this is fox news special presentation. >> good evening from new york. i'm shepherd smith. we're here on a sunday night because the president is addressing the nation any moment. from the oval office a historic address. the first of its kind in five years, and only the third oval office speech of the obama presidency. that underscores the importance of tonight's topic. taking on isis, stopping terrorism here at home, and the address comes after the deadliest terror strike on u.s. soil since the attacks of 9/11. a married couple gunned down 14 people at an office party in san bernardino, california. investigators say the killers pledged support for isis, in a facebook post just as the attack began.

the fbi still looking at the couple's links to terror. last month isis claimed credit for the massacre in paris, 130 people died in coordinated suicide bombings and shootings across the city. the attacks show how isis has expappeded et cetera reach, no longer confined syria and iraq. now able to launch deadly attacks truly around the world. polls now show that terrorism is the top concern for voters this election season. the president's critics pounced on his comments before the paris attack that isis was contained. we're told in tonight's address, the president will attempt to reassure americans of his strategy to take out isis. we also expect the president to speak about the broader threat of terror both here at home and with our allies abroad. so now the president of the united states from the oval office. good evening. on wednesday 14 americans were killed as they came together to celebrate the holidays. they were taken from family and friends who love them deeply.

they were asian and black, latino. moms and dads, daughters and sons. each of them serve their fellow citizens. all of them were part of our american family. tonight i want to talk with you about this tragedy, the broader threat of terrorism, and how we can keep our country safe. the fbi is still gathering the facts about what happened in san bernardino, but here's what we know. the victims were brutally murdered and injured by one of their co-workers and his wife. so far we have no evidence that the killers were directed by a terrorist organization overseas or that they were part of a broader conspiracy here at home, but it is clear that the two of them had gone down the dark path of radicalization, embracing a preveteraned idea of islam that calls for war against the west. they had stockpiled assault weapons, ammunition, approximate pipe bombs.

this is an act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people. our nation has been at war with terrorists since al qaeda killed nearly 3,000 americans on 9/11. in the process we've hardened our defenses from airports to financial centers to other critical infrastructure. intelligence and law enforcement agencies have disrupted countless plots here and overseas and worked around the clock to keep us safe. our military and counterterrorism professionals have relentlessly pursued terrorist networks overseas, disrupting safe havens in several different countries, killing osama bin laden and decimating al qaeda's leadership. over the last few years, however, the terrorist threat has evolved into a new phase. as we've become better at preventing complex multi-facetted attacks like 9/11, terrorists turn to less complicated acts of violence like the mass shootings that are

all too common in our society. it is this type of attack that we saw at fort hood in 2009 and chattanooga earlier this year and now in san bernardino. as groups like isil grew stronger amidst of chaos of war in iraq and syria and as the internet erases the distance between countries, we see growing efforts by terrorists to poison the minds of people like boston marathon bombs and the san bernardino killers. for seven years i have confronted this evolving threat each and every morning in my intelligence briefing, and since the day i took this office, i have authorized u.s. forces to take out terrorists abroad precisely because i know how real the danger is. as commander in chief i have no greater responsibility than the security of the american people. as a father to two young daughters who are the most precious part of my life, i know

that we see ourselves with friends and co-workers at a holiday party like the one in san bernardino. i know we see our kids and the faces of the young people killed in paris, and i know that after so much war many americans are asking whether we are confronted by a cancer that has no immediate cure. well, here's what i want you to know. the threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it. we will destroy isil and any other organization that tries to harm us. our success won't depend on tough talk or abandoning our values or giving into fear. that's what groups like isil are hoping for. instead we will prevail by being strong and smart, resilient and relentless, and by drawing upon every aspect of american power. here's how. first our military will continue to hunt down terrorist plotters

in any country where it is necessary. in iraq and syria, air strikes are taking out isil leaders. heavy weapons, oil tankers, infrastructure. and since the attacks in paris are, our closest allies, including france, germany, and the united kingdom, have ramped up their contributions to our military campaign, which will help us accelerate our effort to destroy isil. second, we will continue to provide training and equipment to tens of thousands of iraqi and syrian forces fighting isil on the ground so that we take away their safe havens. in both countries we're deploying special operations forces who can accelerate that offensive. we've stepped up this effort since the attacks in paris and will continue to invest more in approaches that are working on the ground. third, we're working with friends and allies to stop isil's operations to disrupt plots, cut off their financing, and prevent them from recruiting more fighters. since the attacks in pair, weave

