Between 1937 and 1941, Japan was engaged in the Second Sino-Japanese War, seeking to expand its territorial influence, military power and resource reserves. The conflict resulted in the deaths of countless civilians throughout China. The United States placed successive embargoes on oil, airplane parts, aircraft-building materials, steel, lubricating oil and gasoline for aircraft. Japan, which relied on imported American material in its war against China, was angered by the American response.
American and German relations were also strained. President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted the Lend-Lease Policy on March 11, 1941, allowing the United States to supply Allied nations including Great Britain, the Soviet Union and China with food, oil and other goods to combat the Axis Powers.
U.S. and German naval forces were tense in the months before the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. On Sept. 4, 1941, the USS Greer, an American ship transporting mail to Iceland, was fired upon by German submarine U-652. The incident came weeks after the American cargo ship Robin Moor was attacked by U-69 on May 21.
Other attacks by German U-boats followed. The Danish steamship Sessa was sunk on Aug. 17, 1941; three survivors, including one American, were rescued by the U.S. Navy on Sept. 6. One day earlier, the American freighter Steel Seafarer was torpedoed while traveling from New York to Suez, Egypt.
In response, Roosevelt announced the “shoot-on-sight” policy. In the following weeks, several American ships were attacked, including the USS Salinas on Sept. 30, the USS Kearny on Oct. 17 and the USS Reuben James on Oct. 31. The Reuben James was the first U.S. Navy ship lost to an enemy combatant; of its 160 crew members, 45 survived.
Less than a week later, on Nov. 6, 1941, the USS Omaha and USS Somers intercepted the German ship Odenwald, which was disguised as the American merchantman Willmoto. American servicemen boarded the vessel after its crew abandoned it, and all 46 crew members were captured. The vessel was towed to Puerto Rico and legally captured.
These often-forgotten moments faced by American naval personnel came in the months before the attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into World War II. They remain a reminder of those who served during that period and those who joined shortly afterward.
Michael T. Naya Jr. is a Kenilworth resident and social studies teacher in the Elizabeth Public School District. Since 2016, he has interviewed more than 200 World War II veterans throughout the United States.