The Pearl Harbor Investigations

7 THE PEARL HARBOR INVESTIGATIONS by PERCY L. GREAVES, JR. The most disgraceful feature of the whole tragic affair was the evident determination on the part of Washington to fasten the blame on the Hawaiian commanders. The incomplete and one-sided Roberts report, the circumstances oi the retirements of Kimmel and Short, the attempts of the War and Navy Departments to deny access to the intercepted messages by the Naval Court of Inquiry and the Army Board of Investigation, the appointment of secret one-man boards to continue investigations, and finally, the inability of the Joint Congressional Committee to secure access to pertinent files, constitute a blot on our national history. —ADMIRAL HARRY E. YARNELL, former Commander in Chief, United States Asiatic Fleet, and former Commandant, Pearl Harbor Naval Base. I drafted the Pearl Harbor report. Two Republicans signed that report. I have no apologies to make concerning it, and no one as yet has come forth with a single fact to challenge one statement of mine in the report. If you have any such fact or facts, I would be glad to receive them.

No man ever more conscientiously or objectively plowed through a 10,000,000-word record than did I in drafting that report. What facts were not dug out and presented? —EDWARD P. MORGAN to Senator Andrew F. Schoeppel, Congressional Record, January 15, 1952.

Percy L. Greaves, Jr., was born in Brooklyn, New York, on August 24, 1906. He received the degree of B.S., magna cum Jaude, from the Syracuse University School of Business Administration in 1929 and later carried on graduate study in economics at Columbia and New York Universities. He served as financial editor and research economist of the United States News from 1934 to 1936. He resigned to accept an executive position in Paris. From here he travelled widely in Europe, especially in France, England, and Germany, observing economic conditions and diplomatic relations. He returned to the United States in 1938 to direct research and survey activities for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Following this assignment, Mr. Greaves did extensive research work in the political field, particularly in regard to problems of the Executive Department of the Federal government and foreign affairs.

During the second World War he followed closely the diplomatic aspects of the era and the revelations which began to make their appearance, even during the great conflict, When the Joint Congressional Committee was created to investigate the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mr. Greaves was engaged as chief research expert for the Republican minority members. His alertness and industry in that post apparently annoyed Senator (later VicePresident) Alben W. Barkley, chairman of the committee, for Barkley remarked one day: "He [Greaves] has been sitting by the Senator from Michigan [Homer Ferguson] during these whole hearings and apparently prompting the Senator in the interrogatories he has addressed to the witnesses." At any rate, no person knows more than Mr. Greaves about the facts of the Pearl Harbor attack, of the socalled investigations of that tragic event, and of the failure of these investigations to bring forth, honestly and clearly, all of the facts connected therewith.

I. INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS The investigations of the Pearl Harbor attack have been many and varied. The complete facts will never be known. Most of the socalled investigations have been attempts to suppress, mislead, or confuse those who seek the truth. From the beginning to the end, facts and files have been withheld so as to reveal only those items of information which benefit the administration under investigation. Those seeking the truth are told that other facts or documents cannot be revealed because they are intermingled in personal diaries, pertain to our relations with foreign countries, or are sworn to contain no information of value. Nevertheless, many revealing facts have been brought forth and buried in a voluminous public record. Some of the most astounding are unknown to the general public and to many historians. Most of them are hidden away in the forty-five volumes of the Congressional investigation of 1945-46. The full story of the administration's attempt to cover up the facts would run into many volumes so only the high lights can be covered in this short review.

In order to understand the why and how of the whitewash, it is necessary to know a few of the basic facts. Under our form of government the President and the Secretary of State are responsible for the safe conduct of our foreign relations. In 1941 the Secretaries of War and Navy were responsible under the laws of Congress for the maintenance and supervision of our Army and Navy. The Chief of Staff was responsible for Army operations and the Chief of Naval Operations for Navy operations. Together, within the laws and appropriations of Congress, these six persons had primary responsibility for the defense of the United States and all of its possessions. The Pacific Fleet was subject to orders of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington but, when it was in Pearl Harbor, the Army was charged with its protection. The Hawaiian Army 409 410 PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE commander took orders directly from only the Chief of Staff, the Secretary of War, or the President of the United States.