surged intelligence sharing with our european allies. we're working with turkey to seal its border with syria and we are cooperating with muslim majority countries and with our muslim communities here at home to counter the vicious ideology that isil promotes on-line. fourth, with american leadership the international community has begun to establish a process and timeline to pursue cease-fires and a political resolution to the syrian war. doing so will allow the syrian people and every country, including our allies, but also countries like russia, to focus on the common goal of destroying isil. a group that threatens us all. this is our strategy to destroy isil. it is designed and supported by our military commanders and counterterrorism experts. together with 65 countries that have joined an american-led coalition. we constantly examine our

strategy to determine when additional steps are needed to get the job done. that's why i've ordered the departments of state and homeland security to review the visa waiver program under which the female terrorist in san bernardino originally came to this country, and that's why i would urge high-tech and leaders to make it harder for terrorists to use technology to escape from justice. now, here at home we have to work together to address the challenge. there are several steps that congress should take right away. to begin with, congress should act to make sure no one on a no fly list is able to buy a gun. what could possibly be the argument for allowing a terror suspect to buy a semiautomatic weapon. it is a matter of national security. we also need to make it harder for people to buy powerful assault weapons like the ones that were used in san bernardino. i know there are some who reject

any gun safety measures, but the fact is that our intelligence and law enforcement agencies no matter how effective they are cannot identify every would-be mass shooter, whether that individual is motivated by isil or some other hateful ideology. what we can do and must do is make it harder for them to kill. next, we should put in place stronger screening for those who come to america without a visa so that we can take a hard look at whether they've traveled to war zones, and we're working with members of both parties in congress to do exactly that. finally, if congress believes, as i do, that we are at war with isil, it should go ahead and vote to authorize the continued use of military force against these terrorists. for over a year i have ordered our military to take thousands of air strikes against isil targets. i think it's time for congress to vote to demonstrate that the american people are united and

committed to this fight. my fellow americans, these are the steps that we can take together to defeat the terrorist threat. let me now say a word about what we should not do. we should not be drawn once more into a long and costly ground war in iraq or syria. that's what groups like isil want. they know they can't defeat us on the battlefield. isil fighters were part of the insurgency that we faced in iraq, but they also know that if we occupy foreign lands, they can maintain insurgencies for years, killing thousands of our troops and draining our resources and using our presence to draw new recruits. the strategy that we are using now, air strikes, special forces, and working with local forces, who are fighting to regain control of their own country, that is how we'll achieve a more sustainable

victory. it won't require us sending a new generation of americans overseas to fight and die for another decade on foreign soil. here's what else we cannot do. we cannot turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between america and islam. that, too, is what groups like isil want. isil does not speak for islam. they are thugs and killers, part of a cult of death, and they account for a tiny fraction of a more than a billion muslims around the world, including millions of patriotic muslim-americans who reject their hateful ideology. moreover, the vast majority of terrorist victims around the world are muslim. if we're to succeed in defeating terrorism, we must enlist muslim communities as some of our strongest allies rather than push them away to suspicion and

hate. that does not mean denying the fact that an extremist ideology has spread within some muslim communities. there's a real problem that muslims must confront without excuse. muslim leaders here and around the globe have to continue working with us to decisively and inekwifically reject the hateful ideology for groups that isil and al qaeda promote. to speak out against not just acts of violence, but also interpretations that islam that are incompatible with the values of religious tolerance, mutual respect, and human dignity. but just as it is the responsibility of muslims around the world to rout out misguided ideas that lead to radicalization, it is the responsibility of all americans of everything to reject discrimination. it is our responsibility to reject religious tests on who we admit into this country. it's our responsibility to

reject proposals that muslim-americans should somehow be treated differently because when we travel down that road, we lose. that kind of divisiveness, that betrayal of our values plays into the hands of groups like isil. muslim-americans are our friends and our neighbors. our co-workers, our sports heroes. yes, they are our men and women in uniform who are willing to die in defense of our country. we have to remember that. my fellow americans, i am confident we will succeed in this mission because we are on the right side of history. we were founded upon a belief in human dignity that no matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or what religion you practice, you are equal in the eyes of god and equal in the eyes of the law.

