[Venturer]

Read the book “Day of Deceit” by Robert Stinnett.

Washington knew a lot more than it let on.

Did it know the exact time and date probably not, but they sure got rid of a lot of old and useless battleships that day while they saved the carriers.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Read the book “Day of Deceit” by Robert Stinnett.

Now you've done it. Time to duck and cover.

[af_vet_rr]

Read the book “Day of Deceit” by Robert Stinnett.

You don't even have to read a bunch of tinfoil books. Just read the official testimony.

Captain Laurance Safford testified in 1944 that the US knew by December 1st that Japan was going to attack. You can read his testimony, and you can read about Admiral Leigh Noyes blocking his attempt to warn Kimmel, as well as Noyes' blocking his attempts to warn Marines on Wake Island. By December 5, Washington knew it was imminent, and again, folks in Washington blocked efforts by people wanting to pick up a phone and call Hawaii. But even back in October, they had reports that Japanese were tracking Pearl Harbor ship movements, and this was not passed on to Kimmel.

Now Noyes was somewhat punished/blamed later on, but not to the extent that Kimmel was. And Noyes' superiors knew a lot of what he did, so it didn't appear that he was acting alone.

You read the official records, and you'll see that Washington knew, and they didn't pass it on. People directly above Kimmel didn't give him the information he needed.

If Kimmel had the information that the folks in Washington did on December 5th, you can bet that ships would have been moved out of Pearl Harbor and that all of the anti-aircraft and other light weapons would have been manned 24/7. Kimmel and Short may have made mistakes, but they were operating under an information blackout imposed upon them by Washington.

[BroJoeK]

Venturer: "Read the book “Day of Deceit” by Robert Stinnett."

You may know that we have gone at this debate hammer-and-tong here for some years, and FReepers like CougarGA7 are serious experts, who can make detailed informed arguments on virtually any point you wish to raise.

So anyone who wants to gain an education at Free Republic University, just step up to the pitchers' mound and throw your best strike balls.
If you can get posters like CougarGA7 interested, you'll learn more than you ever imagined... ;-)

In addition to Stinnett's book, there are several others -- by Victor, Toland, Greaves & Claussen to mention a few -- all attempting to go beyond the nine official investigation reports and tease out of previously hidden data evidence on what "Washington knew" but kept secret from Hawaii's commanders.

The bottom lines are these:

1. Of course "Washington knew" a lot, and had it all been communicated to Hawaii's commanders, they could have figured out a Japanese air attack was likely, and so been better prepared.
   But much of what "Washington knew" was kept from the commanders, and as a result, they did not consider an imminent attack on Hawaii as likely, and therefore were not prepared.

2. As CougarGA7 points out, there is no proof that "Washington knew" of, or even suspected an air attack on Hawaii.
   What Washington certainly did expect, and fully warned commanders about, was a Japanese attack on the Philippines and other Southeast Asia locations.
   Curiously, even these explicit warnings did not seem to help commanders like General MacArthur, whose air forces were almost as destroyed as those of General Short in Hawaii.

My personal opinion is that President Roosevelt's inner circle probably well understood the attack was coming on Hawaii, though without any appreciation for the levels of death and destruction it would produce.
And they wanted it to happen -- for political reasons, explicitly stated in various "war warnings": that Japan must be allowed to commit the first overt act of war.

But there is no "proof", no "smoking gun", and experts like CougarGA7 can reduce to rubble most any "conspiracy nut" author or evidence presented.

In the end, it comes down to these questions:

1. Do you believe that Kimmel, Short and other Hawaii commanders were idiots?
   I don't, not for a minute, not even the much maligned General Short.

2. Do you think President Roosevelt was an unscuplulus political genius, capable of deceiving some of his own military commanders for the "higher purpose" of leading an aroused democracy to victory in the greatest war the world has ever seen -- or hopefully will ever see.

   I do, in a heartbeat.

[Broker]

My deceased father in law was the DOS agent who was tipped off by the Peruvian Attaché of Japan's plans to attack Pearl. He drafted the communique sent it directly to DC under Ambassador Grew’s signature that clearly warned then of them of their plans. .

Furthermore, he later became life-long friends with Adm Husband Kimmel and his family.

Bottom line, DC knew very well Japan's intentions. The lingering question remains, were they incompetent or intentional?