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Soon after the attack, U.S. President Franklin D.
Roosevelt appointed a commission of inquiry to determine
whether negligence had contributed to the success of the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor. The commission's report found the naval and army commanders of the Hawaiian area, Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Major General Walter C. Short, guilty of Òderelictions of dutyÓ and Òerrors of judgmentÓ; the two men were retired. Other later inquiries, however, differed in their conclusions. The Congress of the United States, in an effort to dispose of the controversy, decided on a full, public investigation after the war.
The bipartisan congressional committee opened its
investigation in November 1945. Testimony from many people
reviewed all known information about the attack on Pearl Harbor. The committee reported its findings in July 1946. It placed the primary blame on General Short and Admiral Kimmel, who, however, were declared guilty only of errors of judgment, and not of derelictions of duty. The committee recommended the unification of the U.S. armed forces, which occurred the following year. The USS Arizona National Memorial, standing above the remains of the battleship in Pearl Harbor, commemorates the Americans who died in the attack. |
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Interesting Facts
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