{"id":982,"date":"2018-12-04T18:40:02","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T18:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moebergfilm.org\/?p=982"},"modified":"2018-12-04T18:40:02","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T18:40:02","slug":"remembering-pearl-harbor-moe-bergs-broadcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jawidesign.com\/test\/moeberg_dev\/2018\/12\/04\/remembering-pearl-harbor-moe-bergs-broadcast\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Pearl Harbor – Moe Berg’s Broadcast"},"content":{"rendered":"

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The attack led the United States to formally enter World War II and prompted Moe Berg to retire from baseball and take a post as a Goodwill Ambassador to Latin America. Before he left for South America, Berg made a radio broadcast. <\/span><\/p>\n

On February 24, 1942, Berg spoke directly to the Japanese people. To quote his biographers Harold and Meir Ribalow, “In fluent Japanese, [Moe Berg] pleaded at length, \u2018as a friend of the Japanese people,\u2019 for the Japanese to avoid a war \u2018you cannot win.\u2019” The Ribalows report, “Berg\u2019s address was so effective that several Japanese confirmed afterward they had wept while listening.” To read more about the address, visit <\/span>Moe Berg Blog<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Berg had gained his Japanese language skills during an American All-Star tour in Japan in 1934. By that time Japan was openly at odds with the United States. \u00a0Even though large crowds still gathered to see Babe Ruth, paranoia was everywhere. In his book \u201cThe Catcher Was a Spy\u201d Nicholas Dawidoff, an interviewee in Aviva Kempner’s upcoming film on Berg, tells of the \u201cmanic fear of spies\u2019 that was encouraged by Japanese newspapers. He says the Japanese thought every foreigner \u201ccame ostensibly as tourists, but in reality as military observers.\u201d <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>When he first arrived, Berg knew little Japanese. He eventually proved his reputation as a quick study correct which he rapidly picked up the language. In the years after the trip, Berg often shared the story of an exchange he had with Ruth about his linguistic skills. According to the retelling in Dawidoff\u2019s book, Ruth asked Berg, \u201cYou\u2019re such a linguist; do you speak Japanese?\u201d Berg responded, \u201cNo, I never had occasion to learn it.\u201d <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Two weeks later Ruth overheard Berg greeting someone at a ship dock in Japanese. Ruth said to Berg, \u201cWait a minute, you told me you didn\u2019t speak Japanese.\u201d Berg replied, \u201cThat was two weeks ago.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Berg had taken a 16-mm automatic movie camera with him; he had been contracted by a New York newsreel company to film sights from his trip. Soon after the radio broadcast, Berg contacted the FBI and offered to share the footage he had taken. Robert K. Fitts, who is another interviewee in Kempner’s upcoming documentary, recounts this in his book, \u201cBanzai Babe Ruth.\u201d \u00a0One film of particular interest was a shot Berg had filmed from the rooftop of the St. Luke\u2019s Tower, one of Tokyo\u2019s tallest buildings that Berg talked his way into using his linguist skills. The FBI found this footage intriguing and suggested he show it the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Some say this footage was later used to plan the bombing over Tokyo during World War II. \u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Berg went on to his post in South America and returned in February of 1943. Upon his return, he joined the OSS. To learn more about Moe Berg\u2019s time in Japan and his service in the OSS, please visit <\/span>http:\/\/moebergfilm.org\/<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The attack led the United States to formally enter World War II and prompted Moe Berg to retire from baseball and take a post as a Goodwill Ambassador to Latin America. Before he left for South America, Berg made a radio broadcast. On February 24, 1942, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jawidesign.com\/test\/moeberg_dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jawidesign.com\/test\/moeberg_dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jawidesign.com\/test\/moeberg_dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jawidesign.com\/test\/moeberg_dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jawidesign.com\/test\/moeberg_dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.jawidesign.com\/test\/moeberg_dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jawidesign.com\/test\/moeberg_dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jawidesign.com\/test\/moeberg_dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jawidesign.com\/test\/moeberg_dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}