For Edward R. Kimmel, last surviving son of the naval commander blamed for the disastrous result of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the battle goes on - and on and on.

The retired Wilmington lawyer and his family have been fighting for decades to have Adm. Husband E. Kimmel - who has been dead for 45 years - exonerated of the charge that he was derelict in his duty that infamous Sunday, 62 years ago today.

Supported by the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the family contends that Kimmel was unfairly "scapegoated" for a washtub of blunders committed by military and civilian officials that led to near-destruction of the U.S. Pacific Fleet by Japanese planes on Dec. 7, 1941.

The family thought it had won its battle in 2000 when Congress, in enacting a defense appropriations bill, voted to restore Kimmel to the four-star rank he once held. The same bill called for Walter C. Short, Army commander at Pearl Harbor, to be restored to his former rank as three-star general.

Then came a slow letdown.

First, the Clinton administration failed to act. And now the Bush administration is saying adamantly that it won't act, either.

At 82, Edward Kimmel is frustrated but not ready to quit. Like Winston Churchill, he vows to "never, never, never, never give up."

"They've been letting this hang in limbo, thinking I'm going to die," he said.

But he said there is a whole line of Kimmels ready to take his place if he falters. His son and a nephew are already on deck.

The nephew, Thomas K. Kimmel Jr., a former FBI agent, said: "There's a lot more of us coming in train here. I have three kids. They are all conversant with this. The beat goes on."

The official verdict of the U.S. military has always been that Kimmel and Short were most responsible for letting the United States get caught by surprise in the Pearl Harbor attack, which plunged America into World War II.

At 7:55 on a blue morning, 353 Japanese torpedo planes, bombers and fighters appeared over the fleet, which was anchored in home port.

In two hours, the Japanese sank or damaged 19 U.S. ships, and killed 2,400 people aboard the ships and on the ground.

The startled American public demanded to know how this had happened. Kimmel and Short, as the commanders in the field, were blamed and removed from command within days.

There was good reason for the dismissals, says historian Stanley Weintraub, author of the book Long Day's Journey into War: Pearl Harbor and a World at War-Dec. 7, 1941.

"I think that Kimmel and Short were both guilty of dereliction of duty," the former Pennsylvania State University professor said. "They paid no attention to all the signs around them, and they deserved being cashiered. I don't think they can put the blame on anybody else."

The case against the commanders has always been that they failed to take full precautions after receiving signals of Japanese intent to attack the United States somewhere in the Pacific.

A Nov. 27, 1941, message from Army Gen. George C. Marshall, back in Washington, had said specifically: "This is to be considered a war warning."

Kimmel, as commander of the fleet, was faulted for failing to maintain long-range, 360-degree air patrols around Hawaii. He also was criticized for letting his battleships, cruisers and destroyers be lined up like silhouettes on a target range.

But there is another side to the story.

Officials in Washington held out on Kimmel and Short. They even had intelligence that an attack might come on Dec. 7 at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time - close to the actual hour of assault. They didn't pass it along.

A Naval Court of Inquiry said in 1944 that Kimmel had done what he could with information he had. But Adm. Ernest J. King overruled the panel and found Kimmel guilty of dereliction.

The Pentagon, long opposed to persistent efforts to rescue Kimmel and Short from historical disrepute, has taken the view that they can't be let off the hook even if others also made mistakes.

"Overturning decisions made more than 50 years after the events should only be done in light of extraordinary evidence, which, unfortunately, the present case does not provide," David S.C. Chu, the Pentagon's undersecretary for personnel and readiness, said in a July 2002 letter to Edward Kimmel.

White House chief of staff Andrew H. Card Jr., writing to U.S. Rep. Michael Castle (R., Del.), a Kimmel family ally, agreed.

Kimmel and Short "committed errors of judgment," Card said, and "as commanders of the scene, they retain plenary accountability. . . . [They] were not victims of unfair official actions."

Pro-Kimmel forces say, however, that they have come up with exactly the sort of extraordinary new evidence that Chu had in mind.

It's a document from before the war found at the National Archives by historian Michael Gannon, a retired University of Florida professor who advocates Kimmel's exoneration.

Gannon, author of the book Pearl Harbor Betrayed: The True Story of a Man and a Nation Under Attack, says the document discloses additional vital information that was withheld from Kimmel.

Kimmel had no reason to fear an aerial torpedo attack on his ships because the water at Pearl Harbor was so shallow - 30 to 40 feet, he said. In military history, there had never been an attack in less than twice that depth.

What he discovered, Gannon said, was an intelligence report from a U.S. naval attache in England that the British had successfully tested an air-dropped torpedo in shallow water - five months before Pearl Harbor.

"If the British could do it, by God, the Japanese could do it," Gannon said. "Adm. Kimmel was denied that significant information."

Every day, armed with this new weapon, Edward Kimmel goes to what he calls the "war room" in his expansive house in the art museum area of Wilmington. It is equipped with three desks, two computers, TV, fax machine and scanner.

A Harvard-trained lawyer who worked as a corporate counsel for DuPont Co., he knows how to present a case.

As did two brothers, he served in the Navy during World War II. His brother Manning, a submarine commander, was killed in battle.

What he wants is for his father to get back the two stars he lost when he retired.

When Husband E. Kimmel left the Navy, three months after his Pearl Harbor disgrace, he reverted from the "temporary" rank of full admiral to the "permanent" rank of rear admiral.

This was not uncommon. But after the war, Congress passed a law to let every admiral or general retain his temporary rank upon retirement. There were only two exceptions: Kimmel and Short.

In 2000, Congress made up for that. But it will take presidential action for the posthumous promotions to become reality.

The fact that the Kimmels have gotten this far is a testament to their extraordinary tenacity. Edward Kimmel, known as Ned, says he gets it from his father, who went to his grave in 1958 clawing to revive his reputation.

His father's oil portrait hangs in his dining room. The stern image of the proud sailor, dressed in his formal white uniform, with four stars on his golden shoulder boards, serves as a daily reminder of what the son sees as his family obligation.

"It's a matter of restoring my father's honor and reputation," he said. "There is absolutely not a nickel in it."

Contact staff writer Tom Infield at 610-701-7622 or at tinfield@phillynews.com.

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