Was Pearl Harbour an Unprecedented Surprise Attack?

Dr. Peter Hammond

Was The ATTACK on PEARL HARBOUR really an UNPRECEDENTED SURPRISE?

As my history teacher in Rhodesia

reminded us:Beware

the victor’s version!

The claim that no one could have anticipated torpedo attacks in the shallow waters of a

harbour before 7 December 1941, is false.

The Danger of Torpedo Attack

The British had proved that torpedoes could be effective in their attack on the Italian Navy at Taranto, 11 November 1940. The

Royal Navy used Swordfish Bi-planes to deliver the torpedoes.

The US Navy had discussed this new threat in a June 1941 Memorandum. Torpedo nets were considered as a precautionary

measure to be installed in Pearl Harbour.

Admiral Kimmel and his staff testified that the decision not to install torpedo nets and booms had been made by the Navy

Department in Washington DC, not in Hawaii.

Overruled by Politicians in Washington D.C.

On the night of 11 to 12 November 1940, British Naval forces under Admiral Andrew Cunningham,

Battle of Taranto

including Aircraft Carrier HMS Illustrious, launched Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers in the Mediterranean Sea

to attack the Regia Marina Battle Fleet at anchor in the harbour of Taranto.

Despite the shallow depth of the water, the aerial torpedoes proved devastatingly effective, crippling the Italian Navy,

which lost half of its capital ships in one night.

The Royal Navy raid on Taranto Bay marked the ascendency of air power over sea power. The Fleet Air Arm proved to be

the Navy's most devastating weapon.

Naval Air Power

Seventeen months before Pearl Harbour, the British Royal Navy attacked the French Fleet at anchor

on the coast of French Algeria.

Was the Japanese Raid on Pearl Harbour Unprecedented?

The Battle of Mers-el-Kébir on 3 July 1940, resulted in the deaths of 1,297 French servicemen, the sinking of a French battleship and the damaging of 5 other ships. The combined air and sea attack was carried out against Britain's official ally - France.

The attack remains controversial and created much hostility between France and Britain.

Attacking an Ally

Britain argued that "the times were desperate; invasion seemed imminent; and the British government simply could not afford to

risk Germany seizing control of the French Fleet… the prominent British motive was thus dire necessity and self-preservation."

However the French

insisted that, as their terms of surrender

with Germany did not require them handing

over their Fleet, which was still in

French controlled territory,

the British action was

treacherous.

French ships that were in Alexandria and believed that they were allies of Britain were shocked to be blockaded, boarded and

seized by the Royal Navy at the same time.

Swift and Surprising Action

Also on 3 July, French ships in Plymouth and Portsmouth, England, were boarded and captured.

This included the French submarine, Surcouf (the largest submarine in the world at that time), four other submarines, the

battleships Paris and Courbet, destroyers Triomphant and Leopard.

Some officers and sailors were killed in the struggles. These attacks were justified by the British strategy of Copenhaging the

Fleet.

Admiral Horatio Nelson's famous battle of Copenhagen on 2 April 1801 was a clear inspiration for the Japanese attack on Pearl

Harbour, 1941.

Copenhaging the Fleet

Although Denmark was officially neutral during the Napoleonic Wars, Britain feared that her Navy may be seized by the French,

if Denmark fell to the French.

The Battle of Copenhagen was a result of multiple failures of diplomacy.

Targeting Neutrals

With Britain enforcing a strict blockade of France and any country trading with France, even neutral nations, such as Denmark, Sweden and Prussia, were regarded as legitimate targets.

Admiral Sir Hyde Parker and Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson led the attack on the Danish capital, Copenhagen.

The Battle of Copenhagen

The British attack, during which Admiral Nelson famously placed his telescope to his blind eye ignoring a command to withdraw,

was, from the British perspective, spectacularly successful.

1,600 Danish soldiers and sailors were killed, or wounded and most of the Danish Navy either sunk, severely damaged,

or captured.

Although ostensibly neutral, Denmark was again attacked by the Royal Navy 16 August - 5 September 1807,

when the Royal Navy bombarded Copenhagen, seized the Danish Fleet

"as a precaution" in case Denmark did choose to join the French.

The Second Battle of Copenhagen

3,000 soldiers and civilians, including 195 children, in Copenhagen died as a result of the bombardment.

As the majority of the Danish Army was at the Southern border to protect against a possible attack from the French, this second

assault on a neutral country was a scandal at the time.