even in this political season, even as we properly debate away steps i and future presidents must take to keep our country safe, let's make sure we never forget what makes us exceptional. let's not forget that freedom is more powerful than fear. that we have always met challenges whether at war or depression, natural disasters or terrorist attacks, by coming together around our common ideals as one nation and one people. so long as we stay true to that tradition, i have no doubt that america will prevail. thank you. god bless you, and may god bless the united states of america. >> president obama live tonight from the oval office. analysis begins now on fox news channel on satellite and cable. on this fox station and all new comedy line-up is next in its entirety on the east coast and

in the central time zone, the simpsons starts now. i'm shepherd smith, fox news new york. from all investigations. it lays out the eight provocations named at japan it get them to attack us at pearl harbor. one of those provocations was to keep the u.s. fleet in hawaii. >> oliver: you're not suggesting that mccollum was advocating that the japanese bomb the pacific fleet at pearl harbor. i'm suggesting that the pacific fleet was kept at pearl harbor as a lure to the japanese carrier force. >> oliver: to say that we're not going to take the first overt act does not say we want you to bomb pearl harbor. >> well, yes, it does. if he says, we have to create more ado. that's his words, create ado, if we do that, then that would cause japan to commit the first overt act of war. >> oliver: his memo is addressed to navy captains walter anderson and dudley knocks, only knox initialed

the document indicating he'd seen it. what does he do with the memo. >> trace:. >> we can't trace it, i haven't within able to trace it. >> i've gone to the national archives and retrieved the memo because i thought it was of great stition. >> there's no indication that roosevelt did see it? >> no, it was compelling, incredible indication. >> oliver: there'sening that shows in the document. >> absolutely right, no initials. stinnett is willing to take the great liam and assume that roosevelt's got it. >> mccollum can never place the document in roosevelt's hands. >> oliver: and those who speak to this as smoking gun say that all out of the recommendations are carried out. yes, and some were carried out before the memorandum was written. >> oliver: it's common place then as it is today for officers to write intelligence think pieces. on 7 february, 1941, award board the uss pennsylvania, admiral husband e kimmel was

sworn in as commander of the pacific fleet. protection of the fleet while in port was responsibility of the newly appointed commander of the hawaii department, general walter short. >> he's in charge of army and army air corps forces, while the fleet is in port to be protected by army resources. >> oliver: kimmel wasn't fully confident that the army resources could protect his fleet. >> he knew all of the shortcomings of course of the pearl harbor compound out there and had prepared a lengthy estimate with admiral richardson of what needed to be done to improve that. >> oliver: kimmel did, however, feel he could rely on his personal friends admiral stark and ingersoll for report. >> when my grandfather got the job he says the reason i took the job, i was convinced that that friendship and their professionalism would ensure that i was kept properly and timely informed of all important developments. >> oliver: u.s. army and navy code breakers were intercepting and reading

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>> as admiral kimmel watched over pearl harbor, general douglas macarthur monitored the japanese from the philippines, both men depended on crucial intelligence about the japanese, gathered in washington and corrigador. in washington d.c., a team from the army's intelligence service led by 32-year-old cryptologist, worked for 18 months to break what was called the purple code, the decoded messages were dubbed magic. >> magic becomes one of the most powerful sources intelligence that we have

during the war. >> oliver: you're looking at one of the original eight magic machines. the army and november kept two each in washington d.c.. three were sent to churchill's special intelligence service and one was sent to the philippines for macarthur. >> general macarthur had magic and the british had magic the only one that didn't have magic is admiral kimmel and short in hawaii. >> oliver: the chief of the japanese fleet, yamamoto was already planning a secret attack on pearl harbor. no hint of his plot was seen within any of the decoded magic messages. the u.s. used radio intercept stations stretching from seattle to the fill peeps to listen in on japan's every move. >> the u.s. navy have japan wired for sound, listening 24 hours a day to ever message sent by the japanese fleet. >> oliver: on corrigador, 24-year-old radioman duane whit lock was one of 71

