When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, Bettina Greaves was at a YMCA, dancing with GIs. The draft had just been renewed. Dancing with the boys was the patriotic thing for young women to do.
At the time, Greaves (pronounced Graves) says she couldn't have found Pearl Harbor on a map.
Now 92, not only can she locate the Hawaiian Naval base, but she also has spent decades reading about and researching the attack that shook the country and thrust the U.S. into a world war.
She spent 20 years editing and finding a publisher for her late husband's book on the subject. The first printed copy came to her in June.
As described by the publisher, the Ludwig von Mises Institute, "Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy" is "a 1,000-page indictment of Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration."
In it, the author and editor insist the attack on Pearl Harbor was not the complete surprise that U.S. officials claimed.
"History happened," Greaves said. "Our understanding of history is continually being improved."
In person, she dramatically improves the story. Sitting in a room at Sterling House, surrounded by her overflowing, wall-length bookshelves, she mentions 1940s military leaders with ease.
She can tick off the names of the 1941 Hawaiian commanders (Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Gen. Walter C. Short). She knows by heart the U.S. chief of Naval operations at the time (Admiral Harold R. Stark) and the U.S. Army chief of staff (Gen. George C. Marshall).
She laughs off compliments about her intellect.
"If your mind is still working by the time you're 90, you've learned a little bit," Greaves said.
What she's learned sometimes sounds like a screenplay.
She tells a story of a U.S.-intercepted message from Japan, the notorious "east wind, rain" weather report said to alert the Japanese in the states that war with America was on the horizon.
She paints a picture of a president whose wish for war undermined his country's security.
She spins a tale of a 70-year-old cover-up rooted in the World War II-era White House.
Greaves's late husband was a researcher for the Republican minority in 1945 and 1946. He worked for the joint congressional committee that investigated the Pearl Harbor attack. A freelance researcher and columnist, he lectured on the topic frequently, and began a book soon after the investigation.
Bettina Greaves was a former secretary for the Board of Economic Warfare and staff member for the Foundation for Economic Education when she met him.
In the years that followed, she often served as his editor, eventually resorting to making notes in the margins of his work instead of confronting him face-to-face with her suggestions. It was the best way to maintain marital harmony, she said.
In the early 1980s, Percy Greaves thought his book about the Pearl Harbor attack was finished. His wife didn't agree, so he told her if anything happened to him she could do what she wanted with the work.
When Percy Greaves died from pancreatic cancer in 1984, she took him at his word. She started with scissors, literally cutting the manuscript into pieces and reorganizing.
She believes getting the work into print is valuable, and she thinks the story it tells contains lessons for every generation.
Today, this is the patriotic thing she does.
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