In August, 1940, sixteen months prior to the Pearl Harbor attack, the Army Signal Corps had broken the top Japanese diplomatic code known as PURPLE. We were thus able to decipher and read all diplomatic messages sent between Tokyo and Japanese officials all over the world, including Washington. Copies of the most important of these and other intercepted messages were circulated to all key administration officials in Washington, including the President. These messages, known as MAGIC, revealed much important data to the recipients. Washington sent duplicate code machines to London, Singapore, and Cavite, Philippine Islands, to keep the British and our Far East forces informed. Hawaii did not get one. Therefore, Washington had a far greater than normal responsibility and opportunity to make certain that Hawaii was properly warned and alerted. Early in 1941 administration officials reached a secret agreement with British and Dutch officials which committed us to go to war against Japan if Japanese forces crossed a certain line. Crossing this line would have indicated an attack on the possessions of one, two, or all three of the signing powers. This meant that we were pledged to go to war if British or Dutch Far East possessions were attacked.

Since this agreement had not been submitted to, much less approved by, Congress, it was unconstitutional. The administration was, therefore, extremely anxious to conceal this fact from the American public. Accordingly, every effort was made to prevent its disclosure during the investigations. For these reasons, it is perhaps only human that Washington officials have desired to conceal what they did or did not do with the information at hand.

THE PEARL HARBOR INVESTIGATIONS 4II II. THE KNOX REPORT The first investigation was the shortest, as well as one of the most important. It was made by the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox. He flew out to Pearl Harbor immediately after the attack and made his report to the President about a week later. The administration never intended that this report be made public. However, it was located in the files of the Navy Department, through the diligence of Senator Homer Ferguson, long after the original date the administration had set for the closing of the Congressional investigation. It had never been seen by the Chief of Naval Operations and the committee's counsel had failed to bring it to the committee's attention. It contains at least two interesting statements which the administration was anxious to withhold from publication. This report revealed that: Neither Short nor Kimmel, at the time of the attack, had any knowledge of the plain intimations of some surprise move, made clear in Washington through the interception of Japanese instructions to Nomura, in which a surprise move of some kind was clearly indicated by the insistence upon the precise time of Nomura's reply to Hull, at one o'clock on Sunday. . . . Neither the Army nor the Navy Commander expected that an attack would be made by the Japanese while negotiations were still proceeding in Washington. Both felt that if any surprise attack wras attempted, it would be made in the Far East.1 Of course, the best means of defense against air attack consists of fighter planes. Lack of an adequate number of this 412 PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE type of aircraft available to the Army for the defense of the Island is due to the diversion of this type before the outbreak of the war, to the British, the Chinese, the Dutch and the Russians.

The next best weapon against air attack is adequate and well-disposed anti-aircraft artillery. There is a dangerous shortage of guns of this type on the Island. This is through no fault of the Army Commander who has pressed consistently for these guns.2 The significance of this report is that it revealed that Washington had vital information that was not passed on to the Pearl Harbor commanders and that Pearl Harbor was not adequately supplied with defense materiel because our available supply had been furnished to foreign powers. This report did not contain a single word of criticism of those in command at Pearl Harbor, Lieutenant General Walter C. Short, Commanding General, Hawaiian Department, U.S.A., and Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, U.S.N. Yet, with only this report as av basis, they were removed from command shortly afterward. It might also be noted that the Congressional Investigating Committee Counsel did not consider this report "of interest generally."3 It was given to Senator Ferguson only in answer to his request, and was not distributed to other members of the Investigating Committee or to the press.

