AMERICA DEMANDS THE TRUTH ABOUT PEARL HARBOR
Villard, Oswald Garrison
America Demands The Truth About Pearl Harbor By OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD THE decision by Congress to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the diplomatic and military developments leading up...
...There is no more vital point than this...
...The whole theory of the War and Navy Departments from then on was, however, that Japan would not attack Pearl Harbor until the war was well under way and that the immediate danger point was not Hawaii, but lay in the Southwestern Pacific.in the direction in which the Japanese advance on Malaya, Java, etc., did develop...
...Hull was the President's subordinate, and Mr...
...actually Japanese midget submarines entered and safely left Pearl Harbor undetected days before Dec...
...Short and Adm...
...AS for the professional efficiency of Adm...
...Yet that he had taken this stand was no more communicated to the commanders at Pearl Harbor than was the fact that he had sent the message of Nov...
...7, 1941 to the middle of April-, 1942, to meet and agree upon a joint defense of the Atlantic coast during which time we lost the bulk of our tanker fleet...
...Actually, however, the document, which Mr...
...Nor do we have the answers to many other vital questions which are needed not only because the nation is entitled to the whole story of the Pearl Harbor disaster, but perhaps more important, as Dr...
...It calls for rigid cross-examination by civilians determined to get at the truth at any cost...
...Kimmel in abandoning it because of the lack of the proper planes and for other reasons...
...That I have been urging for a long time...
...As the Wall Street Journal has pointed out: "It is perfectly possible to recite all the facts in a given case without revealing the truth...
...One thing the reports bring out clearly...
...7. Whatever this officer's merits or demerits, he is entitled to a real day in court, and as one who believes that both he and Gen...
...Hull now says that it was a very generous offer that he made, giving the Japanese "substantially the economic and other advantages they sought in Asia, provided they would give up their aggressive policies...
...The fact that he himself had been continuing to talk peace to these same Japanese envoys for all the days after he had told Viscount Halifax that the matter of peace or war was no longer in the hands of the diplomats, but rested solely in those of the Army and Navy, he has never stressed in any letter that I have yet seen...
...There was only one radar set, and that was being used less for protection than for the instruction of untrained officers and men...
...Certainly nothing brought out in the Army report shows that Gen...
...The hour has now come when they should be clearly vindicated, or their errors of judgment set forth beyond any question...
...Marshall knew early in 1941 that there were rumors from responsible sources in Tokyo that Pearl Harbor might be attacked...
...Of course the Army and Navy system was hopelessly antiquated...
...There is still much light to be thrown...
...Short have had an extremely raw deal in being compelled to wait for three and three-quarters years in a state of professional suspension and contumely, I think that the least that should be done for them is to give them the opportunity to appear before an unbiased committee of Congress accompanied by counsel and free to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth...
...GRANTING the system was deficient, two great questions remain : first, were Gen...
...The attack at Pearl Harbor was no surprise...
...This is in itself a remarkable confession of appeasement...
...Final judgment on that policy cannot be passed by Army and Navy officers...
...Kimmel Were any more made aware of the ending of negotiations than was the American public...
...It was promptly discounted in Washington, partly because it was doubted in the Tokyo Embassy itself by some of Mr...
...7, 1941 has rightly won the enthusiastic approval of the entire nation...
...The original determination of the Truman Administration and the Army and Navy brass hats to squelch a civilian inquiry was vetoed by the people themselves who were, shocked by this brazen attempt to keep the whole truth from coming out...
...Majority Leader Alben Barkley, author of the investigation resolution, promised that the inquiry would be conducted without partisanship or favoritism toward "any responsible official, military, naval, or civilian, high or low, living or dead...
...But here again Gen...
...Still another alibi offered for the Army and Navy is the familiar one that they did not have the materials on hand to enable them to carry on war efficiently...
...It is something to have men in Army and Navy uniforms censure not only the active commanders, but go out of their way to criticize the Chief-of-Staff, the active head of the Navy, and the Secretary of State...
...Roosevelt was pushing Japan into war...
...I quoted a major-general—anonymously of course— who said that if war came there would be grave danger of the Army and Navy air forces colliding in mid-air because neither would know what the other was going to do—a charge completely borne out when war came by the fact that it took the two services from Dec...
...The careful analysis of what took place to be found in the Army report is welcome indeed...
...That the newly published 144,000 word reports have advanced our knowledge of the situation is happily true...
...We do not know yet why we were caught so tragically asleep at Pearl Harbor when the late Mr...
...Furthermore, Mr...
...Months in advance, as far back as January, 1941, the State Department was put on notice by Ambassador Grew that important circles in Tokyo declared that the Japanese were planning a sneak attack upon Pearl Harbor...
...Short were told nothing about it, just as the American public was kept in total ignorance of the gravity of this provocative document which did help to bring on the war, until long after Pearl Harbor...
...Was this any more ethical...
...This is where the State Department is dragged in...
...That it is true is the belief of multitudes of Americans who do not agree with Mr...
...do just that...
...Historians will have to take sides on it for all time to come if they undertake to find out just how much the United States was responsible for the war and how much the Japanese, and whether Oliver Lyttleton, a Minister in the Cabinet of Winston Churchill, told the truth when he blurted out that everybody knew that Mr...
...Why did not the War Department drop everything else then to protect Pearl Harbor...