sailors intercepting and trying to break the japanese naval code. >> when i first started intercementing they were using a character code, nine characters and a period and the japanese stopped using that code completely and started using the five digit code which the navy, we named it 25. >> oliver:, but to maintain security yamamoto changed the code. >> even with the number of people that we had, there was no way that that could have been broken in time to read anything prior to pearl harbor. >> oliver: war stories investigates tracked down forest byyard who remembered that august of 41 was a strange time in japan. >> he had a been living in tokyo for two years as part of a special u.s. navy program. >> the naval at assay at the embassy sent an embassy to washington saying i think that they should go, he saw war coming on and we won't be there. >> oliver: but there was one

problem, the japanese released to let byard and his colleagues leave. the young officers watched as the wife of a beautiful nazi spy negotiated for their release. >> when we got to the ticket office i'd been three days trying to get package out. she told them this and they closed the office for 30 minutes and what went on, i don't know. when they came back you and your group have passage out on a ship to try to get out on. >> oliver: two weeks later, he finally shipped out to pearl harbor, a sign assigned to station hypo. he reported to the general who dismissed the idea that japan could successfully attack pearl harbor. >> it came out, don't want to say that it's crazy to try that, they'd be annihilated. >> oliver: there was a japanese spy sent by the japanese admiral to hawaii hidden at the consulate. tell me about it. >> what is he doing? spending a lot of money,

hiring pilots to take him in little planes around the harbor as a tourist. >> oliver: he was working under diplomatic cover was tailed by the fbi. just ten weeks before the attack, army intelligence intercepted these communiques between yoshikowa and japan. >> september 24th the date of the message. fully decoded and translated and dissem mated october 9th. >> oliver: to whom. >> throughout the far east, to the british and all over washington d.c., about everywhere you could imagine except for hawaii. >> oliver: this is the original decoded bomb plot message in which he detailed the layout of the fleet's moorings. japanese bomber pilot recalls using this bomb plot. >> we knew the geological formation of pearl harbor and the japanese spy reported where the u.s. pacific fleet was. >> oliver: there is no conclusive evidence that president roosevelt ever saw

this communique, but war stories investigates has confirmed that by mid october the bomb plot message was seen by the new director of naval intelligence, captain theodore will kinson and the chief of army intelligence, general sherman miles. will kinson and miles reported to stark and marshall, both of whom would later deny ever seeing the message. shockingly, admiral kimmel never received tferjts because it seemed to them preposterous that the japanese would attempt to attack that powerful bastion of american might, the fleet at pearl harbor. harbor. president roosevelt sends a

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hits julie. >> reporter: the next news break in one hour. "war stories with oliver north" returns right now. >> oliver: by november 1941, it was clear that the the empire of japan intended it continue the brutal conquest of china in east asia.

>> the militaryists were in the saddle in japan. they were machine gunning helpless civilians from the air, bombing undefended cities and roosevelt was very alarmed by all of this. >> we gave an ultimatum. >> the united states insisted that japan get out of china. >> japan also made demands. that america and britain remove the military presence in the far east, that the u.s. lift its oil embargo and stop aid to general sheck in china. >> the country was poised on the edge of war and the diplomatic mission was equally as busy as diplomates tried desperately to avoid war. >> on november 14th, he arrived in san francisco, smiling his toothy smile as he sang the old song of japanese friendship. on november 17th, there caruso and japanese ambassador were received by the president in the presence of secretary of

state hull. >> these two honorable men came to washington hoping to negotiate a diplomatic solution to the problems. >> oliver:, but the ambassador and the special envoy caruso didn't know that japanese prime minister tojo had already decided to go to war, if their negotiations weren't successful. their deadline 29 december, 1941. what were the things like for the japanese in the days leading up to the war. >> the militaryist had a death grip little earlly on japan's future and those under tojo were determined that japan's problems could be solved by going to war. >> they were in the war and we had to be removed, but the japanese way. >> oliver: throughout november, messages that wane whit lock intercepted indicated that japan was likely to strike

soon. none of them mentioned pearl harbor and 57-year-old admiral yamamoto wanted it that way. >> he made fools of us. he had he give information to us that would let the president to that he is going to attack those, none of those in washington stopped to realize that the commander of the japanese-- had lived in washington d.c. for three years and knew how americans think. >> oliver: on 25 november, a nervous fdr met with his war cabinet. after the meeting, secretary of war henry stimpson quoted, we were likely to be atacked perhaps as soon as next monday. the next day negotiations with japan continued, but 6700 miles away in the bay, the japanese navy had already assembled a 33-ship strike force, poised to steam across the pacific to attack hawaii. the squadron leaders was confident his pilots were battle ready. >> we all trained for this every day for six months.