III. THE ROBERTS COMMISSION The next investigation was conducted in secret for the purpose of preparing a report which could be made public. This report could contain no inkling that Washington had had any informaTHE PEARL HARBOR INVESTIGATIONS 413 tion which was not available to those at Pearl Harbor. If the true circumstances had become known, the administration would have lost public confidence. The group making this report is known as the Roberts Commission and it was created by Executive Order on December 18, 1941. President Roosevelt asked Secretaries Knox and Stimson for their "suggestions as to the investigating board."4 In making his suggestions, Stimson conferred with his Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall, and they united in making their suggestions to the President. They proposed that it should have a civilian head, and recommended Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts. Originally a Philadelphia lawyer and nominally a Republican, the Justice had been an active supporter of President Roosevelt's prewar foreign policy of aid to the Allies. Likewise recommended by Messrs. Stimson and Marshall was Major General Frank R. McCoy and Brigadier General Joseph T. McNarney. The latter had just returned from Europe where he had been negotiating with the British and Russians and was, therefore, well informed as to our agreements with these foreign powers. During the "session of the Commission" he was promoted to major general.5 On the Navy's side, the appointees were Admiral J. M. Reeves and Admiral W. H. Standley. The latter is described by Robert E.

Sherwood in Roosevelt and Hopkins as "An old friend of Roosevelt's, Standley had been one of the President's most rugged supporters in the long battle for aid for the Allies before Pearl Harbor."6 Two weeks after the completion of this report, Admiral Standley became the President's ambassador to the Soviet Union. These friends of the administration started by taking testimony from the Washington principals entirely off the record. No transcripts were kept, although they heard General Marshall, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Stark, Navy Chief of War Plans Admiral Turner, Army Chief of War Plans General Gerow, as well as the heads of the Military and Naval Intelligence Services. Justice Roberts spent a day with Secretary of State Cordell Hull. Apparently these conversations were all of a friendly, confidential nature. The Commission accepted without question all the information volunteered by these Washington authorities. It then 414 PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE proceeded to Pearl Harbor, where it lecoided testimony taken under oath from those at the scene of the disaster. The Commission was not well informed about the code breaking or "Magic"

information, known in Washington but not in Pearl Harbor. They raised little or no question concerning the responsibilities and duties of those in Washington. In fact, there is every indication that the Commission felt that the commanders at Pearl Harbor were better informed than they actually were. One of the most important things involved in the Pearl Harbor situation was the Winds Code message. This involved a code which Japan had set up to notify her representatives around the world when they would start the war. The implementing message would also indicate in three weather words which nations Japan would attack. Later testimony revealed that such information had been received in Washington indicating that war was going to be levied against the United States as well as other countries. Later, during the Congressional investigation, Justice Roberts was asked if the Winds implementing message had come before his commission. The Justice testified: "I have no recollection of any such thing. And I think you will search the testimony in vain for any reference to it."7 A few minutes later, Senator Ferguson, in questioning the Justice, quoted from the Justice's own words in the transcript of the Roberts Commission. Chairman Roberts was then questioning General Short's Intelligence Officer, Colonel Fielder: CHAIRMAN ROBERTS: It has been reported to me that about 10 days before the attack a code was intercepted which could not be broken, but it was forwarded to Washington to the War Department to be broken, and the War Department found out it could be broken and did break it, and found it contained three important signal words which would direct the attack on Pearl Harbor, and that the War Department subsequently intercepted over the radio those three signal words and forwarded them to the military authorities here as an indication that the code had been followed and that the attack was planned.8 THE PEARL HARBOR INVESTIGATIONS The Justice denied that this had reference to the Winds Code message, although he admitted it was very likely that it could describe that message.

In questioning another Intelligence officer, Colonel Bicknell, at Hawaii, Justice Roberts, as chairman, stated: I refer to the fact that some ten days before December it is supposed that a Japanese code message was intercepted and was broken down by the Department in Washington, one of the military departments, which gave certain key words which would be flashed over the radio directing the attack on Pearl Harbor and that, having broken that down, one of the military establishments in Washington caught over the radio, the three key words and relayed them here to you. When I say "you," to the Islands. COLONEL BICKNELL: I never heard of such a thing, no, sir.9 Another conflicting situation concerning the Roberts investigation, as reported by Justice Roberts to the Congressional Committee, is that they had asked the higher command of the Army and Navy to produce every document that could have a bearing on the situation at Pearl Harbor. He testified that he was furnished an outline "of the whole transaction" by General Marshall and Admiral Stark.

