Thomas F. (hardtack) -
For my review of this book to make any sense, I combined it with another book I read which is about the same subject and which I read about the same time.
When I was much younger, I read much about the December 7, 1942, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This was an important event in my life, even though I wasn't born yet. After the Japanese attack, my father quit college and joined the Army Air Corps. As a result of his service in the Pacific, he met his future wife, an Australian and later my mother, in late 1944, and married her several months later. I came along in 1947.
As I grew older, I became aware of the various conspiracy theories regarding the Japanese attack. Most of them centered on the fact that President Roosevelt knew the attack was coming and deliberately ordered military intelligence withheld from the senior commanders in Hawaii. He did this so that the U.S. forces in Hawaii would be attacked and our country would then enter the world war already raging in Europe and elsewhere.
Roosevelt was the leader of a divided nation. A very large number of Americans, including important politicians, were against entering the war. What most did not know was the United States had already been at war for months in the Atlantic. Our ships were engaging in military actions against German submarines and casualties were being suffered on both sides. Yet Adolf Hitler did not want to openly fight the U.S. yet! So he gave orders to his submarine commanders to avoid direct confrontations when they could. Roosevelt and Churchill, thanks to the Allies breaking the German codes, knew this. Roosevelt's problem was to find a way to enter the war by getting one of the Axis powers to attack the U.S., so the country would be solidly behind the war effort.
Like Abraham Lincoln in the early months of 1861, Roosevelt wanted either the Germans or the Japanese to fire the first shot, as he hoped this would rally the nation against the Axis. Both Japan and Germany were in an alliance. An attack by either one could bring the U.S. in the war against Germany. But how to accomplish this?
I have read many of the conspiracy books and my opinion was that these were nothing more than theories, based on isolated facts. I'm not so sure anymore. The reason is the two books I recently read.
The Cruise of the Lanikai was written by Kemp Tolley, who, as a young navy ensign, was given command of a small sailing vessel in the Pacific in December 1941. Crewed by a few Americans and a larger number of Filipinos, his top secret orders were to sail into the path of the Japanese fleet headed for Southeast Asia. While his orders were to spy on the Japanese, Tolley knew his ship, and the American flag it was flying, would be fired on by the Japanese and sunk. He knew his mission was to help start World War II for America. Fortunately for Ensign Tolley and his crew, Pearl Harbor happened before he sailed. The majority of the book describes how the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific was mostly sunk, except for the U.S.S. Lanikai. After the fall of the Philippines, Tolley and his crew set sail for Australia, four thousand miles away. Against all the odds, they made it. Tolley served during the war, stayed in the Navy afterwards, and eventually retired as a rear admiral.
Up until now, this review, and Tolleys book, really doesn't support any of the conspiracy theories. Then I read The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor (ISBN 0317659286) by Robert A. Throbald, Rear Admiral, (retired). It helps if you are also well read in the breaking of the Japanese codes, by the U.S. military, several months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fortunately, that is also a favorite subject of mine, and I have an entire shelf on code breaking during WW II and before.
Teobald's book includes a corroborative forward by Rear Admiral Husband Kimmel, commander of the U.S. Navy forces in Hawaii on December 7th, and Fleet Admiral William Halsey of WW II fame.
What Teobald's book does is use and analyze message traffic between the Japanese, between the Americans, and between both, before the attack. It also includes reports on meetings and announcements by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill that seem to indicate that both knew the U.S. would soon be at war. It is the first meticulous analysis of the actions of various important players and the voluminous message traffic that occurred before the attack. I won't describe the analysis in this review, you will have to read it for yourself.
I also won't say that I am now a supporter of the conspiracy theory that Roosevelt and others knew a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was going to take place. But there is now significant doubt in my mind to make me wonder if Theobald is saying something that our official histories ignore.
Both books are well written, but, unless you are a mystery fan, you will probably enjoy Tolleys book more than Theobald's.
When I was much younger, I read much about the December 7, 1942, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This was an important event in my life, even though I wasn't born yet. After the Japanese attack, my father quit college and joined the Army Air Corps. As a result of his service in the Pacific, he met his future wife, an Australian and later my mother, in late 1944, and married her several months later. I came along in 1947.
As I grew older, I became aware of the various conspiracy theories regarding the Japanese attack. Most of them centered on the fact that President Roosevelt knew the attack was coming and deliberately ordered military intelligence withheld from the senior commanders in Hawaii. He did this so that the U.S. forces in Hawaii would be attacked and our country would then enter the world war already raging in Europe and elsewhere.
Roosevelt was the leader of a divided nation. A very large number of Americans, including important politicians, were against entering the war. What most did not know was the United States had already been at war for months in the Atlantic. Our ships were engaging in military actions against German submarines and casualties were being suffered on both sides. Yet Adolf Hitler did not want to openly fight the U.S. yet! So he gave orders to his submarine commanders to avoid direct confrontations when they could. Roosevelt and Churchill, thanks to the Allies breaking the German codes, knew this. Roosevelt's problem was to find a way to enter the war by getting one of the Axis powers to attack the U.S., so the country would be solidly behind the war effort.
Like Abraham Lincoln in the early months of 1861, Roosevelt wanted either the Germans or the Japanese to fire the first shot, as he hoped this would rally the nation against the Axis. Both Japan and Germany were in an alliance. An attack by either one could bring the U.S. in the war against Germany. But how to accomplish this?
I have read many of the conspiracy books and my opinion was that these were nothing more than theories, based on isolated facts. I'm not so sure anymore. The reason is the two books I recently read.
The Cruise of the Lanikai was written by Kemp Tolley, who, as a young navy ensign, was given command of a small sailing vessel in the Pacific in December 1941. Crewed by a few Americans and a larger number of Filipinos, his top secret orders were to sail into the path of the Japanese fleet headed for Southeast Asia. While his orders were to spy on the Japanese, Tolley knew his ship, and the American flag it was flying, would be fired on by the Japanese and sunk. He knew his mission was to help start World War II for America. Fortunately for Ensign Tolley and his crew, Pearl Harbor happened before he sailed. The majority of the book describes how the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific was mostly sunk, except for the U.S.S. Lanikai. After the fall of the Philippines, Tolley and his crew set sail for Australia, four thousand miles away. Against all the odds, they made it. Tolley served during the war, stayed in the Navy afterwards, and eventually retired as a rear admiral.
Up until now, this review, and Tolleys book, really doesn't support any of the conspiracy theories. Then I read The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor (ISBN 0317659286) by Robert A. Throbald, Rear Admiral, (retired). It helps if you are also well read in the breaking of the Japanese codes, by the U.S. military, several months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fortunately, that is also a favorite subject of mine, and I have an entire shelf on code breaking during WW II and before.
Teobald's book includes a corroborative forward by Rear Admiral Husband Kimmel, commander of the U.S. Navy forces in Hawaii on December 7th, and Fleet Admiral William Halsey of WW II fame.
What Teobald's book does is use and analyze message traffic between the Japanese, between the Americans, and between both, before the attack. It also includes reports on meetings and announcements by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill that seem to indicate that both knew the U.S. would soon be at war. It is the first meticulous analysis of the actions of various important players and the voluminous message traffic that occurred before the attack. I won't describe the analysis in this review, you will have to read it for yourself.
I also won't say that I am now a supporter of the conspiracy theory that Roosevelt and others knew a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was going to take place. But there is now significant doubt in my mind to make me wonder if Theobald is saying something that our official histories ignore.
Both books are well written, but, unless you are a mystery fan, you will probably enjoy Tolleys book more than Theobald's.
