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List Price: $21.00 | | Publisher: Da Capo Press
Salesrank: 556325
Released: April 10, 2001 |
| Our Price: $2.84 |
| Used Price: $0.39 |
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
Now in paperback in time for the blockbuster movie-the only book to name fourteen men most responsible for the disaster at Pearl Harbor.
In 1944, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, knowing that high-ranking members of the military had falsely testified before the various bodies investigating the attack on Pearl Harbor, selected a then-unknown major by the name of Henry C. Clausen to undertake a new investigation. From November 1944 to September 1945, Clausen traveled more than 55,000 miles and interviewed over a hundred U.S. and British Army, Navy, and civilian personnel. He was given the authority to go anywhere and question anyone under oath, from enlisted personnel right up to George C. Marshall, the Chief of Staff. He ultimately presented an 800page report to Stimson-a report that revealed a massive operational failure by the United States to use the priceless signals intelligence that it had obtained months before Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor is the "final judgement"-the story behind Clausen's investigation and a blistering account of his conclusions.
Pearl Harbor : Final Judgement Reviews:
Flawed Final Judgment 
2008-12-13 - Henry Clausen, now exposed by new research, will be remembered as another "company man" who tried to cover-up, and in some cases, shut-up, some of the principals involved in the scandal and protect the careers of Marshall and Stark.
He picked up where Rear Admiral Leigh Noyes started. Noyes, the Navy's Director of Communications, was the individual responsible for instituting a 54 year censorship policy that consigned all radio intercepts and memoranda to the Navy vaults...and he did this on December 11, 1941. Then, he put out the directive, "Destroy all notes and anything in writing."
The clean-up continued with Henry Clausen contacting every key witness and coercing and threatening them to change their testimony.
An interesting book...but a fatally flawed judgment, and definitely not final by any means.
Did you catch that ... so much for Truth, Justice, and the American Way! 
2006-06-03 - While it has a notable title, and with its co-author being Bruce Lee (he being the editor of another Pearl Harbor work), the text is simply a re-hash of prior materials.
But, having set that as a datum, there are several items which might be of profit for some who are less inquisitive. These items include, for example:
A. Pages 136-136 - Message No. 519 as triggered by the "Winds Execute" receipt, the destruction by burning of enormous numbers of message traffic, and the Japanese attack on the A-3 scrambler telephone.
B. Pages 191-193 - Massive perjury, including that old chestnut of Marshall's whereabouts on the night of December 6, 1941.
C. Page 270 - The "higher oath" that led to conflicted testimony before various investigations, the whole truth and nothing but the truth - but not quite. Imagine US military personnel lying and admitting it to Clasen.
D. Pages 353 and 373 - Note that Japanese Naval Codes are in Singapore and Bangkok.
E. Page 367 - Ribbentrop's (from November 28, 1941) comment that Germany will go to war if Japan goes to war with America, and not seek a separate piece with England. So, FDR knew that Germany would declare war. [And so did Churchill, who upon seeing this PURPLE message, noted that comment in red ink.]
F. Page 410 - The note pointing to the numbers of messages that had to be gotten from British copies of traffic - so complete was the purposeful housecleaning done on the US archives. [This should be a flag to some: The "Winds Execute" will not be found in a US file, but rather in that of the Allies.]
Overall, a text to be aware of - warts and all.
Major Primary Source 
2005-08-03 - This book is a major contribution to the understanding of who was really responsible for Pearl Harbor. Although Clausen's report (and his subsequent testimony) are part of the record of the Congressional investigation, his description of how he actually pursued his inquiry helps to fit each witness's affidavit into context. Clausen's colorful (and sometimes humorous) narrative of the course of his investigation makes this book highly readable, and his insightful and lawyerly evaluation of his witnesses and their testimony is a great aid to those who truly seek answers about why America was surprised at Pearl Harbor.
The book is not without its flaws, however. Clausen was conducting an Army investigation; thus the majority of his witnesses are from the Army, and when he did interview Navy personnel, his lines of inquiry were limited to obtaining information that was relevent to mistakes that might have been made by the Army. Thus, his point of view is necessarily limited. In his list of the 14 people most responsible for Pearl Harbor, he has Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner in a tie for fourth-place on the list, but Clausen never even interviewed the Admiral--this great level of culpability is not satisfactorily explained in either the text or the list. Clausen does refer to the subsequent Congressional investigation's having answered that question, however, and reading the Congressional report does explain it. Also, amazingly, Clausen fails to assign any significant blame to Admiral Claude Bloch, who was commandant of the 14th Naval District (Hawaii) and Base Defense Officer for Pearl Harbor. Clausen also gets a few minor facts wrong that make it clear he's not a professional historian--for example, the Army did not have any P-39s at Pearl Harbor, and General Short did not attend West Point.
In answer to some of the criticisms raised by other reviewers: Clausen does have some biases, but he's very open about them. He explains, in his Congressional testimony, why he couldn't investigate Stimson--Congress directed Stimson to conduct the investigation. As for protecting Marshall, Clausen quotes Stimson's endorsement to the Army Board report--Marshall was not responsible for the day-to-day management of the War Plans Division(it is worth noting, however, that Marshall still accepted the blame for not noticing that Short had not gone to the proper state of alert, even though he couldn't recall having seen Short's reply, and General Gerow had previously admitted to making the error). Clausen's story should also put to rest, once and for all, the revisionist canard that Stimson sent him around the world to browbeat witnesses into reversing their testimony in order to protect the Chief of Staff. I would also point out that one of the other reviewers seems to have confused the terms "anecdote" and "sworn statement."