Again, with Senator Brewster questioning: It is my understanding that you were given more or less information about the magic, but all reference to that was very properly eliminated from both your investigation and your report? MR. JUSTICE ROBERTS: Certainly ... we knew the commanders weren't given what was taken off the breaking of the code; yes, indeed. ... All that about the magic, and all that, was given us in confidence at the War Department when we were taking the statements and not put on the typewritten record.10 416 PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE A few minutes later, Senator Ferguson asked him if he got the "Magic." MR. JUSTICE ROBERTS: NO; we were never shown one of the magic messages. SENATOR FERGUSON: Not one? MR. JUSTICE ROBERTS: Not one. SENATOR FERGUSON: Were you ever shown the substance of the magic messages? MR. JUSTICE ROBERTS: NO, sir. SENATOR FERGUSON: SO that when you made this report, you never had any information out of the magic messages?

MR. JUSTICE ROBERTS: NO, sir. SENATOR FERGUSON: Did you know there were such messages? MR. JUSTICE ROBERTS: Well, I knew that the Army or Navy or State Department had been cracking a super code of the Japanese for weeks or months and that they had been taking off all kinds of information. We asked the War Department and the Navy Department to tell us what they got from that and they told us. They did not show us the messages, any of them, and I didn't ask them to. SENATOR FERGUSON: All right. Then we come to the next finding in your conclusions: 'The Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy fulfilled their obligations by conferring frequently with the Secretary of State and with each other and by keeping the Chief of Staff and the Chief of Naval Operations informed of the course of the negotiations with Japan and the significant implications thereof." How, without having the intercepted magic messages, did you make this finding? I will put it that way.

MR. JUSTICE ROBERTS: Why, certainly. The Chief of Staff and Admiral Stark told us and the Secretary of War and the Secretary of Navy told us that every time Hull gave them a THE PEARL HARBOR INVESTIGATIONS 417 warning they would go and repeat it to the Chief of Staff and to the Admiral. I did not need to look at any messages to find out whether Marshall and Stark had been sufficiently warned. That is all I was interested in. SENATOR FERGUSON: NOW, Justice, the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of War, the Chief of Staff, General Marshall, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Stark, the President and the Secretary of State were each being furnished this magic. Did you know that they were all being furnished the magic? MR. JUSTICE ROBERTS: I did not know it and I would not have been interested in it. SENATOR FERGUSON: Well, then, Justice, if your Commission was not furnished all the data that we had here in Washington how could you make a finding on whether or not they were on their toes out in Hawaii and knew all the facts?

MR. JUSTICE ROBERTS : We had the messages that were sent to them. SENATOR FERGUSON: Well, did you know that there was more information that could have been sent to them? MR. JUSTICE ROBERTS : I suppose there never was a situation where there was not more information that could be sent to somebody.11 As might be expected, the Roberts Commission Report condemned the actions of the Pearl Harbor commanders, claiming among other things that: It was a dereliction of duty on the part of each of them . . . demonstrated on the part of each a lack of appreciation of the responsibilities invested in them and inherent in their positions . . . each failed properly to evaluate the seriousness of the situation. These errors of judgment were the effective causes for the success of the attack.12 Those in Washington got off scot free with one exception: "Failure of the War Department to reply to the message relating 418 PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE to the antisabotage measures instituted by the commanding general, Hawaiian Department/'13 This last statement mentioned no names, although the responsibility was definitely that of General Marshall. This report, made public on January 25, 1942, held that the Washington officials had sufficiently alerted the commanders at Pearl Harbor and that these commanders had failed to take the necessary steps to protect the fleet. No indication was given of the confidential information in the hands of Washington and mentioned in the report of Secretary Knox.

