Billy Mitchell

[48MMS]

I wanted to poise a thought to all of those who like history. It is my understanding that during the Court Martial of Bill Mitchell, letters were brought to light concerning his views of the future of Airpower. He states that an attack on the Hawai'ian Islands by a foreign force could take place. I can't recall if the Japanese were named or implied. Knowing that Yamamoto studied in the United States, I wonder how far fetched it might be to wonder if the idea for the attack on Pearl Harbor wasn't our own fault? I'm sure most would disagree with that, but it's only a "twist in history" to ponder.

[Bob Hudson]

I wonder how far fetched it might be to wonder if the idea for the attack on Pearl Harbor wasn't our own fault?

 

I think the valid question is "Could the attack have been prevented or better defended against?????"

 

But poor preparation does not make a victim responsible for attacks on them. That's true with nations and people (remember that many in society used to - and many still do - blame women who are assaulted by men, the old "the way she was dressed, it's her own fault.").

 

No, all of the blame for the attack on Hawaii falls on the Japanese, who were inspired by the British attack on the Italians at Taranto in 1940.

 

Generals, Admirals and politicians are always well prepared to fight the last war and certainly in 1941 the notion of a massive attack by enemy airplanes on Hawaii would have understandably seemed pretty far fetched to most "experts."

 

The concept of being ready for the last war seems to have been around for a long time and continues today. When US forces invaded Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom, they were very well trained and equipped for a repeat of Operation Desert Storm, but Abrams battle tanks were of little use against guerrillas with IED's aimed at common troop transport vehicles. Everybody at home started wondering why the hell we hadn't provided our troops with better protected Humvees. Of course the answer was, we didn't know we'd need them. I think the same was true with Pearl Harbor: we didn't know we had to defend against that, no matter what Billy Mitchell and a handful of others may have speculated.

 

What has intrigued me is the idea that the losses at Pearl Harbor would have been far worse if there had been just enough warning for some of the ships to start steaming out of the harbor: the theory is that ships that sunk in the relatively shallow harbor would have been sunk anyway, but in the deep ocean, which would have meant that more sailors would have drowned and the ships would have been totally lost instead of being refloated and repaired as happened when they went to the bottom in the harbor.