Knowing that the Imperial Japanese Navy was modelled on the Royal Navy, these famous battles, strategies and tactics of Copenhaging the Fleets of even neutral countries where a

potential threat was perceived,

Ignoring Historic Precedents

including against Britain's French allies, and most tellingly at the Battle of Taranto where aircraft launched from aircraft carriers using torpedoes had crippled a battle fleet, should have been

taken into consideration.

As modern American films such as Tora! Tora! Tora! and Pearl Harbour tend to ignore these historic precedents and pretend that

the attack on Pearl Harbour was both "unprecedented" and "unexpected"

Deception by Entertainment

and "the first surprise attack by aircraft on ships" generations have been deceived into thinking that Pearl Harbour was a treacherous,

unexpected and unprecedented attack "A day that will live in infamy!"

"Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted… Now

all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition…" 1 Corinthians 10:6-11

Admiral James Richardson was fired by President Roosevelt for complaining about the

president's order to station the Pacific Fleet

in Pearl Harbour.

Reckless and Irresponsible

Admiral Richardson blamed the president for the "initial defeats in the Pacific" as "direct, real and personal."

Richardson believed that stationing the Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbour made the ships "extremely vulnerable to attack" and

provided "a poor and nonstrategic defence."

Captain L.F. Safford, US Navy, in charge of the Communications Security Section of Naval Communications in Washington,

testified before the Admiral Hart Board that:

Dereliction of Duty

"On 4 December 1941, we received definite information from two independent sources that Japan would attack the United States and Britain… at 9pm Washington time, 6 December 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 virtually at the moment of its

decoding.

Finally at 10:15am Washington time, 7 December 1941, we received positive information from Signal Intelligence Service,

War Department, that the Japanese Declaration of War would be presented to the Secretary of State at 1pm, Washington time that

date;

when it was 1pm in Washington, it would be day break in Hawaii and approximately midnight in the Philippines, which indicated a surprise air raid in Pearl Harbour in about three hours. President

Roosevelt had ample time to broadcast a warning."

6th , 1941, a message to the Japanese delegation in Washington D.C. was intercepted, broken & distributed by the Signal Intelligence Service, SIS.

General Albert C. Wedemeyer is quoted by Herbert Hoover in Freedom Betrayed as stating: "When on, December 6,

our intercepts told us that the Japanese were going to attack somewhere the very next day, whether in the Central Pacific,

or to the South in the Philippines and Dutch East Indies,

Failing to Give US Servicemen a Fighting Chance

the president of the United States, as Commander in Chief of our Military Forces… could have gone on the radio and broadcast to the wide world that he had irrefutable evidence of an immediate

Japanese intention to strike.

This would have alerted everybody from Singapore to Pearl Harbour. Even though inadequate in some cases to defend

effectively, nevertheless, our forces would have been able to take a toll, which would have blunted the Japanese attack.

In Hawaii, the capital ships might have been moved out of the congested harbour to sea, where Admiral Kimmel at least had the

foresight to keep the far more vital aircraft carriers.

Furthermore, our Carrier taskforce in the mid-Pacific might have attacked the Japanese taskforce when its planes were aloft.

There are many possibilities which could have given our men a fighting chance."

An Army Enquiry conducted July to October 1944, condemned negligence by General Marshall and other senior officers for

having prior knowledge of the attacks from the intercepts and for not having alerted the Military Commander at Pearl Harbour.

Criminal Negligence

USS California (BB-44) damaged by the attack at Pearl Harbour in 1941.

Congress was not satisfied with the Military investigations and reports and from November 1945 to May 1946, the Congressional

Pearl Harbour Investigation, a Minority Report by Senate Members of the Committee condemned the endeavour to

"throw as soft a light as possible on Washington."

"The Roberts Commission Report was so hasty, inconclusive and incomplete. Some witnesses were examined under oath,

others were not. Much testimony was not even recorded… several records were missing

and most inadequate explanations were supplied…

Attempted Cover Ups

Army and Navy information indicated growing imminence of war was delivered to the highest authorities… including the President.

The fatal error of Washington was to undertake a world campaign and world responsibilities without first making provision for the

security of the United States, which was their prime constitutional obligation.

