pearl harbour conspiracy(ka)

7/31/2019 Pearl Harbour Conspiracy(KA)

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The US defeat at Pearl Harbour

7.12.1941

A politically motivated, self-inflicted defeat, orjust US military incompetence?

KA


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The traditional story.

Once upon a time..


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Background.

The year is 1941. Japan has beenwaging a war of aggression in Asiasince the 30s. She has conquered allbefore her.Her navy, army andairforce are undefeated.

She possesses modern technologyand her soldiers use the latestthinking in strategy.

She has signed a pact with NaziGermany (and Italy) becauseGermany looks like becoming thepreeminent power in the West

(Sept.1940). The Tripartite Pact. Only the United States of America is

managing to curb Japans ambitionby restricting her oil supplies.


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Japan realises that to succeed in her ambitions she mustremove American influence from the Pacific. Because

America is bigger and more powerful than Japan asurprise assault is the only realistic way to defeat her.

7.12.1941 Imperial Japans First Air Fleet launches asurprise attack against the United States Navy (USN)based at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii.

The President of the USA, Franklin Roosevelt, called it adate which will live in infamy because the attack camebefore war had been declared.

The result was that the United States joined World WarTwo as an ally of Britain against Germany and Japan.


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The Place.


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The Pacific ocean showing the proximity of USA, Japan and Hawaii.

PearlHarbour


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Pearl Harbour

The islands of Hawaii


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Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, today. Ford island is in the

middle, and battleship row is the dent on the SE side.


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The attack force.


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Kido Butai.The Japanese Carrier

Striking Task Force. 6 aircraft carriers, 2 battleships, 3 cruisers, 9

destroyers,8 tankers, 23 submarines, 5midget submarines, 441 aircraft.

This was the largest carrier task force theworld had ever seen.

The Japanese aircraft carrier

Soryu


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The Japanese Aircraft carrier Hiryu. There were 5

aircraft carriers in all.


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Ko-hyoteki-Japanese midget attack submarines

They were about the size of a bus. They heldtwo crew and two torpedoes.

At least one of these machines would get pastUS defences and into the harbour before theattack.


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A Japanese carrier torpedo bomber.The Japanese attacked with over 400 planes like this. When was

the last time you saw more than 2 aeroplanes in the sky at once?

Just imagine what 400 would be like


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Map of Hawaii showing the Japanese bombing routes to Pearl

Harbour, Oahu island, Hawaii. The plan was simple: destroy the

US air force on the ground and then destroy all the defenceless

US ships in the harbour. To ensure surpriseattack on a Sunday.

Pearl

Harbour


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The military commanders.


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Isoroku Yamamoto- the Japanese

commander.Fleet Admiral and Commander in Chief of

the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Lost two fingers at Tsushima (1905)

fighting the Russian navy.

He was well aware of what war meant

and was a political dove as a result . Hebelieved that fighting was to be avoided

and only used as a last resort. But once

engaged in, war had to prosecuted with

the utmost strength.

A formidable strategist and high calibre

military leader he led the move to attack

Pearl Harbour.

He had visited Italy after the British Navy

air strike at Taranto had crippled the

Italian navy. He realised the potential of

air power.


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Commander in chief, US PacificFleet.

He had the responsibility for the

ships, planes and personnel of the

US navy.

In his view steel nets to stop

torpedoes were not needed in

harbour and merely got in everyones

way.

He relied upon the army air force to

provide defence for him. He only had

enough spotter (reconnaissance)

planes to cover 30% of the sea

around Hawaii.

Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel

- the US commander.


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Lieutenant Commander Walter Short

- commander of the US Army Air forceResponsible for the defence of military

installations at Pearl Harbour.

He had control of the majority of the

aeroplanes on the base; fighters, bombers

and reconnaissance.

He had the idea of parking all aeroplanesclose together in the open so that they could

be guarded easily against saboteurs.

