• by Erik Sass , December 11, 2006

A government-censored story on Pearl Harbor has finally seen the light of day.

Last week, The New York Times posted digital versions of articles written in 1942 to commemorate the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the U.S. into World War II. The 15,000-word series, written in 1942 by Times reporter Robert Trumbull, detailed the Herculean project to salvage four battleships sunk by Japanese bombs and torpedoes.

What's shocking is that the six news stories were suppressed for 64 years--only to be available now, in their entirety, on the Web.

In the Dec. 7, 1941 attack, Japanese planes operating from aircraft carriers and armed with bombs and torpedoes damaged or sank 21 ships, including all eight battleships docked at Pearl Harbor--the core of the U.S. Pacific fleet. As the U.S. scrambled to put itself on a war footing in the months following the attack, workers at Pearl Harbor performed an incredible feat of engineering: raising and repairing the heavily damaged U.S.S. Nevada, California, West Virginia, and Oklahoma.

By detailing the successful recovery and repair of these powerful ships, Trumbull hoped to assuage the pride and restore the spirits of an anxious, angry nation. But the U.S. government had other priorities, as revealed in a fascinating series of documents posted on the Web site: the telegrams between Trumbull and his editor in New York, Edwin L. James.

With the approval of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the Pacific Fleet commander, the Department of the Navy "impounded" the Times articles, with the bizarre justification that Trumbull's "exclusive" look was unfair to other correspondents who wanted the same story.

Trumbull's reporting has elements of adventure, including a dangerous expedition into the hull of a sunken ship that is still remarkable journalism today.

The Times' digital publication of the original articles as PDFs took advantage of the power of the Web to massively expand on the paper's print edition, which published excerpts and an explanatory article by Lawrence Downes, the project's mastermind.

Andrew Rosenthal, associate editor of the Times editorial section, where the feature appeared, remarked: "This is the wonderful thing about the Internet. You can do unlimited publishing at almost no cost. These are great articles, obviously significant historically, but there's no way we can publish a 15,000-word series in the print edition."

Instead, the print edition directed curious readers to the Web site, where the full text was available.

The six typewritten articles are in standard copyediting format: double-spaced, big margins, with an editor's handwritten comments throughout. An overview article introduces the four articles that follow, each describing the salvage and repair of a ship, with a sixth article detailing a diving expedition into one of the ships.

Trumbull's frustration at the U.S. government's interference is evident. "It has been made clear to me that any personal enterprise I may show in running down any major story concerning the fleet will be wasted if it conflicts with the fleet policy of making all releasable news available to all correspondents."

Contemporary readers can appreciate his frustration. The reporter's enterprise had been considerable. For the sixth article, he donned a primitive diving suit attached to an air hose and explored the interior of the partially submerged U.S.S. Oklahoma, groping through spilled petroleum and deadly gases filling the hull.

In a telegram to the Navy liaison in Washington, Times editor James was even more blunt: "When an exclusive story is held up until it can be handed out to everyone, we register a most distinct complaint and ask what the hell is the use of having special correspondents everywhere." The Navy then back-pedaled, citing security as the reason for impounding the piece. The articles would wait 64 years for publication.

"There's something beautiful about these old documents being made available through the Internet," says Rosenthal. The Web site also includes a multimedia slide show with narration by Nancy Walden, the widow of a Navy lieutenant involved in the salvage efforts.