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

798 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
Th irty two years after the attack, evidence of just such a
December 6–7 White House meeting surfaced. It came in a letter
from James G. Stahlman, a longtime friend of Knox, then
on active duty in the Navy. On his return from Pearl Harbor
immediately after the attack, Knox confi ded to Stahlman “that
he, Stimson, Marshall, Betty Stark and Harry Hopkins had spent
most of the night before [the attack] at the White House with
FDR, all waiting for what they knew was coming after those
intercepts.” 226
Intercept Heralding Actual
Approach of War Delivered to the Navy
Sunday Morning, December 7
Saturday evening, with the delivery of the fi rst thirteen parts
of Japan’s 14-part reply to our note of November 26, it was apparent
that war with Japan was imminent. It was the next morning,
Sunday, December 7, 1941, that the Japanese intercepts that heralded
the fi nal approach of war were received in Washington.
Most notable among these were the fourteenth part of Tokyo’s
reply and the “One p.m. Message” giving the Japanese ambassadors
in Washington instructions as to precisely how and when to
deliver that reply to Secretary of State Hull. JCC members
devoted considerable time to asking Navy courier Kramer about
his Sunday morning deliveries.
Kramer had said in his 1944 memorandum that on his fi rst
trip Sunday morning he had seen Stark with others in his offi ce
“[a]bout 0900” when he, Kramer, had “left night-before matters,” 227
including all fourteen parts of Japan’s reply to our note of
226James G. Stahlman letter of November 26, 1973 to Admiral Kemp Tolley.
227Th e sequence of Kramer’s December 7 morning deliveries varied slightly
from account to account:
At the NCI ( Joint Committee, Pearl Harbor Attack, part 33, pp.
858–60), in mid-1944, he said he had delivered the 13 parts plus part 14
and other new material to (1) Stark, (2) the White House and (3) Knox