MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: This is KPBS Midday Edition, I am Maureen Cavanaugh. A lot of people keep diaries of the daily events but the buyer very posted for the first time yesterday is one-of-a-kind. It traces the movements of intelligence and situations for every day of World War II in the Pacific. It was compiled by a man who was in a position to know that kind of information, the so-called gray book was in possession of Admiral Chester Nimitz the commander of the Pacific feet fleet in the war against Japan. City of the close connection to Admiral Nimitz baby of prominent Boulevard in point lead away in his hombre and until recently San Diego with the hope port for the USS Nimitz the largest one of largest walk worships in the world. Joining me to discuss the posting of the online diary is a John had North, professor of maritime history at Naval war College. Welcome to the show. This daily apparently starts on at December 7, 1941, the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor and it continues almost until the actual and the signing of the treaty that ended the war in the Pacific and in the December 1945, visits you that Admiral Nimitz and his staff This as a document for history? JOHN HATTENDORF: It was actually a working document and it was not personally kept by Nimitz himself up by his staff, but is an extremely important document, it's really not a running estimate of the situation, it was a method of leadership and management of the war that was being taught by the Naval world college in the 1920s and 30s, and Admiral Nimitz was felt that he learned everything about senior command through his education at the Naval war College, and it was always in very nice to the war College and appreciative of his education here and here and actually proves it because maybe does it before but it wasn't just nice action should in this document as the crowning expression of the war college education between the wars. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: That is how the gray book ended up at the Naval war College? JOHN HATTENDORF: Will the actual document itself is in the Naval history and heritage command archives in Washington, it's part of Nimitz's personal papers it was not And he did not submit as an official record, he kept it with his personal record and is unique in it survived, we don't know any other similar major commanders that has such a preserved such a document, and it big fact what we wanted people to our we're teaching people to do is how to monitor the war and had also serve running estimates and the newer backup documents and what you can see is here as an area and the major commander for the whole Pacific, a joint commander had it records the estimate of the situation that happening but also his orders coming in the latest in information from other commanders, that he is receiving so everything is right there in front of him MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Let me interrupt you for a moment, when and where was this diary originally discovered? JOHN HATTENDORF: It's been around for years, it was classified up until 1972 and gave Nimitz is papers to the Navy and the archives after his death in the 1960s, and it was kept there and is actually with his papers with his operations to the book was buried in the Pacific during the war and you see all those papers together MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: And to be clear this was not a diary that was kept by Admiral Nimitz, this is a compilation of the daily operational messages that his staff compiled about how the war in the Pacific was going day by day, all throughout the World War II in the Pacific, what do you think they'd Admiral Nimitz keep all of these papers? As you say, this is a one-of-a-kind outline of how things are going in the war. JOHN HATTENDORF: It wasn't just somebody in the background, he was doing this is due in for his own use every day, so he did keep track of the idea was what we're teaching of the time was a senior commander has to be very alert to changes in what is going on so you have to check to see if his orders for right and maybe he needed us to modify them that kind of thing, as I hear doing and in the later part of it he is initialing every day, and each of these summaries that his staff is very, and in their their debate that he is having an court records of debates for staff members about what course of action to take, there's some debate about what operational order should be given in there even documents that save intelligence documents where you say Nimitz eyes only, it's very rare record. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Can you possibly read us an excerpt from this? JOHN HATTENDORF: No, I don't have it in front of me. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Okay. JOHN HATTENDORF: It's 4000 pages of blogging is now available for everyone to look at on the internet and you can go to his website and actually search it, it's still a work in progress and it's about 60% of it is readable and will have to go through eventually and make the rest of it readable by transcribing it. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: I am speaking with John had North, he is a professor of maritime history of the Naval war College and he is We're talking about the gray ball of the gray book of Admiral Chester do next being made available online it's a day by day summary of the Pacific war and World War II, do we get a sense of Admiral Nimitz here? JOHN HATTENDORF: Very much, he is very much a remarkable person and you can see that if you considered everyone's opinions and very calmly made his decisions, what he felt was the best course of action to take, and it wasn't the end all submitted all, it he was very thoughtful. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: There are many days and months when the word the Pacific was going quite badly for the United States, is there in this compilation any sense of concern or frustration in the centuries that you can read? I know that the leg which is rather drive by it you get that sense that these people who were compiling this operational diary were concerned about what was happening? JOHN HATTENDORF: Sure, there is a concern but it's a professional concern giving him information and allies especially the British and intelligence reports come in to him and there are few operation orders in there as well and all of this sort of thing is compiled there for him, so he we have a brief summary and a backup document for everyday work because this is a treasure trove for historians of World War II especially the war in the Pacific. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: I understand that internet traffic was so heavy yesterday it crashed the website. JOHN HATTENDORF: It crashed once, but we got it back up. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Why do you think is important to publish this online? JOHN HATTENDORF: Been professor teaching the course in what was sure he wanted it out for his course and he was able to get art foundation to raise funds for it very generously and it really reveals how the senior commander thinks of that is what the work process is all about what or college is all about her to teach that in for the event we had a golden Mrs. Karen said here and they were reminiscing about their grandfather and his calm ways that the grandson. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: Obviously you have looked at these papers had you know these papers, how do you think scholars are going to be able to use this information? JOHN HATTENDORF: I think it would be a great resource, there'll be a few that if you sit so far of ethics for really opened up now before you have to make the trip to the Washington and get into the secure area of the Washington Navy and using is now open to everybody in the world and I think you'll learn a lot more about it, and how this affects staff at work and all of that, it's never been really closely studied and will fight a lot from that and find out more about Nimitz leadership style and there's a lot in detail that we have known from other sources, this is really the most authoritative source and send with the commander-in-chief is looking at every day for his understanding of the war so you get the fourth perspective and his perspective which is a great contribution. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: What was the most surprising thing that you learn about the Avenue Admiral because these papers? JOHN HATTENDORF: I did not realize that he was such a calm and thoughtful person, at least to the extent that we can see now that he was, and considering different viewpoints, I think that is great tribute to him. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: We go to day by day, a lot of it is a war historian will be a bit dry, is there any part of the gray book that may be of more interest to the general public? JOHN HATTENDORF: I don't know, it's all of interest to me because I am a historian, it's hard to separate that from the bites right off you can see the first few days it actually starts before it he became commander-in-chief, in December 7, 1941 and the staff is recording right now the Japanese just want to Pearl Harbor today and these are the actions that you can see how the staff is shocked by this and beginning to think how to react this and how to mobilize the forces and recover from the impact, that is really very dramatic in the opening parts of this and you can see to a number of other cases through the war, as it works through your the sense of detail it's enormous detail and it's still boiled down in the sense that it is an interesting format but still 4000 pages. A lot of information. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: You said this is now available to the public with little bump along the road, this is open to the public online and anyone can access it? JOHN HATTENDORF: That is right you can Google the gray book or go to our website. MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: We also have a link on our website. It would thank you so much, thank you for taking the time to speak with us about this. JOHN HATTENDORF: Thank you very much, I enjoyed it.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The U.S. Naval War College released a trove of World War II information Monday by posting online the operational diary kept by the Pacific commander, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, during the war against Japan.
The 4,000-page multivolume collection includes a running summary of the situation for every day of the war in the Pacific compiled by Nimitz’s planning staff. It is the only known similar document to survive from the war, said Prof. John Hattendorf, who teaches maritime history at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.
The Nimitz ‘‘Graybook’’ is named for the gray material in which it is bound, is posted at www.usnwc.edu/graybook. Traffic was so heavy Monday that downloads of the document were inaccessible for several hours. A spokeswoman for the Naval War College said the problem was mostly fixed by Monday afternoon.
The diary begins on Dec. 7, 1941, the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor, with the line: ‘‘The war opened with the attack of Japanese aircraft on Oahu.’’ It goes on to list the locations of the Navy’s forces throughout the Pacific, the damage sustained that day and what is known about the enemy’s position.
Nimitz’s planning staff prepared a similar summary for him every day of the war. Unlike other commanders during World War II, Nimitz kept them, and the diary was found in his personal papers, Hattendorf said. It also includes supporting documentation for the summaries, including the orders Nimitz received from Washington and elsewhere, intelligence information from other commanders and exactly what his fleet units were doing.
The entries run through Aug. 31, 1945, as the war in the Pacific came to an end.
The diary was declassified in 1972 and is kept at the Naval History and Heritage Command in Washington, making it accessible only to those who can travel there. Hattendorf said the project to digitize it, make the text searchable and put it online will make it easier for scholars worldwide to study the diary and what Nimitz knew as he made command decisions.
‘‘We'll really be able to understand in a much better way how Adm. Nimitz thought and the challenges he saw every day of the war,’’ he said. ‘‘It can be searched for particular information, when particular information was known by the commander, how we reacted to a particular change ... what the president was telling him.’’
Nimitz, who died in 1966, graduated from the War College and lectured there several times. The project was funded through the Naval War College Foundation.
