Pearl Harbor

[WTC]

Who would you blame for the attack on Pearl Harbor excluding the Japs.
Would you blame the cryptology team for not craking the naval code or the admiral for not puting the pacific fleet on full alert?(I'm assuming they didn't put the fleet in full alert)

[1K3]

Originally posted by WTC
Who would you blame for the attack on Pearl Harbor excluding the Japs.
Would you blame the cryptology team for not craking the naval code or the admiral for not puting the pacific fleet on full alert?(I'm assuming they didn't put the fleet in full alert)

The guy who said that the air armada heading to P harbor are just B-17s from the stateside.

[Shuckins]

I've always felt that Admiral Kimmel was unfairly maligned for what happened at Pearl Harbor.  In effect, he was the victim of the "heads-must-roll" mentality that prevailed in Washington in the days after the attack.

Kimmel had put the fleet on alert on several occasions prior to Dec. 7, based on intelligence reports and orders forwarded from Washington.  The latest communique from General Marshal wasn't delivered in time to make any difference.

In addition, Kimmel had repeatedly asked for long-range patrol aircraft to help secure the islands against attack, and was repeatedly refused.

What the man could have done differently is anyone's guess.

[Masherbrum]

Originally posted by WTC
Who would you blame for the attack on Pearl Harbor excluding the Japs.
Would you blame the cryptology team for not craking the naval code or the admiral for not puting the pacific fleet on full alert?(I'm assuming they didn't put the fleet in full alert)

[RAIDER14]

Originally posted by Masherbrum

[Yeager]

I would blame that nasty Roosevelt for forcing the Japanese to attack premptively in self defense by threatening them with a embargo on precious materials.....metals and oil

[J_A_B]

Bait indeed!  Who would you blame for the attack on Pearl, other than the people who attacked it, what a funny question.

I blame the Japanese.


J_A_B

[Charon]

A great book on the subject, exhaustively researched, is: At Dawn We Slept, by Gordon W. Prange
http://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Slept-Gordon-W-Prange/dp/0140157344

It led me to believe we should blame (for the success of the operation) a US military that grossly underestimated the “inferior” Japanese, by believing that while war was likely (imminent in fact) they wouldn't have the guts skill or Western know-how to actually pull off a Pearl Harbor. War, when it came, would be elswewhere in an operationally safer, more remote part of the Pacific. And, similarly, blame the Japanese (for the actual attack and outcome of the war that was not in their favor) who held us in contempt, and figured one good bloody nose was all it would take to bring our decadent inferior country to its knees for a suitable negotiated peace.

Once you are making decisions from this base of misperception, it becomes easy to overlook what was obvious in hindsight.

Charon

[LePaul]

Had the USS Nimitz pressed on with its attack, with its arsenal of A-7s and F-14s, we could have prevented Pearl Harbor.  But the time anomaly re-appeared and they had to return to 1981.



(reference "The Final Countdown" movie)

[1K3]

Originally posted by Yeager
I would blame that nasty Roosevelt for forcing the Japanese to attack premptively in self defense by threatening them with a embargo on precious materials.....metals and oil

he did that cause Japan was wrecking havoc on the Chinese in the mid/late 30s

[Angus]

Well, what fused it was Japanese nationalism.
The embargo left them with only a humiliating option.
The preparations, or rather lack of them, was a high-up command screw-up.
(The Brits already used that kind of attack on the Italian fleet, as well as that the U.S. already had radar sets on Hawai, - from the Brits I belive)
The radar and command events that sad morning were U.S. local screw up.

So, it was screwed. To make it worse, the thing was repeated to the USAAF under McArthur's command in the Phillippenes several hours later, and by that time the high command already knew of the hostilities. Still, them B17's were knocked out on the ground while standing parked tip-to-tip.

[JB88]

i blame chester earl garveston of 3241 chippewa lane, topeka kansas.

[Squire]

Putting the US Pacific Fleet on alert would not have stopped the raid, only lessened its vulnerability. Maybe asking a more narrowly defined Q would help, are you asking who to blame for starting the war? or who to blame for the Pearl Harbor disaster? one is political, the other military.

I will say I think that Admiral Kimmel was used as a scapegoat in the aftermath, but it was perhaps required to focus the blame, in order to move on and get into a different mind set. Thats not fair, but thats war.

[Ripsnort]

Well, what fused it was Japanese nationalism.
The embargo left them with only a humiliating option.

Oh yes, lets just forget that the japanese had occupied Manchuria in 1931, and the Japanese attack on China in 1937. Ignore the military clashes between Japanese and Soviet troops in Mongolia in 1938-1939.  Disregard the Japanese attempt to profit from Hitler's early victories in Europe by demanding that France allow it to occupy the French colonies of Indochina and when Japan demanded that Britain shut off the supply road from its colony of Burma to the Chinese.  

Yes, we were at fault, giving them no option but to attack us.

[Urchin]

Originally posted by WTC
Who would you blame for the attack on Pearl Harbor excluding the Japs.
Would you blame the cryptology team for not craking the naval code or the admiral for not puting the pacific fleet on full alert?(I'm assuming they didn't put the fleet in full alert)

I'm goin with Slick Willy here...  to busy getting it on in the Oval Office to care that "this is not a drill".