High Washington authorities did not communicate to Admiral Kimmel and General Short adequate information of diplomatic negotiations and of intercepted diplomatic intelligence, which,

if communicated with them,

would have informed them of the imminent menace

of a Japanese attack in time for them to

fully alert and prepare the defence of

Pearl Harbour…

Radiogram reporting the Pearl Harbour attack, December 7, 1941

the failure to perform the responsibilities indispensably essential to the defence of Pearl Harbour rest upon Franklin D. Roosevelt,

Henry L. Simpson, Frank Knox and George C. Marshall…" (Freedom Betrayed)

George Morgenstern in his book, Pearl Harbour: The Story of the Secret War, published in 1947,

wrote: "With absolute knowledge of war, they refused to communicate that knowledge clearly, unequivocally and in time,

to the people in the field, upon whom the blow would fall…

Dragging a Reluctant America into War

Pearl Harbour provided the American War party with the means of escaping dependence on a hesitant Congress in taking a reluctant

people into war…

Pearl Harbour was the first action of the Acknowledged War and the last battle of a Secret War, upon which the administration had

long since embarked.

"The Secret War was waged against nations which the

leadership of this country had chosen as enemies months before they became formal

enemies, by declaration of war.

The Secret War of Deception

and Propaganda

It was waged also by psychological means by propaganda and deception against the American people… the people were told

that acts which were equivalent to war were intended to keep the nation out of war.

Constitutional processes existed only to be circumvented. Until finally the war making power of Congress was reduced to the

act of ratifying an accomplished fact."

Herbert Hoover declares in his book Freedom Betrayed: "It can never be forgotten that three times during 1941 Japan made

overtures for peace negotiation.

Rejecting Every Overture for Peace

America never made one unless a futile proposal

to the Emperor the day before Pearl Harbour

could be called peace.

A peace could have been made in the Pacific that would have saved China from ravishment and would have protected the

American Pacific flank.

If Roosevelt was still determined to carry on his undeclared war with Germany, until it provoked reprisals, that Pacific protection

was the only sane course.

It would have limited our engagement in any case to the European theatre.

As a result of this policy - an undeclared war upon Japan - we suffered the greatest military defeat in our history –

with immeasurable consequences.

"Public opinion was overwhelmingly against our being involved in the war up to the day of Pearl Harbour… America came into World

War One 33 months after its outbreak.

Fanning the Flames of Hate By a Mass of Lies

She came into World War Two 27 months after it started. The processes and the months of lag were the same:

the appeal to crusade for freedom, for independence of nations, for lasting peace; the same pictures of atrocities; the fanning of hate and above all, the mass of lies and stimulation of fear of

invasion - they were identical.

But in World War Two the people believed much less of it and they believed much more that they were being deliberately pushed into the war. They dimly recognised that they were being ground in the

mills of power politics and the personal ambitions of men."

"The First World War had been conducted in the Allied side in the name of 'the peoples'. This war was in the name of Stalin,

Churchill and Roosevelt.

Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt's War

At times the whole political and military scene seemed their personal property - as it was."

(Herbert Hoover, Freedom Betrayed).

"In the first World War, our sons marched to war with flowers in their rifles. Bands and cheering people were on every platform.

Many Recognised they Were Being forced into War

There were no bands, no flowers and no cheers on the railway platforms to World War Two.

There was little singing of war ballades by soldiers or civilians, except at the urging of paid conductors of propaganda.

The station platforms were stages for grieving and tears.

The promises, the speeches,

the propaganda filled the air

as in World War One, but this time the people

received it grimly and with little believing."

- Herbert Hoover.

Freedom Betrayed indicts Roosevelt for instigating the

Pacific war:

His economic sanctions against Japan and shunning of Japanese peace overtures sparked the Pearl Harbour

attack and ultimately the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

—"the act of unparalleled brutality in all American history."

President Herbert Hoover in Freedom Betrayed documents: "Roosevelt's contemptuous refusal of Prime Minister Konoye’s

proposals for peace in the Pacific of September, 1941 was a lost opportunity.

Double Standards

The acceptance of these proposals was prayerfully urged by both the American and British Ambassadors in Japan.

The terms Konoye proposed would have accomplished every American purpose except possibly the return of Manchuria - and

even this was thrown open to discussion.

The cynic will recall that Roosevelt was willing to provoke a great war on his flank over this remote question and then gave

Manchuria to Communist Russia."

Herbert Hoover documents in Freedom Betrayed that American Military officials strongly urged FDR to accept the Three Months'

Stand-Still Agreement offered by the Emperor of Japan in November 1941.

The Threat of Communism

Japan was alarmed at the threat of the Soviet Union and a 90-days delay could have kept war out of the Pacific.

Secretary of War, Stimson, in his Diary, disclosed that Roosevelt and his officials were seeking for a method to stimulate an overt

act of aggression from the Japanese.

