captioning by closed captioning services, inc. >> oliver: tonight, war stories investigates, did fdr know pearl harbor would be attacked? >> he wanted an outrageous japanese attack at pearl harbor, that would unite this country. >> oliver: or was it a surprise? >> roosevelt had no desire to be in a war against japan. >> oliver: and admiral kim's grandson speaks out. >> h and died last night at his home, he was of 5. the next news break at the bottom of the hour. next war stories with oliver north. >> oliver: welcome bah to

special edition of war stories. coming to you from pearl harbor, hawaii. i'm oliver north and this is the wreckage of the uss utah. one of eight battleships that were moored here on december 7th, 1941. at 7:55, that quiet sunday morning, waves of japanese airplanes suddenly appeared overhead unleashing bombs and torpedoes in a savage surprise attack. in less than two hours, more than 300 u.s. aircraft were wrecked, 21 u.s. navy ships damaged or sunk and more than 2400 americans dead or dying. how could this happen? was it simply a colassel intelligence failure, a lack of readiness? was it a claim, part after secret plot at the u.s. government to get america in world war ii? was the japanese raid really a total surprise? tonight, war stories investigates, the secrets, the evidence, and the debate over the attack on pearl harbor.

>> the united states of america was suddenly and districtly attacked. the attack has caused severe damage to american, naval and military forces. december 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. >> oliver: americans were stunned and devastated when they learned that pearl harbor had been attacked and in washington, the sentiment was the same. >> after the attack is announced to the president, there's a steady parade of people in and out of roosevelt's study. and his cabin. you have the leaders of congress, you have high military officials. and these are all in the state of shock that this has happened. >> oliver: joseph extensively studied fdr's presidency, the author of "roosevelt's secret

war.". >> roosevelt pounds his desk in calling out the losses as he harass this ship, that ship. so many aircraft, he's outraged, not only to see the japanese, but that we weren't prepared for the attack. >> oliver: there are those who believe that roosevelt knew in advance that pearl harbor was going to be bombed. >> he had no desire to be in war against japan and told winston churchill that war against japan was wrong place, wrong enemy, wrong ocean. roosevelt wanted to fight alongside the british in defeating nazism. >> oliver: while fdr remained focused on the war in europe 6700 miles away the japanese were launching a war of aggression. japan was a nation ruled by an emporer, a tradition dating back centuries, but the real power in the empire was held by the military war lords,

including hideki tojo. throughout the 1930's, japan was a growing industrial state desperately in need of land and natural resources for the population of 65 million and the japanese government took what it needed by force. >> japan was very poor, it was a farm country. >> oliver: war stories investigates tracked down the lieutenant general one of the bomber pilots that attacked pearl harbor. born in 1916 in the small mountain village of yamaguchi, the son of a saki brewer he knew his country was on war footing. >> the only thing she could do was to export silk and lacquerware, nothing with more than home industry. without becoming a modern industrialized country no way for japan to exist. >> oliver: in 1931, japan invaded and annexed manchuria and renamed it and forced its people into slavery. a league of nations was

outraged and demanded that japan pull out. instead, the tokyo delegation announced their withdrawal from the league. >> at geneva, japan was rebukeed and withdrew from the league in this scene. >> japan finds it impossible to accept the report conducted by the assembly. >> oliver: over the next six years japan went on a rampage in china, in nan king, estimated quarter of an until chinese were killed. >> nan king shocked the world. >> oliver: donald goldstein, universal affairs at university of pittsburgh. >> the japanese went into nan king and they raped women and they killed people and there were pictures of this and then people saw the dead bodies in the ditches and it was provocation. >> oliver: one of the issues for the united states was japanese withdrawal from china. >> yes. >> oliver: and yet, that was something the japanese were

totally unwilling to even consider. >> japan is shaping its own destiny, in fact, has a confrontation with the united states in 1937. >> oliver: martinez is the chief historian at uss arizona memorial and author. >> it's the incident with the gun boat on the yankee river and marked with the american flag and know they attacked it. >> oliver: two sailors were killed and 48 injured. >> they fought against the japanese bombers as well as they could on the response on the warship, the attack was without semblance of justification and the relations were worse. >> it was outrageous, the small country the state the size of california was acting like a bully in china and trying to tease the dog, the united states. >> oliver: by september 1940, hitler's legions in conquered

