![]() ![]() Military and political aspects alike complicated the Pearl Harbor controversy. King, Chief of Naval Operations, denied the request on the grounds that a controversial military court proceeding could disrupt the war effort. Kimmel actually sought a court-martial, which he expected would exonerate him. The consensus continued to cast him as the rascal. The probes took various positions on Kimmel’s responsibility, but in large part they denied him due process. This was only the latest of the high-level inquiries that had begun with Secretary Knox’s visit. In 1945–46, Congress held joint hearings to investigate the Pearl Harbor disaster. The follow-up inquiry (18 December 1941–23 January 1942), led by Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts, linked the fault directly to the military commanders, Kimmel and Army General Walter C. Within two days of the attack, on 9 December 1941, Navy Secretary Frank Knox began the first of many Pearl Harbor investigations, concluding there had been little readiness to resist from either the Navy or Army in Hawaii. There needed to be a quick explanation for the disaster. A third factor in Kimmel’s scapegoating was the rush to judgment. Roosevelt, ultimately in charge, had no desire to take the blame and had ample means to slough it off onto Kimmel’s shoulders.įDR also wanted to enter the war, and a Japanese attack offered a backdoor entry (about which more in a moment). Another reason was political vulnerability: President Franklin D. Following the principle of command responsibility, Kimmel, the man in charge, was the obvious candidate. The fundamental rationale for Kimmel shouldering the blame was that the Japanese strike force had taken the U.S. The 2016 publication of this book should be regarded as a reflection of the new consensus on Admiral Kimmel.Ī disaster of Pearl Harbor’s dimension had to have a culprit. A recent retelling of this aspect of the story, Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan’s A Matter of Honor: Pearl Harbor-Betrayal, Blame, and a Family’s Quest for Justice, centered precisely on the Kimmel controversy. Probably the thorniest matter for Americans looking back has been Kimmel’s treatment-whether it was justified, whether the admiral’s role should be re-evaluated, whether he should be accorded a more exalted place in the pantheon of U.S. Credit: Naval History and Heritage Command The historical debate continues as to the level of blame he should shoulder for the disaster. Kimmel, seen here in his Pearl Harbor headquarters in 1941, would spend the rest of his life in a quixotic quest for exoneration. ![]()
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