Sabotage was feared because of the

number of Japanese people who lived in

Hawaii.

He had insufficient reconnaissance planes

and was not allowed more despite requests.

He set up new chains of command and

didnt tell his superiors. This led to

confusion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Walter_Short.jpg


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The targets.


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The battleship USSArizona.

Part of the US power in the

Pacific.

She could fire shells that

weighed a tonne over 25

miles.

The USA had at least 8 of

these powerful ships in the

Pacific.

The US Navy placed morefaith in these ships as a

deterrent to Japanese

aggression than their

aircraft carriers.

Battleships.


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The USS

Enterprise 1941.The United States

had 2 large aircraft

carriers in the Pacific

in 1941.

More aware than the

Americans, of thestrategic advantage

of carriers, the

Japanese knew that

they had to destroy

them if they were to

gain control over the

Pacific.The Enterprise was

scheduled to dock

in Pearl Harbour

7.12.1941

Aircraft carriers


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US army air force.The US military had not made its mind up about who should control aeroplanes. As a

result the navy had some and the army had some. Control was confused and co-

ordination hampered. At Pearl Harbour the majority of planes were under army control.

The US navy frequently took a superior attitude to the US army and this did not helpefficiency.

The Curtis Kittyhawk fighter.

Heavy and lumbering. No

match for the nimble Japanese

Zeke Zero.

The B 17 Flying Fortress

bomber. Useful for

reconnaissance. Pearl

Harbour did not have

enough. More arrived on Dec

7 1941 during the attack- and

were destroyed.


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Prelude.


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Japanese carrier

planes waiting to

take off.

Observing radio silence and taking advantage of squallyweather, the Japanese fleet arrives to the NW of Hawaiiundetected. Planes were heavily laden with fuel and

bombs


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The attack commences

J l d ff


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Japanese planes are waved off

their carriers early morning Dec7

1941.


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Dec7 1941. Japanese bomber over Hickam field (US army air force)

(Hawaii). Notice large plumes of smoke.


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Hickam Field. An army B17 bomber lies cut in half.


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The seaplane base- just wreckage where there used to be aeroplanes


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US airfield under attack- notice all the planes lined up in neat rows.

Easy targets for the Japanese fighters.

Ford Island in the middle of the harbour


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Ford Island in the middle of the harbour-

One building is burning, and wrecked aircraft are

scattered about. Notice the planes parked in the

open.


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Battleship Row as seen from a Japanese bomber 7.12.1941.

Notice torpedo trails, and oil on the water. Notice the absence

of torpedo nets.


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US ships sinking at anchor.

With the air force destroyed, the naval ships were now easy targets.

Many sailors found ammunition stores locked as a peacetime security

measure.


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Water is already up to deck level, and fire is raging.

With engines off there was no power to work fire hoses. Guns

also had no power to operate, and ammunition hoists would not

work.


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One ship has turned over, and fires

burn unchecked everywhere.


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The USS Shaw explodes spectacularly.The navy would repair her though, and she would fight again.

USS N d


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USS Nevada.A single valiant crewman managed to get this ship moving from a

stone-cold start (quite some achievement). Bomb damaged and

sinking she was to be beached by her captain. He didnt want to

take the risk of blocking the harbour entrance by sinking in it.

USS California Notice the ship listing


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USS California. Notice the ship listing

severely and her crew abandoning ship to

the left. Notice the oil in the water- some

of which is already on fire.


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Battleship Row. The front and rear ships

have already sunk to the harbour floor.


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Fire and smoke become major problems to

rescue efforts, let alone fighting back.


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Battleship Row from above. Notice the spreading oil slicks


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Airfield wreckage. The policy of parking all planes close together was

disasterous. Notice the sailor just standing still- in the middle of a

battle! It shows the utter helplessness of the defenders.


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More of the same


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Th USS A i


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The USS Arizona.A bomb blows up her ammunition and she is totally destroyed. She is the only

ship deemed irrecoverable. In her lie the majority of casualties from the attack.

