Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack: Report of the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack. Congress of the United States Pursuant to S. Con. Res. 27, 79th Congress. Walnut Creek, CA: Aegean Park Press, 1994. Softcover, 532 pages. 

The Japanese surprise attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, took the lives of more than 2,400 Americans and sunk or damaged 21 ships in the U.S. Pacific fleet. As a stunned nation mourned its losses, many demanded to know why the U.S. was unprepared for the attack. Rumors even circulated that President Franklin Roosevelt, determined to draw the nation into war, baited Japan with an unguarded harbor. Numerous investigations, including one ordered by the president under the direction of Supreme Court Justice Owen Roberts, blamed military commanders at the naval base for being ill-prepared. On August 29, 1945, President Harry Truman released army and navy investigation reports which found commanders in Washington, especially former secretary of state Cordell Hull and army chief of staff General George Marshall, largely responsible for the lack of preparedness at Pearl Harbor. Congress postponed an investigation while the nation was at war. Germany’s surrender on April 8, and the formal surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945, created an opportunity for Congress to act. Senate Majority Leader Alben Barkley was the first to call for action, presenting a Senate resolution on September 6, 1945. He urged the creation of a joint investigatory committee to explore the “contradictions and inconsistencies” within the preceding reports.