West Wind Clear: Cryptology and the Winds Message Controversy--A Documentary History

Chapter 4. The Winds Controversy: Myth and Reality

Beginning in late 1943, and continuing into the time of the Joint Congressional Committee Hearings on Pearl Harbor (November 1945 – May 1946), a controversy ensued over the allegation that a Winds Execute message had been intercepted by American naval radio intelligence, processed and passed to the leadership in the Roosevelt administration at least three days prior to the Japanese attack on 7 December.

As we shall see, the initial source for this claim and the supporting evidence that, days prior to Pearl Harbor, a Winds Execute message had been sent by Tokyo to its diplomatic facilities and had been intercepted by the U.S. Navy, was Captain Laurance F. Safford. He made this claim during several ...