PEARL HARBOR: CHALLENGE TO THE REPUBLIC
Beard, Charles A.
Pearl Harbor: Challenge To The Republic By CHARLES A. BEARD NOW that the murderous Japanese war lords are brought to doom, the American people confront problems of peace that will try their...
...This document gave to the public startling information: Secretary Hull had warned "high officials of this Government," on Nov...
...Davis and Lindley dismissed the report of the President's Commission on Pearl Harbor as giving only "surface reasons" for the Pearl Harbor disaster, and laid the fundamental responsibility for it on the ignorance, smugness, and indifference of the American people, particularly isolationists (pp...
...23,1942...
...In effect the two Secretaries announced that much evidence must remain secret on grounds of national security, but that up-to-date no evidence had been found which warranted bringing to trial any person in the Army and Navy for anything done in connection with the catastrophe at Pearl Harbor...
...23, '42, the Roberts Commission's report was presented to the public...
...These problems include all issues of government by constitutional means, the conduct of foreign affairs, and the preparation of our democracy for informed and efficient action in realizing the ideals to which it is dedicated by its heritage and its faith...
...316-317...
...24, 1944, as quoted in the Congressional Record, Sept...
...5The reorganization of Congress, now under con...
...Some said, yes...
...FOR these reasons which, I submit, are self-evident, all Americans who cherish constitutional jgovern-ment, with safeguards for liberty, who want to* see the Government of the United States competent...
...138...
...See Chapter I, "The Fateful Decade," in Peace and War, 1931-1941, Department of State publication, July, 1943...
...28, 1941, that the diplomatic negotiations with Japan had then come "practically" to an impasse and that the Japanese were likely to break out at any time with new acts of conquest by force, making the element of "surprise" a central point of their strategy...
...Thus, Admiral Kimmel and General Short, accused of derelictions of duty and errors of judgment (justifying courts martial) by the President's Commission in January, 1942, were apparently cleared of the charges at last...
...Walter C. Short, the two commanders at Hawaii when the disaster occurred at Pearl Harbor, whose honor and devotion to duty have been under a cloud for more than three long years, while they have been denied the right to be heard on the grave charges announced to the public by the Koberts Commission on Jan...
...Besides finding Admiral Kimmel and General Short guilty of certain derelictions and errors of judgment the commission furnished to the people a large amount of astonishing information about events and decisions preceding the disaster—information hitherto unknown to the people...
...2The relations of the Chief Executive of the United ? States, in shaping foreign policies and conducting foreign affairs, to the Congress, which is charged with providing the armed forces of the United States and deciding upon declarations of war...
...6,1944, p. 7670 and Arthur Krock's column, New York Times, Dec...
...6Effective methods for keeping the American peo...
...Indeed, it raised such issues instead of settling them...
...Lest this claim respecting Pearl Harbor be dismissed as extravagant or as raising academic curiosities that had better be left to dust-sifting historians of coming generations, let the features and implications of the Pearl Harbor case be clearly stated: IThe conduct of foreign affairs under constitution...
...The fat was then in the fire, burning and smelling...
...Harry Truman cast reflections on Admiral Kimmel and General Short in the course of an article in Collier's Magazine...
...Truman's response was a statement that he had evidence to support his charges...
...BY an Executive order of Dec...
...But now the war has come to a victorious end and they are entitled to their day in court immediately and without prejudice, in accordance with the first principles of that justice which is the safety and pride of the American people under their Constitution...
...It would be well if, in creating the committee, there be associated with it two or more private citizens, distinguished for their character and their judicial qualities...
...for example, how had the American people fallen into such an evil state of mind and morals ? On January 2, 1943, the State Department released to the press a publication eafled Peace and War—a preliminary to the larger volume published in July of that year...
...In August, 1944, Sen...
...7The relations between the civilian government ? and the armed forces of the country, so crucial in the history of the long struggle for popular government and civil liberty...
...While the war was raging and the fortunes of America hung trembling in the balance, the necessities of national unity and war could be urged as warranting delay in the hearing of the two commanders, even to the point of injustice to the two men who, whatever their rights or wrongs, were after all merely two men in a world on fire...
...29, Secretary Hull also informed the British Ambassador that "the diplomatic part of our relations with Japan was virtually over and that the matter will now go to the officials of the Army and the Navy...
...the Admiral also asserted that the real story of Pearl Harbor had not been told and expressed a desire to have a hearing so that he could tell the truth...
...By its Act, signed June 13, 1944, Congress provided for an extension of time and displayed a resolve to find out more about the matter of responsibility: it ordered the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy to conduct new inquiries into the facts of Pearl Harbor and present new reports as to "persons," if any, found guilty of offenses in connection with the catastrophe...
...25, 1941, and on Nov...
...Since this was official information, it was natural for readers of Secretary Hull's statement to wonder why a war order calling for nothing less than a high tension alert (Alert No...
...Pearl Harbor: Challenge To The Republic By CHARLES A. BEARD NOW that the murderous Japanese war lords are brought to doom, the American people confront problems of peace that will try their abilities and powers to the uttermost...
...What is the warrant for this categorical assertion ? As a student of American history and government, I have been keeping, since Dec...