Although there is no record of the secret conversations Justice Roberts held with top Washington officials, he told the Congressional Committee that all information gathered by his commission had been given to the public. It was later revealed in a letter, which the administration tried to keep secret, that during the 1944 presidential campaign, General Marshall had written to candidate Governor Thomas E. Dewey: The Roberts' Report on Pearl Harbor had to have withdrawn from it all reference to this highly secret matter, therefore in portions it necessarily appeared incomplete. The same reason which dictated that course is even more important today because our sources have been greatly elaborated.14 Senator Ferguson had questioned the General very closely on this point, ending up with: We are clear on that, that certain parts were taken out before it was made public. GENERAL MARSHALL: That is correct. I am quite certain, sir.

SENATOR FERGUSON: And you had that information in September of 1944, because you wrote the letter at that time? GENERAL MARSHALL: Oh, yes; sir.15 Nevertheless, Justice Roberts maintained that nothing had been withheld, even though his report mentioned 1,887 Pages and the Congressional Committee was furnished only 1,862 pages. A close examination of all the testimony and papers made THE PEARL HARBOR INVESTIGATIONS public by this commission indicates that its purpose was to judge those in command at Pearl Harbor. The Commission seemed to feel it had no responsibility to investigate those in Washington. Their personal friends or superiors could do no wrong. So it was a pure and simple whitewash of those in Washington. IV. THE HART INQUIRY About two years after the Pearl Harbor attack, Admiral Kimmel, still subject to possible court-martial, became worried lest some of the important testimony be forgotten or lost. He asked the Navy Department if it could not make a record of the testimony. An inquiry was ordered on February 12, 1944, to take testimony and depositions from members of the naval forces who had knowledge of facts pertinent to the surprise attack. Admiral Thomas C. Hart, Retired, was chosen for this task. At the time of the attack he was Commander in Chief of the Asiatic Fleet and the person to whom all the "war warning" messages were originally sent.

The precept for this inquiry left to the Admiral's discretion the persons whom he should interview and the questions which he should ask. He, of course, had no authority to question anybody from the White House, the State or War Departments. He concluded four months of taking testimony on June 15, 1944. He made no report as he had not been asked to make one. Before the Congressional Committee, Hart admitted that he had not done a complete job. He had made no attempt to question Admiral Stark, Admiral Kimmel, Captain Arthur McCollum, or Commander A. D. Kramer, all of whom were key Navy witnesses. In a later inquiry,16 Admiral Hart became the counsel for Admiral Stark, the Chief of Naval Operations at the time of the attack. Hart was also one of the witnesses who had said that he had seen the Winds Execute message. Later, he changed his statement, 420 PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE saying that what he had seen was a report about the Winds message and not the original.