Her wreckage forms the base of the Pearl Harbour memorial which you can see

today.


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The US lost 2,403 people dead, 1,178 wounded. 5battleships, 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers and 188planes were destroyed.

Japan lost 64 men dead and 1 captured.

29 planes and 4 midget submarines destroyed.

It was shocking to America because it was the firsttime since 1812 that the United States had beenattacked on its own soil. (The next occasion would

be 9/11- it too led to US involvement in a foreignwar)


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Aftermath

The United States joined WWII on the side of Britain and against the

Tripartite Axis of Japan, Germany and Italy. Recruiting posters used

Pearl Harbour to get men to enlist. Ultimately Japan would be

defeated.

C t ti l f th US d


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Courts-martial of the US navy and

army air force commanders

Both Kimmel

and Short were

dismissed the

service on the

grounds thatthey had

neglected the

defence of the

fleet and were

therefore in

dereliction ofduty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Walter_Short.jpg


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Japanese Americans

There was an understandable backlash of

public hatred against Japanese

Americans.

FDR signed an internment bill and these

people spent the war in prison camps.

Most lost all their property and goods.


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The memorial to the US dead.


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The Pearl Harbour war memorial.This is built on top of the sunken USS Arizona to remind

people of the 1177 sailors who died trapped inside her.


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Yamamoto.

Already highly regarded,Yamamoto now achieved a huge

status in Japanese public

opinion.

Yamamoto himself knew,

however, that this wasunjustified. The attack had not

achieved a primary objective-

the sinking of American carriers.

In addition this public status

would backfire on Japan. When

Yamamoto was killed later in the

war there was a large drop in

Japanese morale.


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So it was a brilliant surpriseattack?

.Some other evidence to

consider!!


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COMMUNICATIONS

A radio transmitter/receiver 1940.


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Messages.

Saturday Dec 6. US intercepts a 14 part Japanese transmission. It takestime to decode it. The US military is aware of Japanese military activity andexpects further Japanese advances- maybe into Malaya.

Sunday Dec 7. Last part of the message is decoded and reads thatdiplomatic relations between Japan and the USA are to be severed. This isreceived in Washington DC at 9am.

Sunday Dec 7. Another Japanese message is received instructing theJapanese ambassador to tell the message to the Americans at 1pm.

The US military realises that 1pm Washington is early morning Hawaii. USmilitary sends out an alert- but radio contact with Hawaii is lost.

General George Marshall needs to be found to send the message, but is outhorseriding. He cant be found.

Message is sent by commercial telegraph. Message received in Hawaii

before the attack-7.33am- but although marked urgent it still isnt received atHQ (by Japanese-American on a bicycle!) for 4hours.


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Questions:

Was the decoding process very slow- or was it deliberately held up?

How reliable were radios in the 1940s?

Why was a message not received at Hawaii Command until 4 hours

after the attack? Was this ineptitude or policy?

Why was General Marshall out of touch with his command?


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PRECEDENT


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Brigadier general Billy Mitchell- United States Army Air

Service.

The US Army air force was looked down upon by the US navy which considered itself

superior (an idea it inherited from the British Royal Navy).

When US army airman Mitchell claimed, then, that a single plane could sink abattleship the navy was furious. It was even more furious when in 1928 Mitchell took a

plane and sank the target battleship Ostfriedland (see above).

To rub salt into the wound Mitchell then repeated the exercise with the retired

battleship Alabama- just to prove his point.

The navy claimed he had broken the rules and chose to ignore his results.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Ostfriesland_bombed_by_Mitchells_team_p19.jpg


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Mitchell was a much decorated war hero from WW1.He

wasnt going to be ignored and so he spoke to the

press. He was posted to Hawaii, 1924, to keep him offthe newspaper front pages. Mitchell returned with a

report detailing why there would be a war with Japan

and why there would be an attack on Pearl Harbour.