...1, 1944, the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy released to the press brief reports on Pearl Harbor, based on findings by special boards appointed under the Act of the previous June, which had directed new investigations...
...present to this nation a comprehensive and accurate report on every phase of the subject and a considered judgment in the matter of responsibility for the disaster...
...If this judgment did in fact represent the Administration's view of the catastrophe, it, like the Roberts Report, fell short of the whole truth of the business and raised still bigger issues...
...Admiral Kimmel replied in an open letter to Sen...
...Truman that his "innuendo" was "not true...
...Thomas Dewey's campaign for President were in possession of official documents showing that high authorities in Washington had secret advance notice of the coming Japanese attack on Hawaii many hours, perhaps three days, before it came, and failed to put the Hawaiian Commanders on a war tension alert...
...pie properly informed on foreign policies and affairs, and alert for eventualities likely to follow from diplomatic decisions by the President and the Department of State...
...One startling fact, as yet unknown to the general public, was recorded in the Roberts Report, Section XI...
...It could scarcely be maintained by any fair-minded student that the Roberts Report settled any primary questions of responsibility...
...In the Summer of 1942, Forrest Davis and Ernest K. Lindley, two journalists enjoying special favors at the White House, published How War Came: An American White Paper, on the basis of inside information from high officials in charge of foreign affairs at Washington...
...Under the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution the worst criminal indicted for the meanest offense is guaranteed a speedy and impartial trial...
...sideration, for the more effective management of its own business and its relations to the Executive in the conduct of domestic and foreign affairs...
...namely, that high authorities in Washington had news of a coming break in diplomatic relations with Japan two hours or more before the Japanese attack, and failed to get a warning message through to the Hawaiian commanders until after the Japanese blow had fallen...
...ON Dec...
...In the Autumn of 1944 it was rumored that some directors of Gov...
...4The relations between the Army and the Navy ? and the proposal to consolidate the two branches of the armed services in the interest of efficiency in action and of economy in blood and treasure...
...3) had not been sent to the Hawaiian Commanders at least a week before the Japanese attack and why any "high officials" in Washington were "surprised" when the attack came...
...ON Jan...
...Among these urgent problems none is more important than the determination of the responsibility for the American catastrophe at Pearl Harbor on Dec...
...and, if so, what these derelictions or errors were, and who were responsible therefor...
...And I append the following brief and bare outline in support of the proposition that the Congress as a whole, or the Senate or the House of Representatives must assure to the American people, as well as to Admiral Kimmel and General Short, a full and judicial inquiry into the Pearl, Harbor catastrophe...
...But thousands of American citizens—Democrats, Republicans, Progressives, and Independents—are concerned about the honor and fortunes of this Republic and are looking to their Senators and Representatives in Congress to do their full duty at once in respect of the Pearl Harbor tragedy...
...Were they in fact...
...It will be wise for Congress to act on its own motion and immediately, for such an inquiry will be forced upon that honorable body if it delays too long in meeting a challenge, surging up from the people...
...others said, no...
...7, 1941...
...al government in correlation with military preparations for all diplomatic contingencies...
...On Nov...
...to deal with the issues of foreign and domestic affairs, will now demand that the Congress as a whole or the Senate or the House of Representatives appoint a speciaLcommit-tee to investigate, without fear or favor, the facts of the Pearl Harbor case, accord a full and free hearing to Admiral Kimmel and General Short,- and...
...I have watched closely the development of public interest and opinion as reflected in these materials...
...Now confusion was confounded...
...IN June, 1944, the question of extending time for granting trials by courts martial to Admiral Kimmel and General Short automatically came up in Congress for debate and the subject of responsibility for Pearl Harbor was drawn into question...
...But, so the rumor ran, the Republicans,declined to "break" this news, for two reasons: a resolve not to interfere with national unity for war and awareness that the possessors of these documents could be prosecuted as criminals under Federal law (See The United States News of Aug...
...In September, 1944, the question of Pearl Harbor flared up in the House of Representatives and charges were made by Republicans, which, if substantiated, would place the real responsibility for the catastrophe on the Roosevelt Administration in Washington...
...7, 1941, a record of speeches, newspaper editorials, comments of columnists, articles, Congressional debates, official reports, Congressional inquiries into related subjects, and other materials—official and unofficial—bearing on the Pearl Harbor case, down to the latest hour...
...8Last, but not least, justice to Admiral Husband ? E. Kimmel and Gen...
...5, 1944...
...18, 1941, President Roosevelt created a commission, headed by Justice Owen J. Roberts, and specifically instructed it to inquire into "the facts" of the Pearl Harbor attack and to report on them for the purpose of providing "bases for sound decisions whether any derelictions of duty or errors of judgment on the part of United States Army or Navy personnel contributed to such successes as were achieved by the enemy on the occasion mentioned...
...3The best means of assuring efficiency in the ? equipment, management, and use of the armed forces...
...There, as far as official action is concerned, the case rests...
...still others said, not yet...
...Furthermore, the Commission added so many qualifications, discounts, and linguistic involutions to its conclusions on the responsibility of the two commanders that the most careful reader of the Report was put to his wits' end in trying, to discover whether the Commission actually thought the Admiral and the General were more responsible for the catastrophe than other parties to the calamity...
Vol. 9 • September 1945 • No. 36
