Evening star., 1944-08-23
1rumun Article Seen
As Service to Nation

AS SSIVlSS 10 INOtIOU
Public Should Know All Facts
on Pearl Harbor, Says Writer
By Dasid Laurence
Maybe Senator Harry Truman, DEM
ocratic vice presidential nominee. has
unwittingly done the Nation a service
by bringing on at this time discussion
of the trve responsibility for the trag-
edy Of Pearl thing that
has been concealed from the public now
for more than two and half wears.
When Senator Truman wrote his ar
ticle for an issue Of Golfers Weekly
magazine-published in the last few
days-and made certain charges against
Admiral Kimmel and Gen. Short, he
was obviously speaking with . back
ground Of confidential information OBJ
tanned In his position as q member of
the Senate committee investigating the
war effort. Admiral Kimmel has in
dignantly denied the charges and in
nuendoes in q public letter but the Mis-
souri, Senator insists that when the
court-martial proceedings are held his
charges In the article will be proved
correct.
This raises at once the question Of
why the court-martial has been delayed
and what reason Senator Truman had
for taking the initiative in airing in q
magazine article something that the
Roosevelt administration has thus far
so effectively kept from the public by
postponing the court-martial proceed
ings again and again.
The official reason given for the de-
lay is that it would be preiudicial to
the war effort to try the case now. But
the Republicans in the Senate also have
been In possession of certain informa-
ton about 1t and succeeded recently in
forcing an Army-Navy board to begin
an inquiry on what happened at Pearl
Harbor. These proceedings, however,
are secret and conclusions reached will
not be available till after the presiden-
tial campaign is over.
Dewey Has Been Given Cue.
Meanwhile, Gov. Dewey, who has a
bit OF experience in prosecutions, misht
decide to try the Pearl Harbor case in
public. Certainly Senator Truman has
given him the cue. For q long time
Army and Navy officers, . retired and
otherwise, have been gossiping about the
Pearl Harbor tragedy and have been
asking many questions, as for instance:
l. Why were all our battleships in
the harbor OF Hawaii on December Z,
1881, instead OF out at sea, and who in
washington gave the orders to keep
them there. especially at a time of
tension in the relations between japan
and the United States?
2. What admiral recommended that
the ships be sent from Hawaii and
what happened to the admiral who made
such a recommendation, and was he
relieved of his command at his own
request or through the initiative Of
some one higher UP?
3. Why, in view of the tense rela-
tlons between Japan and the United
States after the November rs note was
sent to Japan by the State Department
and prior to December 7, were no
mobilization orders sent to the feet by
Admiral Stark, then chief Of naval
operations, thus putting the feet on a
war basis?
| 4. Why was the report of Justice
Roberts confined wholly and specifically
to circumstances and events happening
in Hawaii, and why were the Official
acts Of commission or omission at
washington in the War and Navy De-
partments, respectively, excluded from
the scope Of the Roberts inquiry so that
the public got only part of the story?
Collateral Questions.
There are many other collateral ques-
lions which q congressional inquiry
rather than court-martial could get at
1nasmuch as President Roosevelt is
running for reelection on the arsu-
ment that he has been Commander in
Chief OF the armed services for more
than IL years." as he expressed it in
his letter to Chairman Hannegan of
the Democratic National Committee
the Republicans feel they have a right
to pin the responsibility for Pearl
Harbor on the Commander in Chief who
knew all the facts about our relations
with Japan and was in a position to
order the mobilization of the fleet or
else to send it away from Pearl Harbor.
The American people, including the
mothers and fathers Of the more than
| 5000 bows who were killed st psa ~
Harbor. are entitled now to all the
facts that Senator Truman had when
he wrote his magazine article and to
all other facts that bear on the tragedy
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