...Airplanes were coming in from the mainland without ammunition and entirely unprepared for attack...
...We need a vigorous civilian inquiry—and the Congressional investigation must be just that—to'carry this probe right through to the bitter end and let us know exactly why it was that our Government was playing a double game with the Japanese and the American public...
...Nor is the fact borne out that the task force which was sent to relieve and strengthen Midway Island was told—according to a publication permitted by the censor and the Navy Department—to sink any Japanese ship that might happen along, with all on board, so that no word would get back to Tokyo that Midway was being strengthened...
...Whether it was an ultimatum or not, it was a crucial document...
...NOW obviously it was beyond the scope of the Army and Navy courts of inquiry to go into these matters in detail...
...In my book Our Military Chaos, printed in 1939, I pointed out that our defense was planless, that the War and Navy Departments were inefficient and wasteful, and that there was totally inadequate cooperation between the Army and the Navy...
...There were not enough planes to carry on the necessary air reconnaissance and the Navy court upholds Adm...
...I never heard of it, and I have been writing Army and Navy comments longer than I dare admit—including 21 years as Army and Navy Editor of the New York Evening Post...
...Hull says was not an ultimatum, demanded that the Japanese give up all their conquests and retire largely to their homeland...
...There is room for suspicion that the Pearl Harbor reports...
...When was there a time when the Army and Navy chiefs did not pass the buc,k...
...After all, Mr...
...Kimmel professionally competent, and second, and even more important, were they given sufficient information to enable them to get a clear picture of the actual situation...
...Hull sent for the two Japanese envoys who had been talking peace to him while their fleet was approaching Pearl Harbor for its dastardly attack, and blistered them with language of a character never before heard in the Department of State, according to contemporary reports...
...In defense of Secretary Hull his hitherto unpublished letter of Sept...
...We need to know more about this...
...26, 1941, is not true...
...Yet these matters are fundamental if we are to have the true picture of what occurred and who was responsible...
...That is undoubtedly true...
...NOR is it a satisfactory alibi to put the responsibility for the disaster upon the system...
...26 to Japan...
...Yet Adm...
...Let its for once end Army and Navy buncombe and have the whole truth...
...WHEN Pearl Harbor took place Mr...
...Hull that it was not an "ultimatum...
...Grew's aides, and the Army and Navy promptly pooh-poohed the idea on the ground that if the Japanese were planning anything of the kind it would be the last thing that would leak out...
...But the Navy Department knew that he was doing this, knew that under orders issued in September, 1941, there would always be a large portion of the fleet in Pearl Harbor—probably two-thirds—and it did not fully warn him of the danger even after it knew in advance that there was risk of a submarine attack...
...Kimmel and Gen...
...He must not be spared...
...When was'the period in our military history when those chiefs were really on their toes and working night and day for up-to-date military and naval forces...
...Hull does not bring out the fact that after sending this document he assured Viscount Halifax, the British Ambassador, that he was then through with the Japanese and that the whole matter was in the hands of the Army and Navy, that diplomacy had ceased to function...
...Charles Beard pointed out in his superb article in The Progressive a fortnight ago, because the lessons to be learned from the diplomatic and military mistakes of the Pearl Harbor episode can have a profound influence in the shaping of our foreign policy and defense programs...
...It was so little of a surprise that Washington knew within the range of a few hours when the attack would occur...
...Roosevelt was to a considerable degree his own Secretary of State...
...Kimmel, there is certainly room for question whether even with the partial information given to him he was justified in concentrating the whole fleet in a small harbor when he was aware that he was without adequate air protection or sufficient anti-aircraft guns...
...The army court was thoroughly justified in going as far as it did, but it shied off from the question as to the actual responsibility of the late President of the United States...
...WE need an inquiry which will spare nobody, which will deal with Secretary Hull, Secretary Stimson, and the late Secretary Knox without gloves, and uninfluenced by the fact that they have played distinguished roles in the winning of the war...
...28, 1944, has been released at last' to prove that the Army Pearl Harbor board's charge that he "touched the button" which started the war, by his ultimatum to Japan on Nov...
...There is much still to be told—much that was not included in the reports of the Army and Navy which were dumped so hastily on the nation recently...
...Short and Adm...
...But that is not enough...
...We want to bring out into clear light the whole question as to whether the stupid system of separate Army and Navy ought not to be ended at once—President Truman has just approved of this—and whether it is possible to devise any system of national defense in which the chiefs do not pass the buck and free themselves from blame for the failure to give the country efficient, economical, enterprising and progressive measures of defense by placing the responsibility upon Congress or the public...
...If that was not an ultimatum, what on earth could be...
...America Demands The Truth About Pearl Harbor By OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD THE decision by Congress to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the diplomatic and military developments leading up and through the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Dec...
...Roosevelt, as President and Commander-in-Chief, had what seems to be positive advance information that the Japanese were going to strike when and where they did...
...It is heartening, however, that once forced by pressure of public opinion to abandon their strategy of silence, concealment, and whitewash, the Administration decided to go all the way...
...Nor is it an adequate defense to say that the Army and Navy chiefs were "dulled into a buck-passing attitude by long fear of political attacks," as does George Fielding Eliot in the New York Herald-Tribune of Aug...
Vol. 9 • October 1945 • No. 37
