"West Wind Clear", A Documentary History by the NSA

I've posted this before, but no harm in mentioning it again.

 

No biggies, it was probably just a link in one of the "Just Let It Happen" threads.

 

I found this and thought it interesting.

[SIZE=+2]Statement Regarding Winds Message
[/SIZE] by Captain L.F. Safford, US Navy
[Before the Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack, 79th Cong., 1st sess., pursuant to Congressional Resolution 27]

PREVIEW
There was a Winds Message. It meant War--and we knew it meant War. By the best estimate that can be made from my recollection and the circumstantial evidence now available, the "Winds Message" was part of a Japanese Overseas "News" Broadcast from Station JAP (Tokyo) on 11980 kilocycles beginning at 1330 Greenwich Civil Time on Thursday, December 4, 1941. This time corresponded to 10:30 p.m. Tokyo time and 8:30 a.m. Washington time, December 4, 1941. The broadcast was probably in Japanese Morse code, and was originally written in the Kata-Kana form of written, plain-language Japanese. It was intercepted by the U.S. Navy at the big radio receiving station at Cheltenham, Maryland, which serves the Navy Department. It was recorded on a special typewriter, developed by the Navy, which types the Roman-letter equivalents of the Japanese characters. The Winds Message broadcast was forwarded to the Navy Department by TWX (teletypewriter exchange) from the teletype-transmitter in the "Intercept" receiving room at Cheltenham to "WA91," the page-printer located beside the GY Watch Officer's desk, in the Navy Department Communication Intelligence Unit under my command. I saw the Winds Message typed in page form on yellow teletype paper, with the translation written below. I immediately forwarded this message to my Commanding Officer (Rear Admiral Leigh Noyes, USN), thus fully discharging my responsibility in the matter.

Statement Regarding Winds Message

 

Poor Safford. He thought he got a report of the activation message. He went looking for it. He couldn't find it. He did find that one message was missing, 7001. So, therefore, 7001 was the one he was looking for. And it had been taken out to cover up the attack warning.

Safford ignored the fact that there had been no reason to activate the Winds system. It would become active only when direct communications between Japan and its Embassies had been severed before the outbreak of war. "West Wind Rain" meant the war was imminent between the US and Japan. Well duh! The US wasn't wondering IF Japan would strike, they were wondering WHEN Japan would strike.

 

More important today than one would imagine.