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

Joint Congressional Committee, Pearl Harbor Attack: Part 3 783
On September 30, 1944, when appearing before the Army
Pearl Harbor Board, Bratton testifi ed that he had “had the bulk
of it [the Japanese reply] since the evening” of December 6. “It
came in fourteen parts. . . . Th irteen of those parts were received
the afternoon and evening of the 6th.” 183 He said he had delivered
the fi rst 13 parts to three recipients that evening: “the offi ce
of the Chief of Staff [actually Marshall’s secretary, Colonel, later
General, Bedell Smith], the A.C. of S. G-2 [actually Gerow’s
executive offi cer, Colonel Gailey], the offi ce of the Secretary of
State.” 184
On July 27, 1945, in an affi davit for Clausen, who was touring
the Army’s several theaters of operations under orders of Stimson
to interview and collect sworn affi davits from persons involved
in some way with Pearl Harbor, Bratton had given a still diff erent
account of the events of December 6–7. Clausen had shown
Bratton several sworn affi davits submitted by men Bratton knew,
some of them Bratton’s superiors in the Army. Bratton had interpreted
some of those affi davits as diff ering from his previous testimony,
although on examination it is apparent that they were not
actual contradictions so much as merely carefully crafted evasions.
However, they infl uenced Bratton to revise his statement. 185
In his affi davit for Clausen, Bratton had said that, after
receiving the fi rst 13 parts of the Japanese reply and ascertaining
that the 14th part would not be coming in that evening, he had
directed Dusenbury “to deliver the set for the Chief of Staff at his
home at Fort Myer.” Th e affi davit stated further, in contradiction
to his APHB testimony, that he had delivered only one set of
those 13 parts that evening himself, the set destined for the secretary
of state, which he had left “between 10 and 11:00 p.m.” with
183Ibid., part 29, p. 2349.
184Ibid., pp. 2349 (September 30, 1944); 2419, 2421–22 (October 2, 1944); and
2455 (October 6, 1944).
185Ibid., part 10, p. 4616.