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Monday, August 21, 2017
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Texas History Minute After his formal retirement from invasion of China and steady Harbor on December 7, 1941. active duty in 1947, he lived the rest expansion in East Asia became a After October 1942, he spent the grave concern to the United States. remainder of the war working with of his life quietly in Washington, DC, occasionally writing on his the Navy Relief Society, a navy In January 1940, Richardson charity designed to help sailors and naval experiences. In 1973, he became commander-in-chief of the Marines and their families. He also released his memoirs, On the Treadmill to Pearl Harbor. He died United States Fleet, one of the worked as senior member of a at his home in 1974 at the age of 95. senior-most positions in the navy, special committee to reorganize which also put him in command of America’s defenses. the Pacific Fleet. In June 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the Pacific Fleet to move Sept. 1, 2017 its headquarters to Pearl Harbor. 7pm Roosevelt believed that the nation must begin preparing for a Dr. Ken Bridges possible war. He also believed that the presence of the fleet in the Central Pacific sent a strong Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, writer, and history professor. He message of disapproval to Japan and might dissuade Japan from can be reached at further incursions in the Far East. drkenbridges@gmail.com. In the meantime, the United States continued to negotiate with Japan for it to cease its military actions, The Japanese sneak attack on Pearl negotiations that continued until Harbor in 1941 has been studied at December 1941. length by military minds and academics for decades. The naval Richardson was respected as an expert on Japanese military officer in charge of the Pacific tactics. He expressed grave fears Fleet in the months before the attack was a Texas native, Admiral over headquartering the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, especially James Otto Richardson. As the United States began preparing for since Japan had a history of war in 1940, Richardson pointed to engaging in sneak attacks. He weak defenses at Pearl Harbor that looked at the situation from a careful tactical standpoint. Pearl he feared would lead to disaster. Harbor was a good natural harbor that had been under American Richardson was born in Paris in control for decades. But Hawaii September 1878. After he graduated from high school, he did was more than two thousand miles not immediately attend college. In away from mainland naval bases at San Francisco and San Diego, far 1898, he instead received a from any emergency support, and congressional appointment to unprepared for an attack. While attend the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. he did not believe an attack was imminent, he brought his pointed He excelled in his studies, criticisms of the situation to graduating fifth in his class in Secretary of the Navy Frank 1902. Knox. Twice he went to Washington to explain his position His first assignment was with the in person, to no avail. Asiatic Squadron helping with naval support of American attempts to suppress a rebellion in He pushed for increased air patrols and for bolstering the defenses of the Philippines. He came to command two small torpedo boats the facility. He coordinated with his army counterparts on war game from 1907 to 1909, the USS scenarios to practice for a possible Tingay and the USS Stockton. Afterward, he was tapped to enter invasion, a practice begun by previous Pearl Harbor the Naval Academy’s special commanders. He was discouraged graduate engineering school, part when army forces on the island of the first group of officers were never able to repel a naval selected for this special training invasion. program. Richardson had an honorable record and steadily moved up the ranks. He served as Years after World War II, executive officer of the battleship Richardson said that he never USS Nevada during World War I. believed that a carrier-based attack He commanded a number of ships on the base would happen. He had after World War I. While serving anticipated a more traditional naval invasion with battleships, as Budget Officer with the Navy destroyers, and landing troops. In Department, he was promoted to 1940, however, the United States rear admiral in 1934. still had very few military resources to spare. In February As Assistant Chief of Naval 1941, Richardson was relieved of Operations in 1937, he was at the forefront to the navy’s response to command in favor of Adm. two riveting events. When aviator Husband E. Kimmel. Amelia Earhart disappeared in the Central Pacific, Richardson helped Richardson was assigned to the Navy General Board, an advisory coordinate search operations. He also helped formulate the response body within the Navy Department to Japan’s sinking of an American in Washington. Like the rest of the nation, he was shocked and gunboat, the USS Panay, in horrified by the attack on Pearl China’s Yangtze River. Japan’s
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