Admiral Kimmel wrote a book many years ago document the breaking of the codes and that the commanders at Pearl Harbor (he and Gen Short) were hung out to dry by Washington. They didn’t believe their Battleships could be sunk by aircraft. They missed the British attack on Taranto.
We knew about the fleet sailing the Fleet at Pearl Harbor was not warned.
Kimmel and Short were not “hung out to dry”.
We did not know that Kido Butai was moving to atttack Hawaii. We just knew they were under radio silence, which happened often. We also knew that Japan was up to something, probably including Malaya and the Philipines.
The disasters at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines had many fathers on the American side.
-Poor handling of intelligence
-Poor communication between Washington and field commanders
-Divided command
-Failure to put forces on a war footing when war became imminent (particularly bad in the Philippines).
-Shortage of proper equipment
-Failure to use equipment properly (Radar)
But it was not a set up. We knew something was up, but failed to act quickly and be prepared for anything. So when the enemy hit an unexpected spot, we got our clock cleaned.
However, only one out of four field commanders did everything properly.
Short failed, had he done his job, his entire air force would not have been wiped out on the ground, lined up in pretty rows to make the job easier.
Kimmel did not fail, but suffered the fate of any Admiral in his situation. Lose your fleet, lose your job. He should have at least had the base on a war footing and not had peacetime shore leave in place.
MacArthur should have been court-martialed for dereliction of duty given his manifest failures in the Philippines.
Only Admiral Hart of the Asiatic Fleet did his job correctly, following plans and keeping his fleet intact until it was simply overwhelmed.
I assume then that you have read Kimmel’s book “Admiral Kimmel’s Story”? I haven’t bothered to read that particular one yet myself. I think if you keep reading these threads you will see that Pearl had sufficient warning to make the correct decisions, but did not.