While appearing before the Congressional Committee he was questioned at length concerning his knowledge of the situation in the southwest Pacific, his deployment of the Asiatic Fleet, and certain preattack messages sent to Washington relating to our agreements with the British. Embarrassed, at one time during his testimony, he stated: "I would like to do anything to get me out of this seat but I will continue."17 Although he could hardly be considered an impartial person to head such an inquiry, he did obtain some very valuable testimony which later investigations tried to destroy. Perhaps the most important testimony taken by the Hart Inquiry was that of Captain L. F. Safford, in charge of the Communications Security Section of Naval Communications in Washington. This officer testified that in his official duties he had seen messages which gave definite information concerning the Japanese objectives as early as the spring of 1941. He said in part: In October, 1941, the Japanese Consuls were directing and advising the evacuation of Japanese Nationalists from the Netherlands East Indies, Malaya, Philippines, Hawaii, America, and Europe. By October 28, this was in full progress. On November 4, we received important information that the internal situation in Japan, both political and economic, since the American embargo, had become so desperate that the Japanese Government had to distract popular attention by a foreign war or else by bloodless, diplomatic victory. On November 12, we received important information that the Japanese Government regarded November 25 as the deadline for negotiations then being conducted between Japanese and American Governments to end. November 17, we received information from a very reliable source that Japan had no intention of attacking Russia in Siberia or she had changed her plans, if such intention ever existed. . . . On November 24, 1941, we learned that November 29, 1941, Tokyo time, was definitely the governing date for offensive military operation of some nature. We interpreted this to mean that largeTHE PEARL HARBOR INVESTIGATIONS 421 scale movements for the conquest of Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific would begin on that date, because, at that time, Hawaii was out of our minds. On November 26, we received specific evidence of Japan's intention to wage an offensive war against both Britain and the United States. On December 1, we had definite information from three independent sources that Japan was going to attack Britain and the United States, and, from two of them, that Japan would maintain peace with Russia. On December 4, 1941, we received definite information from two more independent sources that Japan would attack the United States and Britain but would maintain peace with Russia. At 9:00 p.m. (Washington time), December 6, 1941, we received positive information that Japan would declare war against the United States at a time to be specified thereafter. This information was positive and unmistakable and was made available to Military Intelligence at this same time. Finally at 10:15 a.m.

(Washington time), December 7, 1941, we received positive information from the Signal Intelligence Service,- War Department, that the Japanese declaration of war would be presented to the Secretary of State at 1:00 p.m. (Washington time), that date. 1:00 p.m. Washington time was sunrise in Hawaii and approximately midnight in the Philippines, and this indicated a surprise air raid on Pearl Harbor in about three hours. Kramer appended a note to this effect to the paper sent over from S.I.S. before presenting it to the Secretary of the Navy.18 Other valuable information was obtained from Vice Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner, who, at the time of the attack, was Chief War Plans Officer in Washington. He testified that the WPL-46 (Basic War Plan 46, also known as Rainbow No. 5), mentioned in the "war warning" message to Admiral Kimmel, . . . had its basis in an international agreement with the British Army, Navy, and Air Force. The conversations with the British leading up to preparation of that plan were held PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE in February and March of 1941. It was a world-wide agreement, covering all areas, land, sea, and air, of the entire world, in which it was conceived that the British Commonwealth and the United States might be jointly engaged in action against any enemy. On the conclusion of that agreement with the British, the WPL-46 was prepared after a great many talks with the Army and was approved by the Joint Board, the Secretaries of War and Navy and by the President. The Navy issued their form of that War Plan in May of 1941, and it is my recollection that the Army form of it was issued about August.

It contemplated associated Powers, including the Netherlands East Indies, and such colonies of British Allies as were still in the war, for example, the Loyalist French Colonies.19 This admiral also testified that Admiral Kimmel's part in the plan was not defensive and that "it would be a grave error for anyone to get the idea that the war in the Central Pacific was to be purely defensive. Far from it."20 He further testified, in reference to whether the plan could be put into partial execution, that a careful study of this plan shows that "its mechanism does not permit such a step to be taken . . . that document provides for a virtual unity of command between the British and our Army and Navy in certain cases."21 This admiral also confirmed information that Washington knew that an attack was to be made on the United States. He testified: "The enemy codes at Washington and Manila were to be destroyed, which definitely indicates war against the United States.

Once the United States and Japan are at war or approaching war, then warlike actions may occur any place/'22 This had reference to a dispatch of December 3, sent to Admiral Hart as Commander in Chief of the Asiatic Fleet, with a copy to Admiral Kimmel for information. It stated that we knew that Tokyo had ordered the destruction of its top-secret code machines in London, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Manila; that the Batavia machine had already been returned to Tokyo; and that a day earlier Washington also was directed to destroy its machine. The British THE PEARL HARBOR INVESTIGATIONS 423 had reported that London had already heard that the Japanese had destroyed their machine there. V. CONGRESS TAKES A HAND About this time, Senator Homer Ferguson, a close follower of these events, became concerned lest the public might never get the true story. So he introduced Senate Joint Resolution 133. This was approved on June 13, 1944. It provided for a further extension of all statutes affecting the prosecution of those connected with the Pearl Harbor catastrophe and further directed the Secretaries of War and Navy to proceed forthwith with an investigation into the facts surrounding it. As a result, each Secretary appointed an investigating group which immediately went to work. What happened after the intervention of Congress into the situation will be described in the remainder of this chapter.

