Case For
Admiral Kimmel and General Short should have been prepared for the japanese attack. The evidence that proves it’s their fault is that many newspapers were being published in Hawaii about the possibility of a war with Japan. A secretary of war stated that General Short should have been on alert with the warnings of a possible war. He also said that they should’ve been ready because Japan has a history of surprise attacking nations. Critics also pointed out that both Kimmel and Short were warned about a possible attack many times. A lawyer named Henry Clausen investigated and found that they were warned a grand total of 56 warnings from their superiors in Washington D.C. That is a lot of times! Kimmel and Short were warned very specifically that there was a war warning and to order extra reconnaissance missions.
Both of them messed up pretty badly. Short failed to protect pearl harbor and actually managed to weaken it by parking all the aircrafts out in the open, very close to each other. They were extremely vulnerable to Japanese attack. And the fact that they were very close together means they might crash into one another while taking off. The fact that the guns on the aircrafts weren’t loaded made it even worse. There wasn’t even an ammunation (gun store) nearby to get ammo. Now onto Kimmel’s errors. Kimmel underestimated the Japanese and didn’t think they could successfully bomb pearl harbor with torpedos. He thought all the torpedos would fall quickly and sink underneath Pearl Harbor instead of striking it. They both didn’t coordinate with each other like when General Short was informed about Hawaii’s radar stations being up for about four hours, he never told Admiral Kimmel. Kimmel never told Short about the rumors going around about a Japanese fleet. Overall, they failed in protecting Pearl Harbor even though they were told what to do multiple times.
Both of them messed up pretty badly. Short failed to protect pearl harbor and actually managed to weaken it by parking all the aircrafts out in the open, very close to each other. They were extremely vulnerable to Japanese attack. And the fact that they were very close together means they might crash into one another while taking off. The fact that the guns on the aircrafts weren’t loaded made it even worse. There wasn’t even an ammunation (gun store) nearby to get ammo. Now onto Kimmel’s errors. Kimmel underestimated the Japanese and didn’t think they could successfully bomb pearl harbor with torpedos. He thought all the torpedos would fall quickly and sink underneath Pearl Harbor instead of striking it. They both didn’t coordinate with each other like when General Short was informed about Hawaii’s radar stations being up for about four hours, he never told Admiral Kimmel. Kimmel never told Short about the rumors going around about a Japanese fleet. Overall, they failed in protecting Pearl Harbor even though they were told what to do multiple times.