Pacific Fleet intelligence officer who turned Rochefort's decrypts into Nimitz's operational judgement
A 1924 Naval Academy graduate, he studied Japanese in Tokyo from 1929 and served as a naval attaché there, meeting Isoroku Yamamoto several times. He and Joseph Rochefort, who learned Japanese with him, became lifelong partners: Rochefort broke codes, Layton put intelligence to work in war planning. Combat intelligence officer to Pacific Fleet commander Kimmel from a year before Pearl Harbor, he stayed on under Nimitz. In May 1942, when Washington expected the next blow at Port Moresby or the Aleutians, he and Rochefort predicted Midway in the first week of June and won Nimitz over. Nimitz invited him to the surrender in Tokyo Bay in 1945, and after the war he directed the Naval Intelligence School. His posthumous memoir And I Was There blamed Washington for Pearl Harbor.
Also known as: Edwin Thomas Layton
Activities and affiliations
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1924–1959
United States state institutionsMain
Security, intelligence and policing
Career Timeline
- 1924Graduates from the Naval Academy
- 1929–1932Japanese language study and attaché in Tokyo
- 1940–1945Pacific Fleet intelligence officer under Kimmel and Nimitz
- 1959Retires from the Navy