Was there any communication between the Yamamoto attack force, 12-6 41 and the spy network at Pearl Harbor? If

Question

so, knowing that the 4 aircraft carriers were not at Pearl, could he have, or would he have called off the attack--or was he too committed?

After all, the aircraft carrier was superior to the battleship by that time as a war weapon and not destroying them meant he would be doing an incompete job, (which of course really came back to "haunt" him).

Destruction of our fuel depot, was of course their biggest mistake--they should've had that 3rd attack, then they would've accomplished probably more than the "missing" the aircraft carriers.

This is stated by many historians as fact.

Answer 1

I haven't seen anything that has convinced me that there was any communication between the Yamamoto and anyone else.

Anyway he would have attracted anyway even if he knew the aircraft carries were not there. A lot of people thought at the time that the battleship was superior to the aircraft carrier, at least in the US Navy. I'm going by what I've read and been told, so please don't jump up and down like a Jack Russel on crack if you think I'm wrong, just politely give me your opinion and I might change my mind.

The Japanese made a big mistake by being too focus on the ships and not of the fuel depot. I believe that had they take out that fuel depot, it would have hurt the US more then the sinking of the ships. After all, we would of had to rebuilt the depot, resupply it, while we tried to re-fuel our ship out of San Francisco using tenders. That would have servery limited what we could do in the Pacific. But that just my opinion and I've been wrong before.

My opinion is subject to change with new facts.

Edit

The sailors were waiting for a third attact. If there was a third wave the Japanese would have take more losses. They had accomplished their main goals. Why take the losses? I know it's easy now to say they should have sent a third wave and taken out the fuel depot, but what would you have done? You just completed your orders, you have very light losses, do you go back or not. If you go back and take heavy losses for a secondary target then what? Or are you prudent and bring your force home intact?

Not a question I'd want to answer, but then again I don't have too.

Answer 2

Most of the old boys in the navy refused to believe Gen. Mitchell, that the divebomber was mightier than the battleship. When he gave his demonstration, none other than Yamamoto was present as an observer. Then the British sucessfully sank the Italian ships in their harbor. The fact that the air craft carrierswere out to sea is one of the facts cited by those who believed Pearl Harbor was "allowed" to happen (and there is mounting evidence, for this, such as Gen. Marshall's day long horse ride when Kimball and Kincaide were unable to reach him by phone, and their posthumous clearing of all court martial charges against them). Yamamoto had intelligence before the attack, but their forces were already committed to the strike and war declaration already enroute. They say he knew the whole idea of attacking the USA was a bad one but followed his orders like a good soldier does. There were Japanese Americans who were 100% loyal to this country, but agents had been landed unquestioned who blended into the community and reported ship movements in and out of the harbor, and directional arrows having been cut into croplands to direct pilots toward Pearl Harbor did happen but far less than wartime propaganda. BUT there is no proof this could not have been the work of German American agents or someone else with a grudge. In all likelihood the established Japanese Americans were not responsible for the espionage, they were rounded up and shipped to camps for the duration of the war, while those agents undoubtedly escaped.
And what really bit the Japanese Command was the attack on the Aleutians, because that diversion of ONE carrier to the far north made the difference at Midway just as much as cracking the Japanese code, fleet locations or loading planes with the wrong armanent. In hindsight they can say it was the turning point, but they didn't know they would win until days before Hirohito finally surrendered.

Answer 3

No. Once the Japanese fleet set sail for the Hawaiian Islands, they went on radio silence so as to not give their positions away. And the spy network, to avoid exposing themselves or giving any hint that something was about to happen, would not have just broadcast into the void. So, once the attack fleet left, the die was cast, and the attack inevitable.