================================================= From: Philip H. Jacobsen List Editor: "H-DIPLO [Laderman]" Editor's Subject: Cryptology and Pearl Harbor [Jacobsen] Author's Subject: Cryptology and Pearl Harbor [Jacobsen] Date Written: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 05:30:16 GMT Date Posted: Tue, 6 Feb 2001 12:16:25 0500
The last paragraph of this document is:
Let me assure everyone concerned that the people that worked both on JN-25B and the traffic analysis of Japanese naval communications in late 1941 were dedicated, competent and and experienced professionals. With a much larger staff, up to date equipment and dedicated communications circuits perhaps the outcome might have been different. Any blame should be placed on those who didn't provide the resources to do so. A few dedicated men with relatively little to work with did an excellent job of sifting through two complete call sign changes within a month as well as many other wartime security measures employed by the Japanese including almost complete radio silence and still came up with the a lot of information on the massive Japanese fleet intentions and movements of November/December 1941. And they were and are not now engaged in any conspiracy or coverup.
[N.B., the and and appears in the original text]
In particular, from the above is seen, ... other wartime security measures employed by the Japanese included almost complete radio silence ...
The operative words here are, of course, almost complete ...
Yup, Phils own words here ...
[Recognize that Phil was not there ... he is not an "eye witness."]
========================================================= Another reference for you:
But, to extend this a bit more, from The Week Before Pearl Harbor by A. A. Hoehling (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, NY, 1963), in the Epilogue is to be found on Page 200:
... That panic gripped the second deck of the Navy Department immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor is beyond reasonable dispute. One officer, then in intelligence, now in a high post in the Navy, told this writer that he went to his office safe one morning to find that a number of magic dispatches were mysteriously missing. He never retrieved them.
ONI, in fact, had done such a thorough housecleaning of its top-secret and secret as well as not-so-secret files, that, according to another officer on duty at the time, not even a departmental organization chart of November and December, 1941, could ever be found. ...
Or, on Page 204:
... There are a few specialists, circa 1941, who insist that their memories as well must bear the secret tag. A leading cryptanalyst, in retirement, hinting at a kind of passive brain-washing, with his pension as a lever, maintains he has been ordered not to discuss those long-ago codes and ciphers. However, the National Security Council, which he indirectly accused, has denied not only the allegations but any interest in the World War II period. ...
Perhaps of note in passing, within Hoehlings text (released some 22 years after the attack) are interviews with several principals, e.g., Stark, Kimmel, Bicknell, McCollum, Rochefort, ..., etc.
You have read this text - perhaps not. The US Navy using a pension as leverage for silence ... my, my ...
But, also note, for some this text might conveniently fall outside of their timeline of relevant Pearl Harbor related text. After all, JN25 in any variant is not mentioned, while Safford is quoted using Operations Code at the top of Page 76.
=========================================
And another reference for you:
From: Tim Lanzendoerfer List Editor: "H-DIPLO [Moser]" Editor's Subject: Pearl Harbor Debate [Lanzendoerfer] Author's Subject: Pearl Harbor Debate [Lanzendoerfer] Date Written: Mon, 16 Oct 2000 23:10:41 +0200 Date Posted: Tue, 17 Oct 2000 10:57:01 -0400
As taken from the above document:
There was one occasion, amply documented. There were no others. Why should the Japanese document the one occasion, but not the claimed others? Why should they broadcast this one occasion on a Navy frequency, but the claimed others on a merchant marine one? Why should they throw away their security with that? They undoubtly had a communications plan; it is documented in Prange's _At Dawn We Slept_ among others -- it was simply not to communicate with any means that could be traced from far away. They did once, because they had to. They did so in an absolutely critical situation, where the presence of the oiler force was required soon and its absence would force the operation to be cancelled. A tiny, short message was despatched, by a Kido Butai leadership that was positively terrified that it had to breach security like that. Unless Professor Villa asks us that we throw out of the window these facts which Prange and others have firmly established through interviews and archival research, for the rather dubious claims of one merchant vessel's radio operator, I do not see how we can ignore all of this.
=======================================
One more reference:
The Pacific War
John Costello
Rawson, Wade Publishers, Inc.
New York, 1981
Copyright by Atlantic Communications, Inc.
ISBN 0-89256-206-4
(Co-author with Layton and Pineau of And I was there ... from 1985. Note that many of the maps are shared ...]
Saffords letter to Kramer Page 647:
Be prudent and patient. I am just beginning to get things line [sic] up on this end. No one in Opnav can be trusted. Premature action will only tip off the people who framed Admiral Kimmel and Gen. Short, and will also get Safford and Kramer in very serious trouble. Yet we must have the backing, the rank, and the prestige afforded by Adm. Halsey. Tell Halsey that I knew Adm. Kimmel was a scapegoat from the start, but I did not suspect that he was the victim of a frameup until about 15 December 1943, could not confirm it until 2 December 1943, and did not have absolute proof until about 18 Jan 1944. Capt. Safford has overwhelming proof of the guilt of Opnav and the Gen. Staff, plus a list of fifteen reliable witnesses.
You and Phil et. al., were saying ...?
======================================================
Very curious this Pearl Harbor topic notwithstanding what Phil says. Far to many inconsistencies as noted earlier ... Why is that?