Investigation Of Controversial Facts Of Pearl Harbor

In 1949 Japan attacked pearl harbor at dawn, without warning the US navy was woken by bombs, bullets and explosions. The Japanese attacked knowing they had the advantage, but got lucky when they arrived with the US Navy asleep. No warnings came in, no one knew they were gonna strike as hard as they did, but it happened. So that begs the question, how did enemy planes get so close to the huge Navel base without being detected? How did the Navy not see them coming earlier? Historians argue over the cause of the attack and how it happened without warning, most historians agree that it was US error that caused this tragedy.

For example some claim the planes were detected but then assumed it was a test by the Airforce. Some say they were not detected at all and there was nothing the US could do about it. The radar technology at the time was minimal and in hawaii where this specific radar was located it was a brand new system something these men had never seen before. The radar was operated by Joseph P. Lockhard and George Elliott, they detected large figures on it but couldn't make out what they were and dismissed them as friendly US B-17s and reported them as such. Tyler A. Kermit was the head lieutenant at fort Shafter's radar facility, when he received word that the two privates had seen large dots on the monitor he said “don't worry about it”. Again assuming it was B-17s on their way back to the mainland. This mistake caused the tragic events at pearl harbor to occur and sent the united states of america into World War 2. In an interview with The Newark Star Ledger in 2007 he says “I wake up at night sometimes and think about it” with regret about the incident still haunting him. But can this one incident really account for Pearl Harbor in its entirety. Other historians give Japan all of the credit, claiming they deliberately had minimal radio contact, with little speaking knowing that the US was listening the whole time. This was to throw off the US, when planning a large scale attack such as the one on pearl Harbor there would have to be lots of chatter and planning to make sure it all went right. The key to the attack was to have as little people involved as possible, most high ranking members Japan's military were not informed till the very last second. With the US under the false pretense that Japan was not planning anything they let their guard down. The japanese used radio deception to throw off the United States Gov.

An intelligence and communications officer for the US said "Every day false communications emanated from Kyushu at the same time and same wavelength as during the training period. " Commander Joseph Rochefort of Hawaii Signals Intelligence then concluded that their air fleets had stayed back for training. The main japanese bases Yokosuka, Kure, and Sasebo all used this tactic knowing that they were being listened to. Arguably the most well known explanation to the US not knowing is the Pearl Harbor Advance-Knowledge conspiracy theory. This conspiracy theory is the belief that the United States new all about the attack on pearl harbor even before it was going to happen. All of this of course is hypothetical, but has some evidence to back it up. The breaking of the japanese code, America did a great job in New York cracking foreign countries codes, and applying them militarily. How ever foreign countries new what was happening causing them to change up their codes forcing the united states to start all over. Eventually the code would be broken again and their transmissions would be deciphered out. The Army's signal intelligence service (SIS) was the main source of information regarding these codes. Aided by foreign countries that had their own intelligence regarding code breaking including the Dutch and the British, who agreed in part with the Allies to share all of the broken code. The united states however would not share information due to the fear of a leak. For example the US Army and Navy were not allowed to share information. In late 1941 the SIS had broken many of the Japanese codes including PURPLE which is the highest diplomatic security code.

On december 6th a message was decoded in washington that was sent from japan to the embassy describing the plan to cut ties with america. Taken as a threat a high alert warning was to go out to the pacific, informing them of the possibility of an attack. How ever the message was not received until after the attack was underway. How ever all of this can be considered obsolete because the US military did not respect the foreign office. Often not filling them in on information and not taking information to seriously from them. With all of this information it is not completely out of the question that this information could of affected pearl harbor but there has been no other evidence of decrypts that could have affected the event in anyway. Roosevelts desire to join the war, Even though Roosevelt never actually stated that he wanted to join the war, his actions and comments on the war give it away. There was fighting over the entry of the war and if it was the best thing for the United States to do. After the heavy attack on Pearl Harbor it seemed like all of that went out the window. The blow was so deadly that the people against the entry into the war had to keep their mouths shut. The theory is that America new that a small scale war with Japan would not mean the entry into world war 2 because they would have no reason to wage war with europe.

However America new if there was a large scale surprise attack it would almost be a guaranteed entry to the war declaring war on Japan, with Germany taking Japan's side, therefore America is in on the war. All of this proven and can be related to how germany backed Italy raiding Libya. This theory is based on the fact that our president wanted to join the war and suggests that the government would let this attack take place in order to do so. Detection of japanese radio transmission, There have been numerous claims that there were radio signals were detected for days and were reported to U. S. intelligence right away. The Matson lines SS Lurline claims to have heard unusual radio traffic. Which he said continued and was due east, not coming from a know shorestation This was reported as an immediate attack. All of this points to an approaching Japanese fleet. The way it was known to be a japanese attack was the difference in the morse code. One problem with this theory is that the japanese had people stationed in different parts of the coast and islands putting out fake radio commands signals and information.