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

214 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
of these tasks, the embassy should wire back the one code word,
“haruna.”
Th is code-destruct message and others addressed to Japanese
embassies and consulates indicated to anyone familiar with such
matters that the Japanese were planning to go to war very soon.
Junior offi cers in Naval Intelligence, who were working with
these Japanese intercepts, were disturbed. Navy Captain Arthur
H. McCollum, who was in charge of the Far Eastern section of
Naval Intelligence’s foreign branch, suggested that warning messages
be sent to the U.S. outposts in the Pacifi c, and he drafted
the following cable:
Highly reliable information has been received that categoric
and urgent instructions were sent yesterday to Japanese diplomatic
and consular posts at Hongkong x Singapore x Batavia
x Manila x Washington and London to destroy most of their
codes and ciphers at once and to burn all other important confi
dential and secret documents x From foregoing infer that
Orange [ Japan] plans early action in Southeast Asia. 25
McCollum’s superior, Admiral Th eodore S. Wilkinson, chief
of the intelligence division, sought permission from Admiral
Royal E. Ingersoll, assistant chief of naval operations, to send
this cable. When asked during the Pearl Harbor hearings if the
destruction of codes “necessarily mean[s] war, that a country
that destroys its codes is going to commit an overt act of war or
declare war,” Ingersoll replied, “It meant that to us, particularly
the destruction of codes in the consulates.” 26 Th erefore, Ingersoll
apparently assumed that the last sentence of the proposed cable
was unnecessary. In any event, he okayed the code-destruction
message, with the fi nal sentence deleted. Th e shortened message
25 Ibid., part 15, p. 1866, exhibit No. 83. #031850 to CINCPAC, CINCAF,
Coms. 14, 16 concerning Japanese instruction to destroy codes and ciphers.
26 Ibid., part 9, p. 4269, Ingersoll testimony before the Joint Committee.