Pearl Harbor was 50 years ago, but do we know yet whose responsibility it was? (July, 1991)

The article opens that noting that the Pacific Fleet was “asleep” despite various warnings that something could happen. Overall responsibility for not being prepared was assigned to Admiral Harold R. Stark, chief of naval operations; General George C. Marshall, Army chief of staff, Admiral Husband E. Kimmer and General Walter C. Short.

The article notes various conspiracy theories, including the one that FDR had set things up so the US would be attacked in order to get the country into the war.

The article notes that “security measures in Hawaii either were non-existent or inadequate to prevent a surprise attack.”

The reason seems to be that civilian and military leaders could not make up their minds about whether or not Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked. There was disagreement over the potential threat. Navy Secretary Knox was concerned about a possible attack; the Office of Naval Operations was not.

One message that Kimmel received was of a radio broadcast that had been picked up. It was from a Japanese admiral and was aimed at his countrymen living in Canada and the US. It “urged all Japanese to remember their duty as subjects of the emperor if war should come.” That's a pretty vague message, though.

Another message was from the US Ambassador Grew saying that he had heard a Peruvian ambassador say that Pearl Harbor would be attacked if there was a confrontation with the US. Again, that's fairly vague. It gives a target, but no idea of a timeline.

There was a report called Rainbow Five, from May 26, 1941, which made up categories about possible attack danger. The designations seem backwards to me. Category A was the US mainland; Category F was Guam, meaning it was quite likely to be attacked. The Hawaiian area was Category D, meaning there was some, but not a whole lot, of concern about a possible attack there.

The article says Kimmel realized that Guam would be attacked, but didn't think Pearl Harbor would be attacked.

The article notes that there was fairly broad disagreement about judging just how capable the Japanese military was.

The article addresses the issue of whether or not there were enough patrol planes to have had an early warning about the attack, and it discusses how these were used in training so much that there were almost no routine air patrols.

Kimmel apparently was very concerned about training, and he was one of those who did not think a whole lot of Japanese military capability.

The article notes that the resources available to Kimmel were rather slim, and that, if the US had begun preparing for war six months earlier (or more), then it is possible that Pearl Harbor would have had enough air patrols and strength that the Japanese might not have attacked it at all.

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