>> oliver: still, fiercely debated today is whether the strike force traveled under radio silence. did the japanese fleet operate in radio silence? >> one of the claims is that supposedly, we detected movements of the japanese escort. there's absolutely no evidence of this. >> no ship to ship communications at all. shore to ship is the only thing that was going on. >> oliver: robert stinnett his says research disputes that. >> there are 10 or 20 messages a day and the radio direction finders located in the december 8th and invasion forces and the carriers all preceding easterly in the pacific to hawaii. >> oliver:, but the lieutenant told war stories investigates a different story. >> of course no radio not at all. the radio equipment was sealed up so that it couldn't be touched. >> oliver: on 27 november, the navy sent this message to admiral kimmel quote, this

dispatch is considered to be a war warning, an aggressive move by japan is expected within the next few days. army general short and macarthur received a similar message from the war department and stated, quote, if hostilities cannot be avoided the united states desires that japan commit the first overt act. but neither of those messages specified pearl harbor. >> oh, no, no, not at all. as a matter of fact, what it said was they were expecting this attack in the far east, thousands of miles from pearl harbor. the day after the famous november 27th war warning message on orders initiated from the navy department were dispatched to go reinforce wake island and midway. >> oliver: as it is even now, politics can get in the way of intelligence sharing. kimmel never knew that general short had not gone on full alert while short thought that admiral kimmel had launched long distance aerial reconnaissance around the

island of oahu which he had done and so, this was a great mistake that arose out of the old divisions between the army and the navy. >> oliver: by 6 december, japan and the united states were in a collision course for war. that evening, a troubled fdr left his dinner guests early, retired to his study and drafted this letter, in an unprecedented move, the president appealed directly for peace to emporer hirohito. >> this message was held up by the japanese, but they didn't want the emporer to get this. >> oliver: that same night cryptologists across town began decoding a 14-part message from tokyo to diplomates in washington. >> it finally reaches the president which makes absolutely clear the japanese intent and upon finishing reading this, says this means war. >> oliver:, but he still doesn't know that it means war at pearl harbor.

>> oliver: up next, a japanese pilot tells war stories what pilot tells war stories what he was told bef i accept i'm not the rower i used to be.. i even accept i have a higher risk of stroke due to afib, a type of irregular heartbeat not caused by a heart valve problem. but i won't accept is getting out there with less than my best. so if i can go for something better than warfarin, i will. eliquis. eliquis reduced the risk of stroke better than warfarin, plus it had significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis had both. that really mattered to me. don't stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding.

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>> oliver: at pearl harbor, the evening of 6 december, 1941 was just the typical saturday night. while soldiers and sailors enjoyed their liberty, they didn't know that admiral yamamoto's new secret weapons were lurking in the waters just off pearl harbor. yamamoto planned for a massive aerial bombardment on pearl harbor. two months before the attack, he changed his battle plan to include five midget submarines. at 78 feet long and six feet high, the japanese midget submarines could accommodate only two crew members. battery powered they were equipped with two 18-inch torpedos that could travel up to speeds of 19 knots while

submerged. >> we were the chosen ones among the chosen, one of the highest points in our lives. >> oliver: born in hiroshima, in 1919. a crew member aboard one of the mother subs. war stories investigates tracked him down in japan. >> we were gradually making progress and training for the port and harbor assault, initially passing through narrow water channels because we were going through a naval port. >> oliver: just after midnight, the midget submarines were released, their plan to sneak into pearl harbor behind anything allowed to pass through the anti-submarine nets, but kimle's sailors were ready. >> kimmel always thought the most likely form of attack that the japanese might make upon pearl harbor would be a submarine attack and admiral stark as cno sent an order to kimmel stating, you are not to attack any japanese submarines were detected around the island of oahu, but kimmel

secretly counter mannedded that order and told both his surface ship kaipts and his aircraft pilots that if they detected a japanese submarine they were to attack it at once. >> japanese midget submarine enters the defensive sea area, the imagery zone off the mouth of pearl harbor and his decity of detroiter with the war brand new kaip nothing the orders attacks the submarine. >> oliver: he was one of the reservists award the uss ward. does the ward go to general quarters? >> we wept to general quarters immediately. i'm on my gun on the bow. >> oliver: 6:30 a.m., william tanner, jr. from california also spotted something strange in the water. >> i saw what looked to be like a buoy in the water, but a moving buoy. it looked like it was on a course directly on target for pearl harbor.

