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

802 Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy
to his second round of deliveries. 233 In his 1944 memorandum
for Admiral Halsey, Kramer had described in “pretty meticulous
detail” 234 his haste to deliver the “One p.m. Message” that Sunday
morning, December 7.
In his testimony before the NCI in 1944 Kramer said that on
this, his second trip of the morning, he had fi rst delivered the “One
p.m. Message” to Stark’s offi ce between 1030 and 1100, secondly
to the White House and fi nally to Navy Secretary Knox who was
still in a meeting at the State Department with Secretary Hull. 235
233Ibid., part 8, pp. 3908–09. Kramer testimony before the Joint Committee:
Kramer: On my arrival there [back at the Navy Department] at
10:20, the most striking recollection I have is the fi rst sighting of that
message from Tokyo directing the delivery of this note from Tokyo at
1:00 p.m., December 7, Washington time . . . I immediately instructed
my chief yeoman to prepare another set of folders so I could make
immediate delivery of them. . . . Just as I was about to leave the offi ce, a
plain language Japanese message was sent in to my offi ce by the GY
watch offi cer that carried, I believe the so-called hidden word message.
. . . I recognized it as such from an external indicator, namely the word
“Stop” at the end, and recognized the fi rst word as being one of the
code words referring to England. In scanning the rest of the message,
as I recollect, the sixth or seventh word had another code word, which,
incidentally, were all proper names. Th e word was “Hattori” which,
although I recognized [it] as a code word, I did not immediately recall
the meaning of, and hastily referred to the list of such code words . . .
interpreted as “relations between Japan and (blank) country,” to be
inserted, was not in accordance with expectations. I dictated to my
chief yeoman the sense of that message.
234Ibid., part 9, p. 4110. Keefe’s description of Kramer’s 1944 account.
235Ibid., part 33, pp. 859–60. Kramer testimony re “One p.m. Message” at the
NCI in mid-1944:
At the NCI, Kramer said that he had returned to the Navy Department
after his fi rst delivery on the morning of December 7. Th ere
he had discovered the “One p.m. Message” along with several others.
Within ten or fi fteen minutes he was at Admiral Stark’s offi ce. From
there he had gone to the White House and then [italics added] to State,
where Knox and Stimson were meeting with Hull. Kramer said he had
not seen Knox personally, but he had “made a point of verbally inviting