Safford On the Trail of the “East Winds Execute”

Outside the doors of the Committee’s hearing room, Captain L.F. Safford continued to pursue the fate of the missing Pearl Harbor documents. Safford played a crucial role in the several investigations. It was Safford who first called Kimmel’s attention to the fact that Washington had received information through Japanese MAGIC intercepts, information that had not been shared with the Pearl Harbor commanders.

The Joint Congressional Committee still had many potential witnesses on its list whose testimony was expected to prove important. Among these were Admiral R.E. Ingersoll, Assistant Chief of Naval Operations, as well as several men who had been closely concerned with MAGIC—Captain L.F. Safford, who had been in charge of the security section of Naval Communications; Captain A.D. Kramer, Navy translator and courier; and Colonel Rufus S. Bratton, Army courier.

JCC Report, July 20, 1946

The committee’s report was published in a separate unnumbered volume and transmitted to Congress under date of July 20, 1946.[1] The hearings had continued much longer than anticipated, and the deadline for the report had been extended.

World War II is now history. The generally accepted view is that the United States was brought into that war as a result of Japan’s sudden, unexpected and “dastardly” December 7, 1941, attack on the U.S. Fleet in Hawaii. As President Roosevelt pointed out the following day in his message to Congress this attack had been planned and undertaken even as U.S. and Japanese diplomats were still engaged in negotiations seeking to settle their differences in peace. In response Congress declared war on Japan almost immediately.

FROM: OPNAV [Office, Chief of Naval Operations]

TO: CINCUS [Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet]

According to David Kahn (The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing, London: Weidenfield & Nicolson, 1967, pp. 10, 388, 503–04):

“had four ends in view: to secure their Manchurian frontier with the Soviet Union, thus enabling them to move southwards without having to look over their shoulders; to obtain oil supplies and concessions from the Netherlands East Indies by means other than the use of force, thus making themselves less dependent on the United States; to obtain complete control of Indo-China, so as to be able to occupy, at an appropriate moment, Siamese territory as a base from which to mount an attack on Malaya, and to prevent the United States either from enterin

If these precedents are to stand unimpeached and to provide sanctions for the continued conduct of American foreign affairs, the Constitution may be nullified by the President, officials, and officers who have taken the oath, and are under moral obligation to uphold it.

The Government of the United States and the Government of Japan propose to take steps as follows:

1. The Government of the United States and the Government of Japan will endeavor to conclude a multilateral non-aggression pact among the British Empire, China, Japan, the Netherlands, the Soviet Union, Thailand and the United States.