Three civilians were killed in this shrapnel-riddled car by a bomb dropped from a Japanese plane eight miles from Pearl Harbour on 7 December 1941.

There are many documents relating to Pearl Harbour which are still classified and have not yet been made public by the United

States government. Many of the documents were destroyed during the war.

Classified Documents are Still Denied to the Public

Some of the public records of the United Kingdom containing Churchill's "Most Secret" war time intelligence briefs, have been marked as "closed for 75 years", including the sections dealing

with events from November 1941 through March 1942.

In Day of Deceit, by Robert Stinnett, a memorandum prepared by Commander McCollun stated that a memorandum issued in the

immediate pre-war period declared that only a direct attack on US interests would sway the American public,

To Save the Soviet Union from Collapse in Europe

or Congress, to favour direct involvement in the European war.

Anderson and Secretary Knox,

offered eight specific plans to aggrieve the

Japanese Empire

Details of the McCollum memo. Make an arrangement with the British for the use of their bases in Singapore.

"If by these means Japan could be led to commit an overt active war, so much the better." The McCollun memo of 7 October 1940,

remained classified until 1994.

Jonathan Daniels, Roosevelt's administrative assistant at that time of Pearl Harbour, presented an eye-witness viewpoint: "The blow

was heavier than he had hoped it would necessarily be…

“Worth the Price”

But the risks paid off; even the loss was worth the price..."

("1941: Pearl Harbour Sunday: The End of an Era").

“No reasonably informed person can now believe that Japan made a villainous unexpected attack on the United States.

An attack was not only fully expected, but was actually desired.

A Travesty of History

It is beyond doubt that President Roosevelt wanted to get his country into the war, but for political reasons, was most anxious to

ensure that the first act of hostility came from the other side;

for which reason he caused increasing pressure to be put on the Japanese, to a point that no self-respecting nation could endure

without resort to arms. Japan was meant, by the American President, to attack the United States.” (Freedom Betrayed)

As Mr Oliver Lyttelton, then British Minister of Production, said in 1944: "Japan was provoked into attacking America's Pearl

Harbour. It is a travesty of history to say that America was forced into the war." - British Historian Captain Russell Grenfell Main

Fleet to Singapore as quoted by President Herbert Hoover in Freedom Betrayed.

William Henry Chamberlin in America's Second Crusade (1950),

wrote:

"It is scarcely possible, in the light

of this and many other known facts,

to avoid the conclusion that the

Roosevelt Administration sought the war which began at Pearl Harbour.

Desperately Seeking War

The steps which made armed conflict inevitable would take months before the conflict broke out."

(Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoovers Secret History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath).

Then Secretary of State, Hull, issued his foolish ultimatum and we were defeated at Pearl Harbour.

The Betrayal of China

By Roosevelt insisting that Chinese Premiere

Chiang Kai-shek include Mao Tse-Tung's

communists in a Coalition government

and Roosevelt's Secret Agreement at Yalta to betray Mongolia and Manchuria to Russia future

generations were betrayed.

All of China was sacrificed to the communists in the years of President Truman - at the insistence of his Left-wing advisors and General Marshall. The Second World War ended with 450 Million

Asiatic peoples betrayed under communist dictatorship.

Herbert Hoover in Freedom Betrayed declared: "I had warned the American people time and again against becoming involved.

The Only Beneficiary was Communism

I stated repeatedly its only end would be to promote Communism over the earth; that we would impoverish the

United States and the whole world. The situation of the world today is my vindication."

"Roosevelt ignored the whole communist infiltration into his administration. Much of it was to be exposed before his death. But of more importance, he ignored the whole international purpose of

communism and its morals in International relations.

Blind Service to Stalin and the Soviet Union

Its purposes and methods had been blatantly stated to the world ever since 1917 and its statements in books were widely

distributed in the United States. Roosevelt was not a communist.

His leanings towards Stalin and blindness to communistic activities arose partly from his own Leftist-leaning and partly from the usefulness of the communists in support of his administration

politically throughout his 13 years in office."

"His leanings towards Stalin and the communist began with the recognition of the Soviet Union immediately upon taking his office

in 1933….

Co-Operating with Communism

During 15 years prior to the recognition, Democratic and Republican administrations

alike had barred any relations with a country which had

returned huge numbers of mankind to slavery and was constantly conspiring against the welfare of other peoples.

By recognition, Roosevelt gave the Soviet Union certain respectability in the family of nations, but also of importance.

By that act, he had opened the door to communist penetration and conspiracies in the United States."