we dropped two smoke lights on that object to help the ward close in on it. >> number three gun, pe thut a hole through the conning tower, and released more depth charges set for 100 feet and that was it. >> those were the first shots fired in the pacific war and they were fired by us and by a commander, namely kimmel, who had rejected pa order from his superior officer. >> oliver: the ward reports its contact, when it sinks the midget sub right outside the entrance of pearl harbor. >> admiral kimmel gets the report and awaiting confirmation of the shooting by the ward. and of course, confirmation comes in the form of the attack on pearl harbor. >> oliver: 7:53 a.m., commander signals carriers their goal of surprise has been achieved. he radios the fleet shouting tora, tora, tora!

7:55 a.m., the first wave of japanese dive bomber torpedo planes begin their attack. at 8:40 a.m. the second wave attacks. >> and we-- i was in the second wave, dive bombers dropped bombs after getting closer to the enemy. so the hitting rate was quite high. >> japanese morale went through the window of headquarters and bounced off my grandfather's chest and leaving a welt on his chest. >> and one of the planes head off and the wing tips and i said my god, those are japanese planes! >> oliver: the second class sterling cale from illinois was one of the first responders. as a hospital corpsman, you've now got carnage all over this place. what do you then do? >> i spent four hours there in the burning water picking up

bodies, some i'm sure were dead, some were badly injured, some of them badly burns and needless to say i haven't been swimming in the water to this day. >> when general quarters were sounded, i was down in my division headquarter, living compartment, ran up to my battle station. >> oliver: radioman second class from connecticut was aboard the dry docked uss pennsylvania. >> they were saying the japs are attacking, japs are attacking and at that time i figured oh sure, when i got top side i found out they really were. we took one hit, we and the other fellas were in the wrong place. i put nine months in the hospital getting put back together and then back to sea. >> oliver: when the japanese attacked pearl harbor, it was 1 p.m. in washington d.c.. >> japanese planes have been sewing death and destruction for an hour on american outposts in the pacific. when the japanese envoys presented a memorandum to

mr. hull. >> he took the memorandum or the ultimatum and then he said something to this effect, in all of my years in public service i have never seen anything so false and sodas tarredly as this document. and then he nodded with his head for them to leave the room which they did. when they got back to the japanese embassy they found out for the first time about the attack on pearl harbor. >> oliver: the lieutenant didn't find out that he'd participated in a surprise attack after the war was over. >> our assumption was how to fight when the u.s. came to attack us. >> they were told that the declaration of war would be delivered before the attack, that the old samurai proverb and lesson is that you wake your enemy before you strike them was going to happen at pearl harbor. >> oliver: in less than two hours, more than 300 u.s. aircraft were ready, 21 u.s. navy ships were damaged or sunk and more than 2400 americans were dead or dying.

coming up, the two senior u.s. commanders in hawaii are commanders in hawaii are relieved at ally bank no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like ordering wine equals pretending to know wine. pinot noir, which means peanut of the night. at ally bank no branches equalsit's a fact.. kind of like mute buttons equal danger. ...that sound good? not being on this phone call sounds good. it's not muted.

was that you jason? it was geoffrey! it was jason. it could've been brenda.

