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

782 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
Yard, sir, similarly on the San Francisco area.” 180 Nevertheless,
Kramer could not point to any requests from the Japanese “in the
latter part of November or December [1941] in relation to San
Francisco and Seattle” for bombing maps of any locations other
than Pearl Harbor. 181
Kramer was on the witness stand for fi ve long days (February
6–11, 1946; February 10 was a Sunday). After he fi nished testifying,
he returned to the hospital where he remained until after the
committee’s reports were released for the Sunday papers of July
21. Th e next month at age 46, he was given a medical discharge
and an untaxed pension. He maintained his silence on Pearl
Harbor throughout his remaining 26 years. He died in 1972.
Bratton, Army Courier, on Delivery of
Japan’s Reply to U.S. Note of November
Colonel Rufus Bratton was another key fi gure in the events
of December 6–7. As Army courier, he had been Kramer’s counterpart,
charged with the delivery of the Japanese MAGIC intercepts
to the Army’s list of offi cials entitled to see them. Th ese
included Hull, Stimson, Marshall, Gerow, and Miles. Bratton’s
chief assistant had been Colonel Carlisle C. Dusenbury.
Every time Bratton testifi ed he changed his story slightly in
some respects.
On September 15, 1944, he had told Colonel Clarke, who
was conducting a special investigation for Marshall, that Japan’s
14-part reply started coming in on the 6th of December. It was
then his “recollection” that he had “transmitted a copy to the
Secretary of State that night.” 182 He made no mention of any
other deliveries that evening.
180 Ibid., p. 4179.
181 Ibid.
182 Ibid., part 34, p. 21.