This was ignored.

Mitchell was posted to Texas. Here he argued for oneunited US airforce. Currently the army and navy ran

their own separate air forces. The navy quoshed the

idea.

After an airship crash in which men died Mitchell

accused both the army and navy of incompetence. Heresigned before he could be dismissed.

Later on he would be the only person to have an

airplane named after him in the US airforce.- the

Mitchell bomber. It would be the first US plane to bomb

Tokyo in the war.

Admiral Harry Yarnell - US Navy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Billy_Mitchell.jpg


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Conducted US Army/Navy exercises in February 1932.

He had a fleet of ships with which to launch a practice

attack on Pearl Harbour.

He took a chance and left all his battleships out of his

plan, launching a carrier air attack on Pearl Harbour, on

a Sunday morning.

His fleet arrived NW of Hawaii, observed radio silence

and hid behind rain storms.

In the event the attack was a complete success and the

defenders had little effective resistance. Not one

defending airplane left the ground.

These results were regarded as false by the US Navy.It is doubtful if air attacks can be launched against

(Hawaii).. They were well documented by Japanese

observers however.

Harry retired in 1939 baffled.

Admiral Harry Yarnell US Navy.

USS Lexington


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USS Lexington

-Admiral Yarnells flag ship.


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Admiral Ernst King

1938 Admiral Ernst King on board the USS Saratoga launched a trial attack onPearl Harbour for the US Navy.

Just as in 1932. The defenders were taken completely by surprise, and theattack was overwhelmingly successful.

Once again the results were ignored.

The USS Saratoga

1942


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Battle of Taranto Nov 1940 The British navy attacks the Italian navy at Taranto in Italy as WW2 escalates in Europe.

The British have 1 aircraft carrier and 19 old bi-planes.

The British modify torpedoes so that they can be dropped from the planes into shallow water. The Italians lose 3 out of their 5 battleships. The British lose two planes.

The Japanese took a keen interest in this result. The US apparently ignored it.

The British swordfish

aircraft. Obsolete- but still

able to defeat a battleship.

HMS Illustrious. One of

the most modern aircraft

carriers in 1940.

Italian battleship casualty at


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Italian battleship casualty at

Taranto.


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Questions:

If this attack had been planned and carried out successfully on at least 2

previous occasions, why were the results ignored by the high command?

Why did the US ignore the lessons of Taranto?

Is it evidence of inefficiency caused by prejudice within the US forces at

the time?

Is it evidence of incompetence in the US armed forces and US

Intelligence?

Does it imply that a competent US military was being handicapped by

some other force?


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Real damage.


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Real damage?

Of all the US ships involved, all but one US battleshipwas recovered, rebuilt and re-entered the war. (the USS

Arizona was too badly damaged)

Although there were thousands of dead, there weremany thousands more to take their place. FDR had

stepped up recruitment of soldiers before December1941.

US war production would rapidly replace damaged warmaterial.

Real naval power lay with aircraft carriers, and the US

had lost none of these. The harbour facilities lay largely untouched, especially

the oil and pumping facilities.

Conclusion: the US could afford the temporary loss of itsless useful ships and still win the war.

The USS Oklahoma is pulled


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The USS Oklahoma is pulled

upright again by giant cables


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Questions:

Did the US Command realise that battleships were disposable assets by

1941?

Did FDR realise that the sinking of battleships could be useful as a tool

to lever the US public into the war?

Is it likely that US political commanders would willingly sacrifice their

sailors to achieve a political goal?

Is it just a coincidence that the American carriers were not in Pearl on

Dec7 1941?


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Senior Leadership factor


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Winston Churchill.

Prime Minister of GreatBritain. 1940-45.

Realised that if Britainwas to survive the waragainst Germany it hadto find much greater

resources in terms ofmanpower andmaterials.

These things wereavailable in the USA.