In Herbert Hoover's Freedom Betrayed, General Douglas McArthur's

views are reported that:

"the whole Japanese war was a madman's desire

to get US into war."

A Madman’s Desire to Get US into War

McArthur was convinced that the

"Financial sanctions in July 1941 were not only

provocative but that Japan was bound to fight

even if it were suicide,

unless they could be removed, as the sanctions carried every penalty of war except killing and destruction, and no nation of

dignity would take them for long."

McArthur said that: "Roosevelt could have

made peace with Konoye in September 1941 and could have

obtained all of the American objectives in

the Pacific and the freedom of China and

probably Manchuria. Konoye was authorized by the Emperor to agree to

complete withdrawal."

An Unnecessary War

Callous Indifference

to the American

Army Beleaguered

in the Philippines

“I believe that it was the desire of President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill that we get into the war, as they felt their allies could not win without us and all our efforts to cause the Germans

to declare war on us failed. “

McArthur was bitter about: "Roosevelt's starvation of supplies to him at a time when the whole fate of the South Pacific and their

allies in Asia was at stake."

"Roosevelt had shown his vindictiveness in many ways."

McArthur had also told Roosevelt that: "Peace could be made with the Japanese any time after the Philippines were taken… with

their supporting legs cut off, they were beaten."

The War Did Not Need to

Have Lasted So Long

He said that: "Roosevelt, however was determined that he should not command in the final movement on Japan…"

General McArthur declared: "We would have avoided all of the losses of the atomic bomb and the entry of Russia into Manchuria, had the Japanese peace overtures been accepted, in early 1945."

The Atom Bombs Were Not Necessary

McArthur told President Herbert Hoover in 1946 that: "Truman's policies were enabling Russia to make a puppet state out of

Manchuria and betraying all of China and Mongolia to communism."

Betraying Asia to Communism

In September 1944, John Flynn, a member of the America First Committee, published The Truth about Pearl Harbour:

Rear Admiral Frank Beatty, who at the time of the Pearl Harbour attack was an aide to the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox,

testified:

"Prior to 7 December, it was evident even to me… that we were pushing Japan into a corner.

The conditions we imposed upon Japan were so severe that we knew the nation could not accept them. We were forcing her so

severely that we could have known that she would react towards the United States.

All her preparations in a military way - and we knew their overall import - pointed that way."

Jonathan Daniels, Roosevelt's administrative assistant at that time of Pearl Harbour, presented an eye-witness viewpoint: "The blow

was heavier than he had hoped it would necessarily be…

But the risks paid off; even the loss was worth the price..." ("1941: Pearl Harbour Sunday: The End of an Era").

"Despite these physical losses and these moral political disasters, and these international follies…

Christian Resistance

Despite the drift to collectivism, despite degeneration in government, despite the demagogic intellectuals,

despite the corruption in our government and the moral corruptions of our people, we still hold to Christianity, we still have

the old ingenuity in our scientific and industrial progress."

"We have 35 million children marching through our schools

and 2,5 million in our institutions of higher learning…

The Public School Front

"The promise of a greater America abides in the millions of cottages throughout the land, where men and women are still

resolute in freedom.

Hope in the Homes

In their hearts the spirit of America still lives. The boys and girls from those homes will someday throw off these disasters and

frustrations and will re-create their America again."

In order to anticipate problems

and threats in the future

we need to study the past.

Forewarned is

Forearmed

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

George Santayana

"If we do not know our own history,

we will simply have to endure all

the same mistakes, sacrifices

and absurdities all over again."

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

"Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted… now all these things

happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition…" 1 Corinthians 10:6-11

“You shall know the

truth and the

truth shall make you

free.” John 8:32

"He who justifies the wicked,

and he who condemns the just,

both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord."

Proverbs 17:15

"It is an abomination for kings to commit

wickedness, for a throne is

established by righteousness." Proverbs 16:12

"…Should you help the wicked

and love those who hate the Lord?

Therefore the wrath of the Lord is upon you."

2 Chronicles 19:2

"Hate evil, love good;

establish justice in the gate…"

Amos 5:15

Truth does not fear investigation.

"While they promise them liberty,

they themselves are slaves

of corruption…." 2 Peter 2:19

Dr. Peter Hammond

Reformation Society

P.O. Box 74

Newlands, 7725

Cape Town, South Africa

Tel: (021) 689-4480

Fax: (021) 685-5884

Email: info@ReformationSA.org

Website: www.ReformationSA.org