VI. ARMY PEARL HARBOR BOARD (APHB) Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson appointed three Army officers to the Army Pearl Harbor Board in July, 1944. They started off by reviewing the record and exhibits of the Roberts Commission. They went on to gather fortyone volumes of testimony and seventy exhibits. A total of 151 witnesses appeared before them. The Board found that 'There was a distinct lack of a war mind in the United States. . . . Public opinion in the early stages had to be allowed to develop; in the later stages it ran ahead of preparation for war."23 Since then public opinion has never been allowed 424 PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE to develop by itself. The administration has seen to it that public opinion was favorable before it announced any new plans to the nation. The APHB went into the problem much more factually than either the Roberts Commission or the Hart Inquiry. It placed on the record damaging information obtained from the State Department concerning the November 26 ultimatum sent to Japan over the objections of Army and Navy officials and in contravention of an agreement previously reached at the White House. It revealed Marshall's awareness of the danger back in the early months of 1941, and many of the things he did to hide his responsibility for the fact that the Army was not prepared to defend the fleet on the morning of December 7, 1941.

The testimony taken also revealed that the messages sent to Short were written and designed primarily for MacArthur in the Philippines, with copies going to Short. There was also testimony that Secretary of War Stimson had himself weakened the socalled warning message. We also learn from APHB testimony, for the first time, that it was a Colonel Walter Bedell Smith who, as Secretary to the Chief of Staff, was responsible for getting important messages to General Marshall. The final secret APHB Report placed the blame on Secretary Cordell Hull, General Marshall, and General Leonard T. Gerow, as well as on General Short. In addition to this secret report, made public after V-J Day, and the testimony pertaining thereto, the Board had learned of the existence of "Magic" several months after it had started taking testimony. It also learned of the attempt made by General Marshall to suppress this information. Nevertheless, the APHB was not deterred and obtained considerable top-secret information concerning the Winds messages and other vital material. The Board pointed out that none of the vital information known by the War Department in Washington was passed on to General Short at Pearl Harbor. The top-secret report said, in part: The messages actually sent to Hawaii by either the Army or Navy gave only a small fraction of this information . . .

THE PEARL HARBOR INVESTIGATIONS 425 the difference between altering those defenses in time by a directive from the War Department based upon this information and the failure to alert them is a difference for which the War Department is responsible, wholly aside from Short's responsibility in not himself having selected the right alert.24 They found that Colonel Walter Bedell Smith did not get to General Marshall, on the night of December 6, an intercepted Japanese message which might have caused him to send further information or warning to General Short. The APHB top-secret report concluded with this paragraph: Up to the morning of December 7, 1941, everything that the Japanese were planning to do was known to the United States except the final message instructing the Japanese Embassy to present the 14th part together with the preceding 13 parts of the long message at one o'clock on December 7, or the very hour and minute when bombs were falling on Pearl Harbor.25 This is, perhaps, a slight exaggeration as Washington did not know, or at least no evidence has been adduced that Washington knew, precisely, that the attack would fall on Pearl Harbor although they had good reason to expect that it might.

The nation and our historians are greatly indebted to Colonel Harry A. Toulmin, the executive officer of the Board. It was largely due to his diligence that much of this information was obtained and he is to be thanked for compiling the final report which gives as true and unbiased account as has yet appeared. It was not complete, as it could not go into phases involving the White House and certain other diplomatic matters, but its conclusions are logical. For that very reason it did not satisfy the powers that be. Secretary Stimson, who had appointed the board, felt called upon to make a statement in his own defense and continue further investigations under his personal direction.