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

Joint Congressional Committee, Pearl Harbor Attack: Part 1 659
Turner was unequivocal: Any U.S. action against Germany
would be “self defense” and would never be considered “aggression”!
“[T]he future security” of the United States and that of
the United Kingdom were inextricably allied “from the defensive
viewpoint”! Roosevelt, Hull, and Stark were all sent copies of
Turner’s memorandum of that meeting. Turner told the JCC he
received no indication from any of them that they disagreed or
disapproved of what he had written. 142
When asked about the December 6 Japanese intercepts,
Turner recalled seeing the “Pilot Message” and the fi rst 13 parts
of the Japanese reply “some time just preceding the 7th, some
night, and I now believe it to have been the night of December
6, about 11:30 p.m.” He said an offi cer came to his house; he had
been in bed but “went down and read a long dispatch in several
parts” which he believed was “the dispatch in question.” When
asked to whom the offi cer had shown these papers, the offi cer
replied, “Admiral Wilkinson, Admiral Ingersoll, and Secretary
Knox.” Th us assured that the responsible Navy offi cials had been
advised, Turner “did nothing more about it.” He did not recall
seeing the 14th part “until after the attack.” 143
At about 10:30 on Sunday morning, December 7, Stark
phoned Turner at his home, asking him to come to the offi ce.
Once there, Stark asked him to draft a reply to Hart’s inquiry concerning
Creighton’s report that the United States had promised
armed support to the British and Dutch in the far east. 144 Turner
had been working on that when Stark summoned him, at about
12 or 12:15, and showed him the “One p.m. Message.” Stark told
142Joint Committee, Pearl Harbor Attack, part 4, p. 2041.
143Ibid., pp. 1970–71.
144Ibid., p. 1971, Stark testimony. See also ibid., pp. 1935–16, Turner testimony
concerning reply prepared December 7 for Hart, and part 10, pp. 5082–83,
Creighton testimony before the Joint Committee.