The Warning And Decision On Why Japan Attacked Pearl Harbor

In Pearl Harbor Warning and Decision, written by Roberta Wohlstetter illustrates the facts and warning along with the surprise during the bombing of Pearl Harbor. One of the main ideas of this book is to contrast missed signals. Wohlstetter suggested that the U.S could have prevented the bombing from occurring if the signals were not missed. She also claimed that because the signals given to the U.S air force were missed or not heard, it leads to the surprise attack of the U.S enemy at the time. This tragic event forced the U.S to join in on WW2.

Wohlstetter suggests that the U.S lack of intelligence caused the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The United States was very cautious not to get distracted, but had let their guard down. She concluded that the navy and the army at the time were responsible for protecting Pearl Harbor had failed due to rivalries and were jealous of one another. The army was in charge of air patrol therefore they must fly around the islands of Hawaii to see what was happening within the air and if anything was out of the ordinary (pg. 5). While the navy weren’t able to due to so because of the different responsibilities between those two. This caused a lack of communication between the navy and the army leading a dysfunctional team to defend Pearl Harbor. Admiral Kimmel had the belief that the “Japs” were not going to sail to the U.S and deliver a surprise attack (pg. 148) because of the distance.America’s ignorance may have been the cause of the bombing of Pearl Harbor because they think that a little country like Japan wouldn’t dare to declare war with a big country like the U.S, but because of that ignorance the U.S had they were caught off guard. Japan’s military may have been small and or limited, but underestimating the capability was a wrongful mistake. The U.S did not take it into consideration what something few can do and what they are willing to do to gain whatever it is that they want. It puts the U.S in a vulnerable state. The government in Washington, however were forming a list of possible victims where Japan was planning to attack, but before they can finalize the list it was already too late; the Japan had already attacked Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, Malaya, Thailand, Guam, Wake and Hong Kong causes the United States to step in and take action. Japan had strike 29 different targets causing major damage. The U.S government were still uncertain about Japan’s target.

The most valuable evidences that played a big factor in her argument would be General Marshall’s aide- memoire to the president and the statement made by Admiral Pye. General Marshall stated that 'With adequate air defense enemy carriers, naval escorts and transports will begin to come under air attack at a distance of approximately 750 miles. This attack will increase in intensity until within 200 miles of the objective the enemy forces will be subject to attack by all types of bombardment closely supported by our most modern pursuit.... Including the movement of aviation now in progress Hawaii will be defended by 35 of our most modern flying fortresses, 35 medium range bombers, 13 light bombers, 150 pursuit of which 105 are of our most modern type. In addition Hawaii is capable of reinforcement by heavy bombers from the mainland by air. With this force available a major attack against Oahu is considered impracticable. In point of sequence, sabotage is first to be expected (pg. 69).” This evidence she pulled out portrayed the uneasiness the General was feeling and how logical he was thinking. General Marshall calculated the possibilities of where they could attack, distance and the range. “If we had ten minutes warning everybody would have been there…, and we didn’t anticipate that they could get in without ten minutes warning (pg. 69).” This statement made by Admiral Pye helps prove Wohlstetter’s point of missed signals. Due to miscommunication and lack of teamwork between the navy and army I can see why this might have contributed to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but the signs only became clear after the attack. Wohlstetter did a good job at giving details about what happened in Pearl Harbor, but to argue that because the U.S missed signals, received late signals and are sent or late signals that lead to the bombing I would say it is undeniably incorrect. I don’t believe all these signs can be detected at the moment of the bombing or even before the bombing. It was a surprise attack. I think she might’ve been a little biased because when one is in a moment of life or death they would not have the time to think that the past events could have been a huge factor of what is happening at that moment and time. If they had noticed it earlier, they would have been able to prevent it from happening, but because she wasn’t involved and was looking from a different perspective than those who are actually involved in it.The signalling and warnings had only became clear after the attack had taken place. Although it could not be prevented Wohlstetter concluded that a surprise attacker would always hold an advantage in which I agree.

In my opinion, this book gave me a good overview of what happened during Pearl Harbor and behind the scenes of how things played out such as the government, the military and more, but it doesn’t really get into the depths of the actual warning and failure to detect those warnings and signals. Some of her evidence that she used were not general, but I would say not accurate. The documents and letters she had used were good evidence to illustrate the Japanese's plan, but it doesn’t really comply to her argument. She provided no evidence that shows issue with sending and receiving signals during the international tragic event at all. So although she did a great job with giving me an overview about Pearl Harbor I think she lacks the evidence of the U.S actually missing signals causing the outbreak of international affair. She talked about how the U.S doubted the Japanese, but that is not enough to prove that they missed signals.