The Defense of Pearl Harbor

Note on Conspiracy Theories

by Marvin Scott

The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor changed the United States in long lastingways. The next day, December 8, 1941, the U. S. Congress declared war on Japan. That would be enough to make the attack a significant turning point, but there was more. Even after World War II ended, Americans have been haunted by the specter of "another Pearl Harbor." During the Cold War, we built elaborate radar networks, missile sites, and air bases all to defend against surprise attacks. Over fifty years after the event, books on Pearl Harbor sell well. Some publishers will put Pearl Harbor in the book titles even when the book is not about it. Among conspiracy buffs, Pearl Harbor ranks with little green men in Roswell, New Mexico and the Kennedy assassination.

Most conspiracy theories rely on a paranoid viewpoint and twenty-twenty hindsight to make their case. Much is made of the fact that certain documents held by intelligence officers in Washington were not passed on to local commanders. But intelligence information is routinely kept very restricted and passed only to those with a "need to know." To pass such material around risks compromising sources. One fact that seems to indicate the Japanese were interested in Pearl Harbor is their request to their spy in Hawaii to send details of ships in the harbor. It looks like such a clear indication until you find that they asked for the same information on the other Pacific bases of the U.S. Navy.

Admiral Kimmel leads the parade. His book, Admiral Kimmel's Story (1955),quotes messages he reviewed, and lists and quotes long lists of items not viewed by him. He seems to feel that there was a political plot to set up Pearl Harbor for attack and claims most of the investigations were rigged from the start. Kimmel was relieved of duty after the attack and never given another command. There is some sympathy for his case among U.S. Navy writers and in the U.S. Congress. After all, the commanders who failed to defend the Philippines, Malaya and Singapore did not suffer that fate. Some of them went on to become heroes.

James Rushbridger and Eric Nave do not buy the "Roosevelt as conspirator" theory. Their book, Betrayal at Pearl Harbor: How Churchill Lured Roosevelt into WWII (1991), is more creative. The thesis is that British intelligence knew Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked, and Churchill withheld the information from Roosevelt. The key "evidence" is a message decoded in November, 1941, ordering task force JN-25 to move out November 26 and be in position December 4. The problem is that the course to follow is not given. The authors admit that there were at least four possible targets, Pearl Harbor, Singapore, Manila, and Java. They use 20/20 hindsight and arrive at the conclusion it had to be Pearl Harbor. This calls for two mind reading acts. First, read the Japanese navy's mind about the choice of targets. Second, Churchill had to read Roosevelt's mind about his reaction to the attack. What if Roosevelt decided to fight Japan and ignore Germany? That would be a disaster for Britain. Note: Roosevelt asked for and Congress passed a declaration of war against Japan on December 8, 1941. They did not declare war on Germany. Hitler declared war on the U. S.

Robert B. Stinnett has a more conventional approach and new documentation in Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor (2000). Stinnett claims he found the document that shows a U.S. government plot to get into war with Japan. The document in question was written in 1940 by a naval intelligence officer. There is no evidence it was even seen by anybody higher than the Director of the Office of Naval Intelligence. He prints the document. Unfortunately it does not live up to his analysis. Of the eight points listed, two were already being done before it was written and two were never done. Worst of all, the document does not specify an attack on Pearl Harbor as the goal. It doesn't even use the word "war."

The next book takes an even bigger leap. In Great Britain it was, Bywater: the Man WhoInvented the Pacific War by William H. Honan (1990). In the United States it became Visions of Infamy: The Untold Story of How Journalist Hector C. Bywater Devised the Plan That Led to Pearl Harbor (1991). Hector C. Bywater was a prominent journalist who specialized in naval matters even to the extent of serving as a naval intelligence agent during World War I. He met a lot of celebrities including Fred Jane and lots of navy men. He interviewed Yamamoto. The young Franklin D. Roosevelt published comment on one of his articles.

Bywater was a ship modeler who built working models and sailed them in wargames on a pond near his home. His most famous work is The Great Pacific War based on a wargame. In it he predicts some of the strategies that would be used sixteen years later in World War II. The Japanese studied this book. But Bywater clearly did not foresee the attack on Pearl Harbor. The closest he came was an attack on the Philippines by the Japanese fleet

It's kind of fun to read the conspiracy books and look for the hole in the argument. Usually it's big enough to drive an aircraft carrier through. Still, I believe there was a conspiracy. It was carefully planned and well executed by the Japanese navy.

More Pearl Harbor

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