Conclusion:He had to

involve the USA in thewar.


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Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)

President of the United States ofAmerica (USA) 1933-1945

The only thing we have to fear isfear itself.

From 1940 he began sending allthe aid he could to help Britainwithout actually joining the war.

Began increasing US warproduction, and militaryrecruitment before 1941.

Wanted a good neighbour policyto other nations, but after PearlHarbour he organised global waras a way to restore global balancewith the USA at the fore.

Became concerned with amechanism to keep world peaceand consequently thought muchabout a new United Nations.

Good friends with Churchill andGeneral George C.Marshall.


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Churchill and Roosevelt 1941

They were close personal friends.

On one occasion FDR unexpectedly cameto see Churchill when he was staying withFDR in the White House. Churchill was in

the bath. Churchill stood up in the bath,completely naked, saying you see,Mr.President, I have nothing to hide! FDRfound this highly amusing.

Met in August 1941 to discuss the war, co-operation, and the atom bomb.

Churchill later wrote of FDR he not onlyanticipated history but altered its course.


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Questions:

To what lengths were Churchill and Roosevelt prepared to go to win the war?

Was Roosevelts friendship with Churchill that strong that he was willing tosacrifice American lives to keep it?

Was Roosevelts vision of a non-imperial future dependent on a US-Britishalliance?

Did Roosevelt see US involvement in the war as a way to fully recover from the

effects of the Great Depression? Churchill and Churchill were both good political showmen. Did Roosevelt realise

that to get America involved in the war, he had to put on a good show ofsome sort?

Lost ground can always be regained FDR.

Did FDR see Pearl Harbour ships as lost ground before Dec7?

Was Churchill right; did FDR alter the course of history by creating anoccurrence that would not have happened in normal circumstances?

Did FDR see Pearl Harbour as a way to crush fascism,and imperialism at thesame time, leading to a world dominated ultimately by the USA?


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Technological Inertia


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Battleship belief.

The faith placed in battleships in the 1930s is today hard tounderstand.

It lay in the investment, size and sheer monstrousness ofthese weapons.

The battleship represented the crowning technological

achievement of the nation state. So much money was to be made in building and

maintaining these ships it would upset many people if theywerent built!

In appearance the ships were meant to show power. Theycould deliver unheard of devastation whilst remaininginvisible beyond the horizon.

They could hit harder, and strike further away than anyother weapon before.


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An example of the astounding strength of the old battleships isthe IJN Nagato. She survived the war and was used as anatomic bomb target ship in 1946.She survived the blast withonly minor damage !!!

No wonder people were unwilling to believe that these shipswere outdated.


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Battleships are superior?

This mayve been true in 1906, but

by 1939 airships could travel muchfurther, and faster than battleships.

Fleets of aeroplanes could deliver

greater hitting power than battleships

(although at shorter ranges).

The development of the aircraft

carrier ship in WW1 gave the aeroplanethe decisive advantage over the

battleship.

Despite this the US still started building

12 battleships, but only 1 aircraft carrier,

between1936-40.

The German airship Hindenburg famously crossed the Atlantic.

S f

The Japanese Zeke , or Zero, fighter.


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Superb manoeverability and long range meant it outclassed all other fighters when

originally produced.

Made of top secret aluminium it had no armour, was incredibly light and very fast. It could

also fly very slow, at only 60 mph, meaning that it could practically turn around on itself.

It was the plane of choice for the Japanese navy.US pilots learned that to stay safe they had to stay out of range!

In 1940 13 zeros shot down 27 enemy planes over China in under 3 minutes.

When news of the zero reached the US the Americans claimed that it was impossible that

the Japanese could build such an aircraft and dismissed the reports.

Torpedo nets
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Mitsubishi_Zero-Yasukuni.jpg


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Torpedo netsSince WW1 battleships had

carried metal nets to protectthem against torpedoes. The

nets were held out on poles all

around the ship. In harbour

there were often permanent

nets.

