What if the US Navy had fully retained the prewar Fleet Problem lessons about attacking Pearl Harbor?
Short answerIn this interpretation, the central failure was the withholding of relevant intelligence from Kimmel, which exercise lessons alone could not remedy.
NotesPrewar Fleet Problems had already rehearsed an attack on Pearl Harbor. In this interpretation, retaining those exercise lessons could not compensate for an intelligence and command system that withheld relevant information from the commander on the spot. That withholding is linked to the difficulties Kimmel's predecessor had caused after receiving similar updates. The argument assigns responsibility to the officers who restricted the information, while distinguishing that case from a commander who received adequate warnings and still chose badly.