U.S.S. Panay
Photo Source: NPS

Much has been said and written about the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii by the Japanese on December 7, 1941 and how it led us into World War II. I have seen things written that indicate Roosevelt couldn't wait to get into the war and even Churchill was credited with saying how surprised he was at Roosevelt's anxiousness to get involved. As with everything your hear, you never seem to get the entire story. Let me give you a little more background on our entry into World War II, and you might even be surprised at the fact that we didn't enter the war sooner.

The USS Panay was built as a shallow draft gunboat by the U.S. Navy. It's purpose was to patrol rivers in China, mainly the Yangtze River. It's purpose was to stop river pirates from attacking American ships. It seems that area was very heavily pirated in those days. The ship had been constructed about ten years before and was clearly marked as an American ship. It also sported a huge American flag at it's stern. When the Chinese Civil War broke out, the ship was being used to protect American nationals. On 21 November, 1937, the Japanese attacked Nanking. Some of the personnel from the American Embassy, those that hadn't already left, boarded the Panay and departed. Before the Panay got underway, the Ambassador notified the Japanese that some of his people were leaving the city on the Panay.

This all seemed to settle things, after all, we were not at war with the Japanese. As the American boat went up river, it escorted three American oil barges and was joined by several British gunboats. As these boats went along, Japanese shore batteries fired on them several times even though they knew that the boats were American and British. It is suggested that the idea was to get them to fire back and then declare war, but they didn't fire back.

On 12 December 1937 the Panay and three tankers was anchored near Hoshien. A huge American flag had been painted on top of an awning that covered the rear of the boat and all American flags were hoisted, including the huge American flag on the stern. The ship's guns were covered and the crew was enjoying a Sunday dinner. Sounds familiar doesn't it, the parallel to Pearl Harbor is astounding? As everyone was enjoying their dinner, a fleet of Japanese Navy planes flew over and bombed the Panay. There was no doubt that they knew that they were bombing an American ship. More planes attacked, some strafed the ship. The crew tried to man the gun positions and fired but didn't hit anything. After about a half hour it became obvious that the ship was going to sink. The captain ordered everyone into the life boats. As the boats tried to make it to shore, the Japanese strafed them all the way in. The Panay was sunk, some of our people were killed and two of our oil barges were blown out of the water. The U.S. opened a court of inquiry and it's decision was that we were attacked on purpose.

In 1937 a Gallop poll was taken and over 70% of Americans polled wanted us to withdraw from China.

The story doesn't end here however. One of the two British ships was also hit. The H.M.S. Ladybird, a British gunboat was fired upon by the Japanese on December 12, 1937 as she was up river of the Panay. The ship was shot at the water line and repairs had to be made. The H.M.S. Bee another British gunboat had also been fired upon. Some people say it was hit, but I don't believe that it was. The fact remains, it was still fired upon with malicious intent.

Why did we wait until Pearl Harbor to build up and go to war with Japan? It certainly was obvious that they were going to try and provoke us when ever they could, to get us to declare war. Knowing this, why weren't we ready at Pearl Harbor? When you analyze the facts ,it seems that we were totally incompetent. Not only were our ships sitting ducks at Pearl but our planes were stacked together in such a way that one bomb could destroy several at a time. When radar spotted the Japanese planes, no one even checked it out. It may be that Pearl Harbor shouldn't be called a surprise attack but a attack that succeeded due to the incompetence of our leaders at the time.

USS Panay Stats:

The USS PANAY was commissioned September 10, 1928. Named for an island of the Philippines, she was built for duty on the Yangtze Patrol.

Patrol Craft

Displacement 450 tons

Draft 5’3”