had attacked the island of Palawan in the Philippines. In the Japanese attack on the Philippines, several lives were reported lost in the bombing of Davao, home of the largest Japanese colony in the islands. Some estimates were as high as 50," NBC said.
The post office and radio station were wrecked. Plane Carrier Off Davao. A Japanese aircraft carrier was reported sighted off the bay of Davao. "A number, of casualties" were caused in the bombing of Camp Ord, 100 miles north of Manila, it was said. Seven lives were reported lost in an attack on another army post.
Clark field also was bombed. The Philippine army was reported out in full force. Manila itself, the broadcaster said, had not yet been bombed. All Japanese residents were reported rounded up and put in a concentration camp. Clipper riane Bombed.
The broadcast said the Pan-American airways base at Guam had been bombed and machine gunned and that huge oil and gasoline fires were raging there. The Pan-American Clipper which left Manila for Hongkong Sunday was reported bombed while lying in the Hongkong airport. All passengers and crew members were reported safe. U. S.
Planes Act at Manila. MANILA, P. Dec. 8 Monday JP). United States army bombers and pursuit planes roared into the air and headed northward at dawn today.
Lieut. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of the United States forces in the far east, placed his entire command on the alert! Adm. Thomas Hart, commander in chief of the United States Asiatic fleet, declared that all steps had been taken to meet the situation. PRIVATE PLANES IN U.
S. GROUNDED Only Air Liners Will Be Permitted to Fly. Washington, D. Dec. 7 Special! All private airplanes in the United States and its possessions, except commercial airliners, were ordered grounded tonight by the Civil Aeronautics authority.
It was estimated that the order will affect 80.000 private pilots and 17,000 private planes. The CAA orderetl temporary suspension of all pilot licenses except those held by pilots on regular aii lines. Robert Hinckley, chairman of the CAA air safety board, sent telegrams to the governors of all the states, Alaska, and the Canal Zone, requesting them to assign police immediately to all known landing fields. Police to Guard Plane. The police will protect the facilities and keep aircraft on the ground unless the ships are engaged in scheduled air transportation, or are publicly owned or operated under contract with the government.
Hinckley said the orders will be' In effect until CAA representatives or army or navy air field commanders issue instructions allowing specific planes to fly. The orders will also be in effect until the Office of Civilian Defense issues directions for forming a civil air patrol. Bar Amateur Radio. The federal communications commission tonight prohibited all amateur radio operation in the United States and its possessions except for stations specifically authorized by federal, state, and municipal authorities in connection with emergency matters. Chairman James Lawrence Fly said he had been in touch with all major communications companies with relation to the execution of preexisting plans for cooperation in the emergency." D.
II. Connolly, CAA administrator, signed the order for suspension of pilots' licenses. It was announced pilots at schools engaged in training operations for the government may get back, their licenses when army, navy, or CAA officials are satisfied they are "of unquestionable loyalty." Similar certification is. necessary before pilots at aircraft and other Slants may regain their licenses. Others Declare War The following: countries, dominions, and colonies last night and early today Issued declarations of war.
Thone declaring war on Japan were: Canada, In a document for submission to King George to take effect as of yesterday. Australia, reported by CBS. Netherlands East Indies. Netherlands government in exile. War was declared on Finland, Hungary, and Rumania by the Union of South Africa, United States.
A British Broadcasting company announcer, speaking in a strained voice, broke into a Sunday evening program to tell the news. Immediate Comment Declined. Officials of the ministry of Infor mation said their first knowledge of the announcement came from Wash ington. They expressed 'amazement There was an Instant flurry as spokesmen got in touch with their departments, but all official sources declined to make any Immediate com ment. Hotel lobbies filled quickly with amazed people "Is it really true?" They crowded around chattering news tickers but learned no details to fill in the brief announcements.
Gather Around Radios. Homeowners with radios became neighborhood hosts, their parlors thronged with excited men, women, and children waiting for further word. The BBC announcer told them: "The British empire, the United States, China, Russia, the Nether-lands East Indies, and the other peo ples in the far east do not make the mistake of underestimating Japan's strength, but they are aware of Japan's Achilles' heel. "In every way, these peoples have made all necessary preparation." Total averegs nee paid circulatitn NOVEMBER. 1941 DAILY 1,000,000 In THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE LONDON.
Dec. 8 Monday (JP). The British parliament was called into special session for 3 p. m. today 8 a.
m. Chicago time, to hear a government statement which every one agreed would be a declaration of war against Japan, expected to coincide with similar action by the United States. Japan already had declared war on Great Britain, and the United States last night as Prime Minister Churchill conferred with United States Ambassador John G. Winant and as London awaited fulfilment of Churchill's now unneeded pledge to declare war on Japan within the hour if Japan attacked the United States. Belief was expressed in British quarters here that the Japanese already had attacked some British possessions as well as the Pacific bastions of the United States.
Embassy Papers Burned. The Japanese embassy, which had been inaccessible by telephone for hours, late last night completed arrangements to leave Britain Immediately, Including the burning of Its secret documents. Japanese Ambassador Kamimura was expected to be called to the foreign office today to receive his passports. The Tokio government previously had ordered the ambassador home for The ambassador said he expected the 500 Japanese in Britain to be interned immediately "at least in principle." Japanese Third Secretary Matsui said the news of war comes as a surprise, but not as a shock." Statement to Be Issued. The only documents from Prime Minister Churchill's official residence said both the house of commons and the house of lords would meet today and that "a statement will be made in both houses." This, it was expected on every hand, would be Britain's declaration of war as a partner of the United States.
Churchill's promise that Britain would follow tne United States i. 'o war will. Japan was made Nov. 10. Churchill said the that United States naval operations in the Atlantic ocean had freed England to send formidable elements of her naval power the Pacll Excitement swept this capital on news of the Japanese attack en the Highest.
1 Lowest. 1 Unofficial 7 p. a. m. For 21 hours ended 6:30 p.
Dee. 7: Mean temperature. 37 degrees; normal, 31 degrees: December excess, 82 excess since Jan. 1, 860 degrees. Precipitation, none; December deficiency.
.41 of an inch. Total since Jan. 1, 34.34 inches; excess since Jan. 1. 3.13 inches.
Bighest wind velocity. 20 miles an hour Irom th southeast at 4:57 r. m. I Detailed weather epet mm tmf Mf 1.
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