Final Word.

“No Americans will think it wrong of me if I proclaim that to have the United States on our side was to be the greatest joy…England would live; Britain would live; the Commonwealth of Nations and the Empire would live. How long the war would last or in what fashion it would end no-man could tell, nor did I at this moment care. Once again in our long island history we would emerge… safe and victorious. We should not be wiped out…Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful”. (Winston Churchill – The Second World War, vol 3,page 539).

 

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

One of the most important elements in America's foreknowledge of Japan's intentions was our government's success in cracking Japan's secret diplomatic code known as "Purple." Tokyo used it to communicate to its embassies and consulates, including those in Washington and Hawaii. The code was so complex that it was required to be enciphered and deciphered by machine. A talented group of American cryptoanalysts broke the code in 1940 and devised a facsimile of the Japanese machine. These, utilized by the intelligence sections of both the War and Navy departments, swiftly revealed Japan's diplomatic messages. The deciphered texts were nicknamed "Magic."

 December 1st-2nd:1941 The Japanese embassies in non-Axis nations around the world were directed to dispose of their secret documents and all but one copy of their codes. An additional warning had come via the so-called "winds" message. A November 18th intercept indicated that, if a break in U.S. relations were forthcoming, Tokyo would issue a special radio warning. This would not be in the Purple code, as it was intended to reach consulates and lesser agencies of Japan not equipped with the code or one of its machines. The message, to be repeated three times during a weather report, was "Higashi no kaze ame," meaning "East wind, rain." "East wind" signified the United States; "rain" signified diplomatic split - in effect, war.

This prospective message was deemed so significant that U.S. radio monitors were constantly watching for it, and the Navy Department typed it up on special reminder cards. On December 4th, "Higashi no kaze ame" was indeed broadcast and picked up by Washington intelligence.

It was long presumed that as the Japanese fleet approached Pearl Harbor, it maintained complete radio silence. This is untrue. The fleet barely observed discretion, let alone silence. Naval intelligence intercepted and translated numerous dispatches, some clearly revealing that Pearl Harbor had been targeted. The most significant was the following, sent by Admiral Yamamoto to the Japanese First Air Fleet on November 26, 1941:

"The task force, keeping its movement strictly secret and maintaining close guard against submarines and aircraft, shall advance into Hawaiian waters, and upon the very opening of hostilities shall attack the main force of the United States fleet and deal it a mortal blow. The first air raid is planned for the

 

dawn of x-day. Exact date to be given by later order."

 

A PRELUDE TO WAR SECRET EXPOSED.

 

November 19th 1941 just 28 days before Japans attack on Pearl harbour The Australian war ship HMAS Sydney was operating off Western Australia. when she came across the German raider Kormoran. In the short battle which ensued The Kormoran was sunk and as the Sydney started to limp away, she was hit by one or two torpedos and she sank with the loss of all the crew..

The disappearance of the Sydney caused no immediate alarm, as ships often went missing for several days before reporting, and it was not until the end of December that the ship was officially reported missing presumed sunk.

It was not until the end of the war that enquiries were made concerning this missing ship. The time Sydney went missing, Japan had not entered the war .Ashore the Naval authorities were aware that HMAS Sydney had engaged with a German raider, and it was presumed that both ships had sunk each other, until enquiries revealed that nothing remained of the Sydney. no survivors, no wreckage, no radio messages etc.

Further investigations discovered that 360 of the Kormorans crew had been rescued. those questioned were of the opinion that Sydney had sunk their ship and then retired. One of them remembered that as the warship retired, there was an explosion which lit the sky. Over the following years further enquiries suggested that a Japanese submarine had fired two torpedos into the Sydney , after which the crew of the submarine machine gunned all survivors and destroyed and sunk any wreckage.

As late as 1998 it was established that a Japanese submarine 1-58 had been  illegally operating off Western Australia at the time the Sydney was sunk.

These facts raised many questions which included the following,

It is now a well known fact that the Japanese were lured into the war, in order to bring the Americans with all their wealth and manpower into the war. It was well known that the Japanese would attack Pearl on the 7th December. In fact the Japanese fleet had been shadowed since leaving home waters.

Had the fact that a Japanese submarine had attacked and sunk an allied warship while supposed negotiations between Japan and the west were still being held, it would be considered an immediate declaration of war, which under normal circumstances the British government would have retaliated

However Churchill and Roosevelt had already made preparations for the Japanese to attack an American naval base in order to bring the Americans into the war. They had no wish for anything to divert their plans. So although the British and Australian governments were fully aware that Japanese submarines were operating in the Australian hemisphere, the matter had to remain secret. The British government were in possession of   machinations from which they were able to listen and record every movement of Japanese shipping. Read the book ( “Somewhere Below ISBN 192083131 2 ) .

 

In Java, in early December, the Dutch Army decoded a dispatch from Tokyo to its Bangkok embassy, forecasting attacks on four sites including Hawaii. The Dutch passed the information to Brigadier General Elliot Thorpe, the U.S. military observer. Thorpe sent Washington a total of four warnings. The last went to General Marshall's intelligence chief. Thorpe was ordered to send no further messages concerning the matter. The Dutch also had their Washington military attaché, Colonel Weijerman, personally warn General Marshall.

On November 29th, Secretary of State Cordell Hull secretly met with freelance newspaper writer Joseph Leib. Leib had formerly held several posts in the Roosevelt administration. Hull knew him and felt he was one newsman he could trust. The secretary of state handed him copies of some of the Tokyo intercepts concerning Pearl Harbor. He said the Japanese were planning to strike the base and that FDR planned to let it happen. Hull made Leib pledge to keep his name out of it, but hoped he could blow the story sky-high in the newspapers.

The foregoing represents just a sampling of evidence that Washington knew in advance of the Pearl Harbor attack. For additional evidences, see Infamy: Pearl Harbor and Its Aftermath by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian John Toland, and Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor by Robert Stinnett.(1) So certain was the data that, at a private press briefing in November 1941, General George Marshall confidently predicted that a Japanese-American war would break out during the "first ten days of December."

To ensure a successful Japanese attack - one that would enrage America into joining the war - it was vital to keep Kimmel and Short out of the intelligence loop. However, Washington did far more than this to facilitate the Japanese assault.

 The Japanese strike sank or heavily damaged 18 naval vessels (including eight battleships), destroyed 188 planes, and left over 2,000 dead. The Roberts Commission, assigned to investigate the attack, consisted of personal cronies of Roosevelt and Marshall. The Commission fully absolved Washington and declared that America was caught off guard James Perloff is the author of The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline

 

 

UNSUNG HEROES

by Arthur Lane