a. >> oliver: 8 december, 1941, a stunned nation mourns its losses at pearl harbor and japan launched nearly simultaneous attacks at malaysia, wake island, guam, philippines,, and midway. a shaken fdr dictated this historic speech to his secretary grace tullely. >> we see in the original his own hand edits and interesting the very first line where he says this is a date which will live in world history, cross that is out and makes it a date which will live in

infamy. >> the american people in their rarbs might will win through, through absolute victory. >> oliver: fdr asked congress to declare a state of war in japan and three days later hitler declared war on the united states. on 16 december fdr relieved admiral kimmel and general short of their duties and appointed supreme court associate justice owen roberts to head an investigative commission. >> they write a report completely unredacted signed by the president, sent around the world accusing admiral kimmel and general short of dereliction of their duty and further finding at that admiral kimmel and short were quote, solely responsible for the success of the japanese attack. >> other heads should have rolled. the performance of the army chief and the navy chief cannot have been em em plarry because the attack succeeded. >> oliver: the u.s. fleet in

the philippines and the u.s. army in the philippines are caught just as flat-footed. >> macarthur received notice of the attack off pearl harbor seven hours before they, themselves were hit. and so, general macarthur had the opportunity to remove all of his b-17 flying fortress bombers so that they wouldn't be caught on the ground wing tip to wing tip. >> oliver: we do ultimately lose most of our b-17's. >> macarthur could have, some would say should have been relieved for this dereliction. >> oliver: and he believes that macarthur may have been part of a larger conspiracy. >> he was told on november 27th, don't go on the offense. stay in a defensive mode and that's what he did. his planes were destroyed on the ground and he got the congressional medal of honor for it. >> oliver: what you're saying is that the conspiracy is broader than just at roosevelt's desk. >> oh, yes, it includes the intercept operators, the navy and army. it includes general macarthur,

admiral hart, but not admiral kimmel or general short in hawaii. the hawaiian commanders were cut out of the loop. >> oliver: it's inconceivable to me that a commander-in-chief and many of his subordinates would allow a fleet to be attacked if they knew in advance it was going to happen. >> it's called a noble lie where it goes back to plato's time in the republic, he talks about where for the good of the people the overall millions of people, let's say, we'll sacrifice 2000 is a noble lie. >> oliver: there are nine official investigation ns five years. the last one in 1945 by the joint congressional commission was chaired by kentucky senator alvin barkley. kimmel and short fought to clear the dereliction of duty charge once again. >> we needed one thing which our own resources could not make available to us, that vital need was the information

available in washington from the intercepted dispatches which told when and where japan would probably strike. i did not get this information. >> oliver: the congressional hartion concluded that the two officers committed critical errors of judgment, but not dereliction of duty. >> history is cruel and sometimes that cruel mantle comes down on the shoulders of those in command. >> oliver: kimmel retired in connecticut. in 1954 he wrote this book, which inspired me to write a letter when i was a midshipman at annapolis. >> in searching my grandfather's paper on microfilm, a few months ago i ran into a signature here that i recognized. >> oliver: i obviously felt very strongly about the fact that i thought that i thought that your grandfather got railroaded. more than five decades later there was a 10th investigation headed by then undersetting defense edward dorn. some of the historical record

was corrected. >> the responsibility should be broadly shared, the dorn committee concluded. >> that was the first time that's ever been said, that was done in 1995. >> but it never told us shared by whom. i think not only should be broadly shared, but should be principally shared by general marshall and by admiral stark. >> oliver:, but on 7 december, 1941, japan had awakened america, the sleeping giant. >> what has been missed after all these years is the pride at that took place after the attack in which america arose off the mat of history to fight again, a navy that was in shambles would be raised within three years. many of the ships at pearl harbor were returned. i know how it is. you're all set to book a flight using your airline credit card miles. and surprise! those seats sometimes cost a ridiculous number of miles, making it really hard to book the flight you want.

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>> oliver: there have been 10 investigations of the attack on

pearl harbor yet there are still documents being uncovered others that remain classified and testimony that is at best ambiguous. with each new discovery there are questions raised about who knew what and when they knew it. the culpability of the surprise the japanese achieved sure goes beyond them. the record does not support claims of a conspiracy to allow the destruction of the pacific fleet here on december 7th, 1941. like the attack on september 11th there's foe doubt it galvanized our nation to action. those who responded to the surprise attacks are remarkable americans. their war stories deserve to be told. from pearl harbor i am oliver north, good night. (captioned by closed captioning services, inc.)

♪ thank you very much. good night from new york. >> tonight just hours after pearl harbor. >> the bombs are dropping all around you. >> americans attacked again. >> the whole island was in flame. >> the entire islanders. >> there was no place to hide. >> the entire island, there was no place to hide. >> the odds were against us. >> the battle for wake island. >> that's next on war stories. ♪ ♪ welcome to war stories. we're here