countries and eyebrows were raised when japan set up troops and air base ns indo china. days later they were shocked when japan signed the tri par tide pact with germany and italy. and the lieutenant remembered how japan caught to conquer neighboring countries and form the greater east asia prosperities sphere. >> japan wanted to claim that asia belonged to asian people. the reality was asian was occupied by america, england, holland and france. >> when the japanese went to war, they went to war saying that they were freeing asia from the yoke of the colonial powers and many people died, many japanese died believing this. that's what they were fighting for, they weren't fighting for that, they were fighting for a greater japan. >> oliver: to continue the murderous quest in the pacific,

japan had to have oil. 80 percent was imported from the united states. by 1940, fdr imposed an embargo of exports of oil, tin, iron and other natural resources to japan. over the next year, relations deteriorated until finally, all oil exports were stopped. >> there are those who say that war was inevitable after the united states cut off japanese supplies of aviation gasoline, high tensele steel and things like that, is that true. the fact they thought that war was inevitable after the embargo was partially true. i say that because the japanese had committed them to a full war effort after the em bourgeaus were in place. >> oliver: there was one thing that stood in japan's path. the fleet. fdr ordered the fleet moved from the west coast to pearl harbor to protect our interests in the pacific. >> it was an outpost of american might and there it

sat. >> oliver: was the u.s. pacific fleet sent to hawaii to lur i have asthma... ...one of many pieces in my life. so when my asthma symptoms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine, i talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment. once-daily breo prevents asthma symptoms. breo is for adults with asthma not well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. breo won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. breo opens up airways to help improve breathing for a full 24 hours. breo contains a type of medicine that increases the risk of death from asthma problems and may increase the risk of hospitalization in children and adolescents. breo is not for people whose asthma is well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. once your asthma is well controlled,

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>> oliver: october, 1940, in a bold military move, president roosevelt ordered 127 ships of the pacific fleet in the west coast to pearl harbor. on 8 october, admiral james o richardson commander of the pacific fleet told the president he was opposed to the decision. >> admiral richardson did not think that hawaii had the facilities, adequate to service the fleet. >> oliver: michael gannon is a professor emeritus of history at university of florida and author of "pearl harbor betrayed.". >> he was worried about things that were human oriented, such as recreational facilities for the men, opportunities for the men to visit their lives and families. >> admiral richardson fired by

president roosevelt because he was so strident in his views about where the fleet should be based. >> oliver: the man chosen by fdr to replace richardson was admiral kimmel from kentucky. tom kimmel was his grandson and retired fbi agent. >> my grandfather was shocked, stunned when he was suddenly picked to be replacement for general richardson. >> oliver: tom, tell me about your first memories of your grandfather. >> every sunday my dad would pack up his four kids and go listen to admiral kimmel, i'll be the first man to admit, colonel, you couldn't talk to the man more than two minutes without pearl harbor coming up. >> he had been promoted over others, which upset a lot of people in the navy. >> oliver: over the years, pearl harbor conspiracy theorists have argued over why fdr moved the pacific fleet to hawaii. >> many say roosevelt said they wanted it out there

because bombed, but roosevelt had been undersecretary of the navy, the fleet was his pride and joy and he didn't want that fleet destroyed. i mean, there's no way. >> president roosevelt in 1940 was running for his third term, he was being accused of dragging america into war. >> oliver: robert stinnett is the author of controversial "day of deceit", the truth about fdr and pearl harbor. >> so he went out of his way so he would not be seen as a war president. and so he wanted a clear-cut outrageous japanese attack at pearl harbor that would unite this country. >> oliver: to support his theory, he points to the deep classified memorandum written on 7 october 1940, by lieutenant commander arthur mccallum head of the far east desk of naval intelligence and discovered it in 1995 at the national archives. >> as soon as i read it, i realized, oh, this is a hot

potato. the significance of this memorandum is that it's a smoking gun of pearl harbor kept 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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we'll credit your account $20. it's our promise to you. we're doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. because we should fit into your life. not the other way around. >> 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. president roosevelt sends a then

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. >> it certainly doesn't say at pearl harbor.

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

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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.

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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.) video collection.

(doorbell chiming) oh, hey, hi, dean. hey, hi there, uh... bob. (narrator) from the battlefield to the white house, from hollywood to the heartland, america's entertainer was bob hope. oh, this room, it's so dull and depressing tonight. if only there was some way to brighten it. oh, of course. (laughter) (narrator) he was a true patriot. (bob hope) this has been a great trip. we've been to england, to germany, then to crete,