Finally, on the subject of Clausen's giving the "government version," is it unreasonable to expect one of the chief government investigators to give that version? The whole statement is loaded, and has clear revisionist implications. Kimmel and Short were not "scapegoats"; as Prang states, this word implies that they were blameless. They were clearly not, and Clausen proves it with sworn testimony. The evidence against Short is frankly damning, though I'm sure some revisionists will attempt to explain it away. Short failed to read the extensive briefing materials that his predecessor, General Herron, had carefully prepared for him to study during his 5-day voyage to Hawaii in February 1941. Furthermore, he chose an officer with no intelligence experience or training to be his intelligence chief, rather than the officer with intelligence training and experience (who was recommended by Herron), simply because Short didn't want an unwashed reservist as part of his inner circle. Had Short bothered to study the material (or simply asked around) he would have discovered that alerts did not alarm the civilian population, and that Herron considered the risk of sabotage to be minimal. Kimmel failed to share crucial intelligence with Short (as he'd been directed). Finally, the two commanders had been ordered to confer and cooperate, but Short simply assumed that the Navy knew where the Japanese carriers were, and was conducting reconnaisance patrols; Kimmel assumed that Short was alert against air attack, and using his radar.
This book should be on the shelf of everyone who's interested in Pearl Harbor--right next to At Dawn We Slept.
Pearl Harbor - Final Judgement 
2005-07-07 - Pearl Harbor - Final Judgement is a behind the scenes view of the War Department's efforts to address deficiencies in the separate Army and Navy commissions that studied the failures prior and on December 7, 1941.
The Author, Henry Clausen was appointed by the Secretary of War to address deficiencies noted in the earlier investigations. Assisting Clausen was Bruce Lee who assisted Admiral Layton in writing "At Dawn We Slept" and other historical examinations of the Pearl Harbor disaster.
"Final Judgement" is about Clausen's efforts to find out what was our intelligence posture and what did we do with what was available. Clausen's investigation and the journey to find the truth is fascinating. Many significant findings in this book has never been addressed before.
I read the book as a retired Army officer familiar with inter-service rivalries. Clausen's "civilian" perspective assisted him greatly. If Clausen had viewed the events as a career military person, I doubt he would have taken the chances he did. I can only imagine the consternation his investigation certainly caused because he could not be touched.
Final Judgement rings of truth finally brought to light. One suspects a "911" report will come out 50 years later and reveal what our contemporaries did not want us to know. This is what Final Judgement is all about. Great read with real insights.
Sheds New Light on Who Was Responsible for Pearl Harbor
2004-11-30 - I originally read this book about eight years ago, but I recently finished reading it for the second time, and I got much more out of it than the first time through. Henry C. Clausen, a San Francisco lawyer with his own practice, was appointed by Secretary of War Henry Stimson to conduct a thorough investigation of the Pearl Harbor disaster after it was discovered that there may have been some tainted testimony with the recently completed Army Pearl Harbor Board investigation. Armed with "Magic" decrypts in a "bomb pouch" which Clausen was to detonate if captured, he set off to take affidavits from the key personnel involved in the Pearl Harbor disaster.
According to the book, from November, 1944 to September, 1945, Clausen traveled more than 55,000 miles and interviewed over one hundred U.S. and British Army, Navy, and civilian personnel. Clausen had the authority from Stimson to go anywhere and interview anyone under oath from enlisted personnel up to General George C. Marshall. After completing his investigation, Clausen presented an 800 page report which revealed a massive failure by the United States to use the intelligence obtained months before the Pearl Harbor attack.
The crux of Clausen's investigation centered on the failure of the Army and Navy to share intelligence. It was the Navy's responsibility to share their intelligence with the Army, but, according to Clausen's investigation, this did not happen. Clausen also faulted Admiral Kimmel and General Short for failing to correctly interpret Washington's war warning message dated November 27, 1941. Among the other charges leveled by Clausen against Kimmel and Short were Kimmel's failure to share intelligence with the Army and his own staff, while Short was charged with failing to defend the fleet, failing to adequately prepare to assume command in Hawaii, failing to alert his forces of the probability of a surprise attack, failing to conduct reconnaissance, and failing to communicate effectively with Kimmel.
Clausen names others who were responsible in his investigation, from Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner's attempt to take over Naval intelligence and assuming that Pearl Harbor had a "Purple" machine, to Fleet Intelligence Officer Edwin Layton, who failed to keep the Army abreast of intelligence developments by not following Kimmel's directive to deliver intelligence to the Army in person. Others are listed as well, but these four men, especially Kimmel and Short, bear much of the responsibility for Pearl Harbor, according to Clausen.
Clausen was called as a witness before the Congressional hearings to testify about his findings. He did a masterful job of handling the committee's questions, and managed to sway the thinking of several of the committee members.
I highly recommend this fine book. Written in the first person by Clausen himself, he takes the reader on an incredible journey that uncovered many falsehoods and half-truths while, in my opinion, accurately identifying the persons directly responsible for the disaster at Pearl Harbor. The only part of the book where I felt Clausen spent too much time on was the "Winds" message. He admitted himself that he devoted perhaps too much time to this one issue, but this is a minor point which does not take anything away from the book. Colonel Clausen did his country a remarkable service by completing such a fine investigation. His methods were precise and produced the desired results. I believe that Clausen's report accurately identifed who was to blame for the attack. There is an excellent appendix section in the book which contains many of the "Magic" intercepts which Clausen used in his investigation. Read this excellent work of history and find out who was responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor.
