James O. Richardson

James O. Richardson (1938)

James Otto Richardson (born September 28, 1878 in Paris , Texas , † May 2, 1974 in Washington, DC ) was an American admiral in the US Navy at the time of World War II .

Life

Richardson was born in the small Texan town of Paris in 1878 and entered the US Naval Academy in 1898 , which he graduated in 1902 as the fifth-best of the 85 class participants. He then served in the US Asia Squadron during the Philippine-American War , before being transferred to the Atlantic in 1905 . There he commanded the torpedo boats USS Tingey and USS Stockton between 1907 and 1909 and finally the 3rd torpedo boat division. After another two-year study at the engineering school of the Navy from 1909 to 1911, he came first as an engineer on the battleship USS Delaware and then on the staff of the reserve fleet Atlantic . In 1914 he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and posted to the engineering department of the Navy Department , where he worked in the organization and securing of the fuel supply for the US Navy.

In 1917, Richardson was transferred to the battleship USS Nevada , where he served as first officer and navigator until 1919 . After another course at the academy, he became commandant of the gunboat USS Asheville in 1922 . With the Asheville, he patrolled the South China Sea as commander of the Yangtze Patrol Force . After his promotion to the rank of captain , he worked in the Bureau of Ordnance from 1924 to 1927 in a senior position. After another period of service at sea as commander of a destroyer division , he came to the Bureau of Navigation .

In January 1931 he became the first in command of the newly commissioned heavy cruiser USS Augusta and commanded the ship for more than two years until he was posted to another course at the Academy in 1933. After completion of the course Richardson budget officer was in the Navy Department and received his promotion to this position Rear Admiral . After his promotion he commanded a cruiser division of the Scouting Force , was chief of staff of the commander of the United States Fleet and commander of the destroyers of the Scouting Force. In June 1937 he became assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations , followed by his appointment as chief of the Bureau of Navigation a year later.

Pacific Fleet Commander

In June 1939, Richardson became the Battle Force commander . Since the laws in peacetime in the US Navy did not allow a higher rank as rear admiral, but the resulting hierarchy of the command structure was too flat for the size of the fleet, he received the required rank of full admiral for his command only as a brevet rank . As a result of the reorganization of the US Navy in January 1940, the Battle Force became the Pacific Fleet , which was now commanded by Richardson. As usual, the Pacific Fleet moved from their home base in California to Hawaii in 1940 for their annual maneuvers . After completing the maneuvers, Richardson was instructed not to return to the west coast as usual, but to leave the fleet at Pearl Harbor .

The background to the relocation of the fleet was the deteriorating relations between Japan on the one hand and the United States and Great Britain on the other after the beginning of World War II . Japan had taken advantage of France's defeat in 1940 and stationed troops in French Indochina . At the same time, Britain was forced to move most of its troops in Southeast Asia to Europe. In September 1940, Japan signed the three-power pact with Germany and Italy . It was feared that Japan might try to exploit Britain's weakness to conquer the British colonies in Southeast Asia. The USA, which is close to the allies , reacted with sanctions against Japan and with the transfer of the Pacific fleet to Hawaii. This was intended to at least partially offset the vacuum created by the withdrawal of British forces. Above all, however, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to send a clear signal to Japan that the United States would not stand idly by as Japan continued to expand.

Richardson vehemently opposed this transfer. He thought the transfer was nonsensical, since the Pacific Fleet, according to the plans for a war against Japan, should first wait for the Atlantic Fleet to arrive before advancing west. In addition, the ships were not fully operational, as they did not operate with the full combat crew in peacetime and the additional crews necessary for a war mission first had to come from the west coast. So, in his opinion, it made little difference whether the ships were waiting in San Diego or Pearl Harbor. Logistically, however, the fleet was more difficult to supply in Pearl Harbor, as the supplies first had to be brought to Hawaii by ship. In their home base in San Diego, however, the fleet could simply be supplied via the railroad. The same was true for troop vacations. From San Diego, the soldiers were able to visit their families during their vacation, but the overseas stationing in Pearl Harbor made this impossible, as there was no time to travel to and from the USA within a vacation. He also worried about the defense of the base, in his opinion there were not enough forces available to defend the base against a Japanese attack.

On October 8, Richardson personally raised his concerns to the President at the White House and requested that the fleet be relocated to the West Coast. The fleet is not ready for action in its current condition and can therefore hardly exert any pressure on Japan. Although the president showed understanding for Richardson's concerns regarding the logistics and defense of Hawaii, he refused to relocate the fleet. In his opinion, the presence of the Pacific Fleet in Hawaii had an impact on the decisions of the Japanese government and a relocation would send the wrong signal and encourage Japan in its expansion efforts.

In February 1941, Richardson was finally replaced as commander of the Pacific Fleet because of his continued protests and replaced by Admiral Husband E. Kimmel .

Representatives of the conspiracy to attack Pearl Harbor quote Richardson's protests often as an indication that the US government was aware of the danger of the support point and the Pacific Fleet intentionally militarily pointless stationed with insufficient means to defend in Hawaii to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to provoke. It ignores, however, that Richardson's main criticism of the supply had nothing to do with the possibility of attack. The concerns expressed by him and other commanders regarding the inadequate defense of the base had also been taken into account by December 1941 by relocating additional fighters and new radar systems. The main cause of the devastating defeat was not the lack of sufficient forces, but their poor use by the commander in charge of the army, General Walter C. Short , who did not expect a Japanese attack.

Second World War

After his replacement, Richardson served until his retirement on October 1, 1942 in the Department of the Navy as a member of the General Board of the Navy . He was then retired from the Navy as an admiral, but remained in active service. He was vice president of the Navy Relief Society , a member of the Special Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee , which dealt with the reorganization of the national defense, and testified as a witness in the Tokyo trials and various investigative commissions into the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In January 1947, Admiral Richardson was finally discharged from active service. He moved to Washington, DC , where he died on May 2, 1974 at the age of 95.

family

Since 1911 James Richardson was married to May Dickens Fennet, with whom he had a son.

Web links

• The Handbook of Texas Online: James Otto Richardson
• Article in Time magazine from 1945