Who was responsible for moving the american pacific fleet from san diego california to pearl harbor in the hawaiian islands?

Answer 1

Franklin Roosevelt, in the summer of 1940. Prior to that time the Fleet was based in Long Beach, California, near Los Angeles, and every summer went to Hawaii for maneuvers. After the 1940 maneuvers Roosevelt ordered the Fleet to remain in Pearl Harbor, hoping that this forward basing of the Fleet, 2200 miles closer to Japan, more or less, would exercise a deterrent effect on Japanese aggression. The Commander of the Fleet (the acronym for which position at the time was the unfortunate CINCUS) was deeply alarmed and opposed this move on several grounds. The first was that with the assets then in Hawaii the Fleet could not be adequately protected while in Pearl Harbor, in the Admiral's opinion. Protecting the Fleet while it was in the Harbor was the job of the US Army, and this was the main reason for the sizable Army presence in Hawaii (at that time the Army also included the Air Force). But the Army lacked enough planes and anti-aircraft guns, and though these were being produced in much larger numbers by 1940 these items were being sent elsewhere, to the Philippine Islands, and to Great Britain through Lend-Lease, and so Hawaii never obtained enough of either before the attack. The Admiral's other objection was that the only entrance to Pearl Harbor is via a narrow channel, and if a surprise attack sank a ship in that channel nothing could move in or out until the wreckage could be cleared away, which might take months, and might keep the entire Fleet bottled up in the Harbor with a war raging outside. The Admiral believed so strongly in these dangers that he traveled to Washington DC to visit the president in person to state his case. He argued quite forcefully, but the Fleet stayed in Hawaii, and a couple of months later the Admiral was relieved of his command and replaced, after only one year in that position, which was normally a two year tour of duty. The unfortunate officer who replaced him would be one of the scapegoats for the attack.