Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy - Ludwig von Mises ...

Foreword xvii
revealed a great deal, but probably even more signifi cant were
some of the things that they didn’t reveal. It was obvious from the
testimony of some of the witnesses that they were trying not to
tell everything they knew.
I recall to this day the dissimulation of one key witness, Captain
Alwyn D. Kramer. As Japanese translator and Navy courier, he
had played an important role in the weeks before the attack on
Pearl Harbor. He had distributed to the top Washington offi cials
many, if not most, of the secret Japanese messages intercepted
during that period. He was asked at some length what he recalled
about the messages he had delivered, and to whom. Kramer had
testifi ed in 1944 before the Navy Court of Inquiry. Between then
and his appearance before the Congressional Committee, his recollections
had been “refreshed,” he said, as a result of his having
been questioned by military personnel conducting other Pearl
Harbor investigations.
Th e members of the Congressional Committee noted several
signifi cant discrepancies between his testimony to them
and his frank and open statements before the NCI. Two were
especially notable. One dealt with the famous “East Wind Rain”
message, a false weather report bearing a coded meaning, and
the other concerned the Japanese government’s instructions to
their Washington ambassadors asking them to deliver their reply
to the U.S. State Department proposal at precisely 1:00 p.m.
Washington time on Sunday, December 7.
According to Kramer’s testimony before the NCI, “East Wind
Rain” indicated impending trouble, perhaps even war, between
Japan and the United States. Concerning the 1:00 p.m. message,
he had reported to the NCI that, when delivering it on Sunday
morning, December 7, he had called the special attention of some
of the recipients to the fact that 1:00 p.m. Washington time was
about dawn in Hawaii. However, he denied to the Congressional
Committee that he had intended to imply that either of these
two messages carried any serious implications. When pressed by