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

Joint Congressional Committee, Pearl Harbor Attack: Part 3 761
but at the time of the attack he had actually been serving under
Saff ord in the security section. During the crucial months before
December 7, he had been the Navy’s courier and Japanese translator.
A couple of years after the attack, he was sent to the Pacifi c
where he served under Admiral Nimitz in Pearl Harbor and
then under Admiral Halsey in Noumea, New Caledonia. He had
been promoted during the war from lieutenant commander to
captain. 113
As Japanese translator and Navy courier, Kramer had been a
crucial player in the pre-attack situation. It was hoped that, with
his intimate knowledge of the Japanese intercepts, he would be
able to shed some light on the receipt of these intercepts and the
timing of their delivery to the various recipients.
When he was sworn in by Chairman Barkley, the old Senate
Caucus Room was packed, the audience tense in anticipation.
Among those who had been attending the hearings regularly
for weeks was Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of the late
Republican president, Th eodore Roosevelt, and widow of the late
speaker of the House, Nicholas Longworth. Mrs. Longworth was
in her usual seat on a bench behind the committee members. At
the other end of the room, was Mrs. Kramer, who was often seen,
standing on her seat nervously biting her fi ngernails, during the
fi ve days her husband was a witness.
Kramer said he had been thoroughly familiar with the Japanese
MAGIC intercepts, but “It was not essential for the activities
of my section that I be so familiar with the negotiations,” nor
with the status of the diplomatic arrangements and intercourse
between this country and Japan. 114 However, his familiarity with
the intercepts clearly made him one of JCC’s most important
witnesses.
113 Joint Committee, Pearl Harbor Attack, part 8, pp. 3894–95, 3897.
114 Ibid., part 36, p. 81.