None of the ships in Pearl

Harbour were protected by nets.

Admiral Kimmel said that they

got in the way of running the

harbour efficiently and slowed

the rapid deployment of theships should they need to leave

harbour quickly.

R d


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Radar.

A brand new system wasoperational in Hawaii to detectaeroplanes. It was called radar.

It was rather primitive and onlyshowed blips on a screen to

indicate an object approaching orleaving.

Dec7th the radar picked up theincoming attack but the officer incharge dismissed it as an

expected flight of US B17sarriving.

The actual Pearl Harbour radar.

Question:
http://users.erols.com/radarmus/


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Question:

Was it incompetence that led the US navy to build 12 battleships but

only 1 aircraft carrier between 1936-40?

If battleships were so important, why did the US leave such preciousassets badly defended ?

Why was battleship row not surrounded by torpedo nets?

In their attitude to Japanese know-how were the Americans basically

racist and was this the reason for their complacency?

Why else would the US military ignore the reports of Japanese military

technological advances?

Why might US military personnel be slow to pick up on the

advantages of radar?

If Kimmel did not want torpedo nets because they impaired the speed

of the fleets rapid deployment doesnt it imply that he was expecting

some form of attack? Doesnt it make peacetime measures, such as

locked ammunition stores, even more inexcusable?

P liti l i t f


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Political interference

Ad i l Ri h d


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Admiral RichardsonCommander of the US Fleet until

relieved by Admiral Kimmel. Feb 1941

Oversaw the deployment of the US

fleet to Pearl Harbour.

May 1940 was ordered to state to the

press that at his request the fleet was

to stay at Pearl Harbour.Richardson protested that this was

improper and that the fleet should stay

on the West Coast of the USA.

Dismissed by FDR and replaced by

Kimmel.

Other Admirals, including Kimmel,approached FDR to return the fleet to

the US. They were ignored.

The idea was promoted that the fleet

would act as a deterrent to Japanese

aggression.


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Questions:

Why would FDR ignore the advise of his top naval adviser-

Richardson- to keep the fleet on the US mainland coast?

Why would FDR replace one of his top naval advisers when the

world was at war around him and he would need all the advice

he could get? Does the replacement of a high ranking official

herald a change in policy?

Admiral Halsey argued that if there was to be a fight then the

fleet would be better off if it was closer to its enemy. Other

Admirals said that in war you dont lengthen your supply lines

unnecessarily. Who do you think was correct?

Why has the US Senate exonerated the Pearl Harbourcommanders if they were guilty?


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Ko-Hyoteki. Midget submarines.The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour with 5 of these.Here one lies beached on the coast of Hawaii after the attack.

At least one of these machines had got past US defences and into the

harbour before the attack.

One was attacked by a US guard boat outside the harbour before the air

attack, yet this did not provoke a general alert. This is puzzling because

they were extremely short range and their presence indicated the

presence of other, larger forces.


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Peacetime?


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Peacetime? The US air force kept its anti-aircraft ammunition

locked away for safety in peacetime. Anti-aircraft guns were carefully stored in the

base and not strategically distributed around soas not to alarm the local populace.

Sunday stand-down routine was acceptableprocedure during peacetime. Many crewmen lefttheir ships as a result.

The government had sent a war threat memo toAdmiral Kimmel- but it went on to outline

possible Japanese aggressions in Borneo andMalaya- hundreds of miles away.

Questions:


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Why were all the eggs in one basket : why were all the battleships in one place

at the same time?

Why were all the battleships docked in a harbour which was proven to be

vulnerable to attack, and which was difficult to get out of in a hurry?

Do armed forces, in peacetime, really wait to be attacked without taking any

precautions for self-defence?

Was the concentration of badly defended battleships proof of a political intention

to provide bait to Japanese aggressors?

Why was no general alert sounded when the submarine threat was detected?

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