The 80th Anniversary of "The Miracle At Pearl"!
Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz…
his little known profound insights into the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
-Keith
The rare ability of U.S. Navy Admiral Chester Nimitz was to "see" above and beyond the way things "look" to be. This is illustrated in the historical account of his profound insights as he surveyed the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Admiral Nimitz had eyes that could SEE with respect to tactical naval warfare. He was so well-studied and experienced in the art of war that it did not take him long to recognize three tactical errors the Japanese made in their planning and execution of their attacks on our ships at Pearl Harbor. These three errors rendered them unsuccessful in their attempt to utterly destroy the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet.
The rare ability of U.S. Navy Admiral Chester Nimitz was to "see" above and beyond the way things "look" to be. This is illustrated in the historical account of his profound insights as he surveyed the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Admiral Nimitz had eyes that could SEE with respect to tactical naval warfare. He was so well-studied and experienced in the art of war that it did not take him long to recognize three tactical errors the Japanese made in their planning and execution of their attacks on our ships at Pearl Harbor. These three errors rendered them unsuccessful in their attempt to utterly destroy the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet.
If you visit
Pearl Harbor, you will find boats ferrying people out to the USS Arizona
Memorial every 30 minutes. In the gift shop there you will find a book
entitled, “Reflections on Pearl Harbor” by Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz. In
that book, you will read that on Sunday, December 7, 1941, Admiral Nimitz was
attending a concert in Washington, D.C. when he was paged and told there was a
phone call for him. When he answered the phone, he found that President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was on the line.
The President
told Admiral Nimitz that in light of the attack on Pearl Harbor Admiral Nimitz
would now be the Commander of the Pacific Fleet. Admiral Nimitz flew to Hawaii
to assume command of the Pacific Fleet, landing at Pearl Harbor on Christmas Eve,
1941. He found such a spirit of despair, dejection, and defeat that it would
seem the Japanese had already won the entire war.
On Christmas
Day, 1941, Admiral Nimitz was given a boat tour of the destruction wrought on
Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Big sunken battleships and navy vessels cluttered
the waters everywhere you looked. As the tour boat returned to dock, the young
helmsman of the boat asked, “Well, Admiral, what do you think after seeing all
this destruction?”
Admiral Nimitz’s
reply shocked everyone within the sound of his voice. Admiral Nimitz said, “The
Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could ever make or
God was taking care of America. Which do you think it was?”
Shocked and
surprised, the young helmsman asked, “What do you mean by saying the Japanese made
the three biggest mistakes an attack force ever made?” Nimitz’s explanation is
summarized below.
Miracle Error #1: The Japanese
attacked on Sunday morning. Nine out of every ten crewmen of those ships were ashore
on leave. If those same ships had been lured to sea and then sunk, we would
have lost 38,000 men instead of 3,800.
Miracle Error #2: When the
Japanese saw all those battleships lined in a row, they got so carried away
sinking those battleships, they never once bombed our dry docks that were
sitting across from those ships. If they had destroyed the dry docks, we would have
had to tow every one of the damaged ships to America to be repaired. As it is
now, the ships are in shallow water and can be raised. One tug can pull them
over to the dry docks, and we can have them repaired and at sea by the time it would
have taken to tow them to America; and I already have crews ashore anxious to
man those ships.
Miracle Error #3: Every drop of
fuel in the Pacific theater of war is in storage tanks on top of the ground
only five miles away. One attack plane could have strafed those tanks and
destroyed our entire fuel supply.
Now you can see why I
say the Japanese made three of the biggest tactical errors an attack force could make or else...
God was taking care of the United States of America. It was Admiral Nimitz’ many years of
first-hand tactical experience that gave him the ability to recognize, as he said in his own words, “The
Japanese made three of the biggest mistakes an attack force could ever make.”
In turn, it was that same experience that equipped him to be able to see God’s
divine intervention where most saw only despair and defeat.
The young
helmsman and so many others looked at the devastation and were in many ways
crippled by the destruction and despair. On the other hand, Admiral Nimitz
looked at the same devastation and saw something completely different. He knew
how unlikely it was that the very capable Japanese war planners would miss
three such obvious tactical points while preparing their assault, and this made
it evident to him that God had intervened on America’s behalf on December 7, 1941.
As devastating as the loss of our brave men and women were that day, as Admiral
Nimitz states, the results would have been ten times worse if God had not intervened
on our behalf.
Even as Admiral
Nimitz looked at utter devastation and could see the grace of God at work on
the behalf of our great Nation, we have the same opportunity to look beyond whatever
it is that we may be going through and see the redeeming power of Jesus Christ working
on our behalf as well. As the Scripture says in Romans 8:28, “And we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose.” These are not empty words: God means every
one of them, and He wants us to trust Him, Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit to do Their part.
God promises
that in every trial He will provide the way of escape. He also promises to
never leave or forsake us. We need to believe Him, we need to continuously pursue being-made-one-in-God, through Jesus Christ, by the leading of The Wonder-full Holy Spirit. So that, when we find ourselves in trouble or needing God's strategy to solve a problem, He, The Holy Spirit, can open our eyes so, like Admiral Nimitz, we to can truly see. So that, we can see everyone, everything and every situation through God's own eyes.
-Keith, Brenda & The TTM Family
If you would like for us to stand with you in prayer concerning a matter or if you would just like to share something with us that our Heavenly Father has done in your life write us an e-mail or write us a note and mail it to: Post Office Box 1152 Yorktown, Virginia 23692. God bless you!
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This blog message, along with the complete collection of original podcasts, music, blogs, books, CDs, and other Bible-based resources of Toward The Mark, Inc. is made possible by the faithful prayer and financial support of the TTM Sponsorship Family. We'd like to invite you to come on-board, to become a part of the TTM Family as well, by becoming a monthly financial partner. Your support will go toward fulfilling our God-given calling to help provide effective, contemporary outreach tools that are available to everyone, the churched and un-churched alike, all who desire to know more of the love, truth, and salvation of Jesus Christ. We invite you to partner with us, as we, "press Toward The Mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:14)
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