Pearl Harbor and Battle of Midway: Lessons for Intelligence

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Introduction:
Both the Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway are related to military intelligence and are responsible for molding the military intelligence of the United States. This is a military discipline that collects information and analysis it to support commanders in their decision-making. Usually, Military intelligence is achieved by assessing data from multiple sources, focusing on the goals of the commanders, and providing critical answers to questions relating to campaign planning or operations. For example, information that provides a list of enemy positions when the commander is moving his forces is military intelligence. From the perspective of the United States, the incident at Pearl Harbor occurred because of military intelligence failure, and the success of the US in the Battle of Midway can be attributed to Intelligence success.

1.Key aspects of the attack on Pearl Habor and Battle of Midway
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is located about 2,000 miles from the US and 4,000 miles from Japan. According to the US military intelligence, the Japanese attack would take place in European colonies in South Pacific, Singapore, or Indochina. There was a military intelligence failure. Because of intelligence failure, the Island was undefended and the entire Pacific Fleet was moored around Ford Island, and hundreds of plans were on airfields. The Japanese plan was to destroy the Pacific Fleet and cripple the US presence in the Pacific. In 1941, on December 7 at 8 am (a), Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor. A bomb exploded in the ammunition magazine of USS Arizona exploding the ship and trapping 1,000 men inside and torpedoes pierced USS Oklahoma which turned over its side and went underwater. Within two hours the attack was over and several battleships including the USS California, USS West Virginia, USS Maryland, USS Tennessee, USS Utah, and USS Nevada suffered significant damage.

The impact was that the Japanese attack crippled almost 20 US ships and 300 aircraft. Airfields and dry-docks were damaged and 2,403 navy men and civilians were killed in the attack and 1,000 were wounded.

One of the key reasons for US causalities and destruction of battleships is the failure of intelligence. There is a conspiracy theory that the US Intelligence had provided warnings of the attack but no action was taken and the second direct cause is that there was ambiguity about the target of the Japanese attack. The US Intelligence failed because of the low quality of intelligence, the low credibility of the source of intelligence, and the Japanese efforts to keep the plan secret. The intelligence failure of the US reflects the immaturity of the US intelligence and poor analysis. The US military misconceived the Japanese thinking, underestimated the strength of the Japanese, and was overconfident of their strength. There was a failure in the management of intelligence because of insensitivity, sectionalism, and security problem.

The successes of the USA in the Pearl Harbor attack were that when the attack occurred battleships were not the most important naval ships, instead of aircraft carriers were. All the US aircraft carriers were away from Pearl Harbor. Some had returned to the mainland and others were delivering plants to other islands. Another US success was that the assault left the crucial onshore facilities such as depots, repair shops, submarine does, shipyard, and oil storage depots untouched. This enabled the US Navy to recoup fast from the attack. ...