When someone starts talking “truth”, my radar goes into hyper-drive.
Unless it’s iron clad, I consider it an attempt at a history rewrite, and not the good kind. Makes me angry.
I think I’ll stick with my own sources. Here are the two letters I plan to send out on this anniversary.
Pearl Harbor Attack Unexpected
Revisionists offer arguments that Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Cordell Hull, and George Marshall foreknew the Pearl Harbor attack. These authors review historical events for those few data points that indicate an overwhelming attack. However, living history forward means accumulating and discerning patterns from 10,000’s of data points coming from humint, radio traffic analysis, code breaking, etc.
The Pearl Harbor attack astonished the administration and military professionals. Never before had even two carriers for any country planned and/or coordinated an attack on a naval or land target. No inkling existed in any allied Naval operational and intelligence community of a capability beyond the 21 bi-plane torpedo bombers from a single British carrier that attacked the Italian Navy at Taranto.
Yet, for Pearl Harbor the Japanese had forged a strategic weapon of six carriers with escorts and auxiliaries for a coordinated attack by 360 planes. The attack was not only unprecedented, but unexpected, because all preparations were conducted without recourse to the diplomatic Purple Code that U.S. codebreakers were reading in substantial portions. The U.S. had no agents in Japan and the Imperial Japanese Navy excluded the diplomatic corps from their plans.
To solve problems regarding bombing, torpedoes, and underway refueling the attack plan relied on oral doctrines and technical innovations developed during the last ninety days prior to deployment. Therefore, even reading the naval JN25 code vital for Midway would placed the ships at Pearl Harbor.
The attack was a truly unexpected and improbable use of the Japanese air fleet.
The Tragedy of Pearl Harbor
For Pearl Harbor the Japanese forged a strategic weapon of six heavy carriers for a coordinated attack by 360 planes on Sunday December 7. Never before had any country executed and/or planned a raid by more than two carriers on any naval or land target. No inkling existed within any allied operational or intelligence community of a capability beyond the 21 torpedo bombers a British carrier used to attack the Italian Navy at Taranto.
On Christmas Day 1941 Admiral Chester Nimitz arrived to take command. When he arrived he saw a sunken battle fleet and was assailed by a poisonous atmosphere from black oil, charred wood, burned paint, and rotting flesh. However, he found the public’s perception was wrong. The carriers, their escorts, and the submarines stood ready to take the offensive.
The unexpected tragedy of Pearl Harbor for Japan required them to contend with the U.S. Navy from their forward base in Hawaii rather than forcing their enemy to begin operations from the West coast. The dry-dock, repair shops, and tank farm were intact. Nimitz immediately sent submarines into Japanese waters, and conducted carrier operations thwarting Japanese initiatives. Admiral Raymond Spruance said of Nimitz, “The one big thing about him was that he was always ready to fight….And he wanted officers who would push the fight to the Japanese”.
Partial Bibliography:
Nimitz by E.B. Potter
And I Was There by Rear Admiral Edwin T. Layton
At Dawn We Slept by Gordon W. Prange
Admiral Harry Ervin Yarnell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_E._Yarnell
Lexington-class aircraft carrier (78 aircraft)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexington_class_aircraft_carrier
USS Saratoga (CV-3) (78 aircraft)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Saratoga_(CV-3)
Yarnell used 152 airplanes for his simulated attack leaving nothing to defend the task forces.
“Reflections on Pearl Harbor “ by Admiral Chester Nimitz
http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/388783-christopher-menkin/242946-reflections-on-pearl-harbor-by-admiral-chester-nimitz
Naval History: Pearl Harbor’s Overlooked Answer
http://www.usni.org/magazines/navalhistory/2011-12/pearl-harbors-overlooked-answer
Below is a link to a 3 minute video that commemorates the
U.S.S. ARIZONA and the U.S.S. MISSOURI at Pearl Harbor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulAhmm7R4fA
1st read Robert Stinnett’s Day of Deception. Then reflect on what happened so many years ago.
On the website page where the hell did they get that uniform, from a bellhop?
I think that FDR knew something was coming, but expected the blow to fall in the Philippines (which were hit 8 hours later). The attack at Pearl Harbor was a shock to everyone except Admiral James O. Richardson, who was removed as CINCPAC due to his concerns about moving the fleet to Pearl Harbor earlier that year. He is not recorded as telling everyone that he told them so, be he surely would have been justified.
C-Span2’s “In Depth” this month was dedicated to Pearl Harbor with three historians talking and answering viewers’ questions on the topic for three hours this afternoon - for those interested, it’ll be repeated tonight at Midnight EST on C-Span2 - in fact it’s scheduled to be repeated whether anyone’s interested or not.....