A Matter of Honor: Pearl Harbor: Betrayal, Blame, and a Family's Quest for Justice

A Quest for Justice,

January 20, 2017

A review by Anthony T. Riggio of the book "A Matter of Honor (Pearl Harbor: Betrayal, Blame, and A Family's Quest for Justice)" by Anthony Summers and Robyn Swan.

I received an e-mail from a good friend of mine Thomas K. Kimmel Jr., the grandson of Admiral Husband Kimmel who was in command of the US Navy in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese conducted a surprise attack on December 7, 1941. Based on Tom's personal request to read and review this book, I immediately went out and purchased the book and let it sit in my library for only a couple of days before commencing my reading.

This work was the result of a significant amount of research and inquiry from the small number of survivors of the attack and a lot of collaboration with the family of Admiral Kimmel. In fact, a lot of work was put together by the Admiral himself and his family lineage since his passing. The effort was a herculean effort to restore both the reputation and the rank of Admiral Kimmel who was criticized in a Navy commission on the faults for the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Surprise, only to the commanders of both the Army and the Navy in Pearl Harbor, on that day of "Infamy".

This book was an excellent narrative of the prelude actions by both the Japanese government and Japanese military leaders and their American counterparts at the time. The readers of this review must keep in mind the world events of the time, to wit, the war having commenced in Europe as Hitler started to fold up by military conquest, the countries in Europe. Also, the strong isolationist attitude of most Americans who were loath to become involved in another European war. Meanwhile there was already in place, an unholy alliance between Germany, Japan and Italy.

To the credit of the United States military there was a very focused view on world events and a consensus that the winds of war would soon involve the United States. Interestingly, president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt understood this reality and was already involving the United States in "lend lease" efforts to both England and the Soviet Union. Both were engaged to stave off annihilation by the German and Italian advancements. Roosevelt understood the world dynamics and the antiwar sentiments of the American people. Roosevelt and his administration understood the world situation including the ever-growing militarization of Japan and her increasing conquests in Asia. Military intelligence and the FBI were not as in the dark about their responsibilities to protect the United States.

American cryptographers had made significant advancement in breaking both the diplomatic and military codes and an increasing amount of political and military information was being digested. While Admiral Kimmel and Lt. General Walter Short were privy to some of the military communications the ones that mattered were those of Japan's leadership to their diplomats of the USA and to some extent to England.

To effectively understand a Gestalt, one must be able to view all the dots forming it. The officials in Washington had better access to the big picture than the military at its outposts in the Pacific and elsewhere. The cryptographers had developed a tool to assist them in understanding Japan's diplomatic coded messages, called "Magic" a complex analog computer like device that was considered the most secret device held by the United States. As such any mention of the word was verboten and the keepers of this information deriving through the use magic was too closely held by both civilian and military officials at the seat of government, namely Washington DC. Washington was developing a clearer view of the Japanese war ambitions and tactical advancements than those out on the American outposts.

When Admiral Kimmel was assigned as the commander of naval operations of the Pacific, he was promoted from the rank of Vice-Admiral (two stars) to Admiral (four stars). Kimmel viewed many of the vulnerabilities existent in Hawaii and other parts of the Pacific. He asked for many increased tools and materials to combat the obvious vulnerabilities to both the Navy and the Army. The Army had the overall responsibilities to protect the Hawaiian bases. Kimmel's view was to address both the vulnerabilities of the Army and Navy and he did this in close collaboration with General Short.

After the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor the political person's in Washington DC began to raise the questions about our preparedness issues in Hawaii. Politicians even then, looked to find some person or persons to blame for this tragedy. After the behind the scenes finger pointing the government put together a commission to review the situation in Pearl Harbor. After a rather superficial review of the obvious deficiencies. The commission found that there was a "dereliction" of duty on the part of both Kimmel and Short. This became an indelible smear on two great careers spanning forty or so years each for two distinguished military men. Men that had given their whole lives to the service of the United States of America.
The book, I believe, adequately reviews the errors of both the military and the civilian government officials at the time and places the bulk of failure on the politicians and one cannot avoid feeling great sympathy for the military leaders on the ground who were made scapegoats and suffered the humiliation of public ridicule and disgrace.

Admiral Kimmel spent the rest of his life trying to convince the government that he was the victim of great inefficiencies within both the military and civilian authorities in having been denied critical information gleaned through the "magic" decoding device before the attack on Pearl Harbor. While Admiral Kimmel was never vindicated during his lifetime, he could convince some of the reality of his denied access to critical information. There was never a public announcement of the pertinent details nor a vindication and restoration of rank for the Admiral. The effort to clear the Admiral's reputation was taken over by his sons and thereafter by his grandchildren. While some increasing hurdles have been accomplished there is still the final steps of restoration and acknowledgement that the destruction of Pearl Harbor and the loss of almost 3,000 people was not the fault of either Kimmel or Short.

While this is an unusually long review, I wanted to accent the personal tragedies that were laid naked by the efforts of these two authors. Hopefully future readers of this excellent review of the realities would take it upon themselves to write letters to the newly inaugurated President Trump to finally do the "right thing" for two wrongly accused and punished military men, to publicly acknowledge the mistakes made and restore them to their highest rank archived, albeit it posthumously.

This was a riveting book of history and one that will not disappoint the reader.

I gave this book five star and whole heartedly recommend its reading any lover of history the need for justice.