For 38 minutes, it could have been the real thing.
I remember we gathered our passports and basic stuff and watched the 2000 election results clutching them in panic, pretty sure that a DPP win would bring aerial bombardment. From what our teachers and the press said. At least it was not nuclear.
During the civil wars in the 80s bombs were a close call, but not from above.
I lived in Seoul for 6 years and it was always in the back of my mind that I might die in a nuclear holocaust one day. But itâs kinda like earthquakes here. You eventually just accept the risk as an inherent part of living in a place. It probably wonât happen, but itâs always nagging at your thoughts.
This 38 minutes thing is something else though. This is a warning that death is imminent. A warning claiming a nuclear warhead is inbound. I heard Hawaiian authorities say this idiot âfeels badâ about his error. Boo fucking hoo. He risked starting a nuclear response, and he caused untold amounts of emotional distress and probably PTSD. He better be fired. And they better restructure how these warnings are issued. How this could happen by one person âpushing the wrong buttonâ is beyond me.
Oops
Yeah, but it wasnât. Come on, this isnât like âWe almost had a nuke attackâ
It was a fuck up basically on a level with a traffic light going out. Or less.
Jeez.
Whoâs âweâ? 
Everyone, and I mean everyone that I worked with and knew, was barely even thinking of it. I never met anyone who was even close to worrying.
We all went to work and went on with life as normal.
There was some slight amusement when Clinton sent the warships into the Strait, but that was about it.
Panic. Itâs a HELL of a drug.
The last time Hawaii had a warning it was ignored. That was December 7, 1941.
No it wasnât, nobody ignored the warnings before PH, there just werenât any until it was too late.
Because you understood Chinese and also had been here long enough. We foreign students had just arrived, had little understanding of the context and worse, were misinformed. To make it better, our lovely country representatives left the Island, leaving us stranded here -a brave tactic they repeated anytime something happened, like the 921 quake or SARS. Hence, an easy night we did not have. Was the panic based on reality? Nope, I agree. Looking back, I feel more angry than silly for being manipulated, but arenât we all to some extent if we are not throughly informed?
However, that said, in this currenht friggin world, were all of a sudden planes fall from the sky on towers, trucks squish people and stuff goes bum in places where war has not been formally declaredâŚbelieving for 38 minutes that something could hit you is not that far fetched. Heck, with NKâs bad aim it is more likely for them to hit China. Then things would get interesting.
We are taught at school that the warnings were ignored so the war could be declared/joined. Thatâs alternative reality for ya.
Yeah, I donât fault anyone in HW for their reaction, obviously.
Super cynical of your school teacher, then. That the US would sacrifice the bulk of the Pacific Fleet, the lives of thousands of US military personnel esp. the non-commissioned leadership, and the careers of many surviving officers merely to kick the American public in the pants would make FDR a Stalin-esque leader and a very bad President.
Youâre getting confused here, TĂa, take a deep breath.
The warnings youâre talking about were supposed intel briefings to FDR from the Secretary of the Navy and others, whether or not they even happened, they were never public.
@Immersion was, as I read it, equating some kind of public warnings about the Nipponese attack on PH, which never really happened, with the warnings that went off over this last weekend.
They definitely happened, in a way. Weâd broken several of the Japanese diplomatic codes and were reading their cables. We knew for a while something was cooking. And the day before we knew that the Japanese were going to break off relations on the 8th. A warning was sent out for that but communications problems led to it being delayed. Say it was received and fully acted onâquestionable as it never seemed to really penetrate that the Japanese might come as far as Pearl Harbor for their attackâbut if it did, weâd have been more ready to fend off the attack and have had a perfectly valid cause for war. So the whole thing doesnât make much sense.
It was during the Central American civil wars, dear. Cynical wouldnât begin to describe it as US nuns, priests and even reporters were âcollateral damageâ.
Right, sorry, I get that, but isnât it questionable, though, as to whether FDR himself was appraised of it in ample time to do something meaningful?
It was a mad dash that awoke the monster. Nothing good came of such an attack. the Japanese thought they were too strong to lose ⌠and so did the US. Blood and pain resulted.
It is that kind of miscalculation and hubris what dooms the strongest armies. Russia in winter anyone?
On the last day? I donât know if he was, but itâs not like he could have done anything else. The last warning that was sent was military and sent to military bases.
They had a radar station set up. It was new and the operators not too skilled. They picked up a signal but blew it off as a large flock of birds flying at 250 MPH.
250mph means the Japanese airplanes were in the air and only hours away. Moving and tactically dispersing an unstaged Pacific Fleet to sea would have taken the better part of a day that was not a Sunday, probably longer.
I just donât buy FDR sacrificing so many resources for the sole purpose of slapping the US electorate across the face.
Attack on Pearl Harbor[edit]
On December 7, 1941, the Opana Radar Site was manned by Private Joseph L. Lockard and Private George Elliot, who detected approaching aircraft at 7:02 am (past the end of the siteâs scheduled operating day). Since the truck to take them to breakfast was late, the pair continued to practice with the radar equipment.[2][3]
The men reported their findings to the temporary information center at Fort Shafter. Pvt Joseph McDonald took the call. Private McDonald found Lt Kermit Tyler when he entered the plotting room when he timed the message. Tyler told him that it was nothing. McDonald called back the Opana Radar site and spoke to Pvt Joseph Lockard. Lockard was excited, he had never seen so many planes. Infected with Lockardâs excitement, McDonald returned to Tyler. McDonald suggested to Tyler to call back the plotters and notify Wheeler Field of the sighting. When Tyler again indicated that it was nothing, McDonald insisted that Tyler talk to Lockard directly.[3] The information center staff had gone to breakfast and Lt. Kermit Tyler[5] received the report.[3] Tyler reasoned that the activity was a flight of Army B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, and advised the radar crew not to worry. Tyler told investigators that a friend in the Bomber group advised him that whenever the radio station played Hawaiian music all night, a flight from the mainland was arriving, and using that for navigation homing. McDonald was relieved at about 7:40 and returned to his tent waking his tent mate up by saying âShim the Japs are comingâ. Elliot and Lockard continued plotting the incoming planes until 7:40 when contact was lost. Shortly before 8:00 am they headed to Kawailoa for breakfast and only learned about the attack when they arrived. Elliot and Lockard rushed back to Opana and operated the radar until the attack ended.[3]
Well, add one more to the annual drill: