Stop where two recollections cannot be reconciled
Identify conflicting source accounts, explain the basis for choosing among them or retaining uncertainty, and make the narrative’s degree of precision agree with that decision.
At Dawn We Slept
Gordon W. Prange & Donald M. Goldstein & Katherine V. Dillon · 19 weeksStop where two recollections cannot be reconciled
SHORT SOURCE EXCERPT“And there it rests to this day.”
Zacharias describes an early warning to Kimmel and identifies Poco Smith as a witness. Smith flatly denies that the meeting included a warning of an air attack; the authors state the conflict instead of supplying a reconciled conversation.
The narrative shows an evidentiary stopping point despite the importance of the alleged warning. Read beside the translation example, it demonstrates that different disputes warrant different degrees of confidence.
The source in context.
Remaining witnesses and competing reports complete the congressional phase. The narrative leaves one direct recollection conflict unresolved and distinguishes the final report from the richer underlying record.
Open this chapterWhat this example supports
The narrative shows an evidentiary stopping point despite the importance of the alleged warning. Read beside the translation example, it demonstrates that different disputes warrant different degrees of confidence.
Its limit
The unresolved status belongs to this account and its evidence horizon. Neither speaker's character, as evaluated by the authors, settles which recollection is correct.
Source & edition
Gordon W. Prange, in collaboration with Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon, At Dawn We Slept, supplied Penguin text with 1991 afterword.
Supplied text, lines 9834–9846. The short quotation is checked against the source.
Read the existing whole-source synthesis and all 24 ordered segment summaries, section maps, qualifications and gap reports. Checked all 81 numbered body headings against the contents, their source ranges, opening orientation and closing text, distinguishing photograph-caption inserts from narrative endings; checked the main ending and the separate afterword and source-apparatus boundaries. Read the complete retained example passages and their surrounding arguments, plus title-page, imprint and editorial-role disclosures. Verified all 24 consecutive segment source-input hashes and successful receipts. This is a source-checked editorial review using the prior machine reading, not a new second full-book reading, an independent model review or a historical fact audit.
Supplied Penguin text of the 1981 work, with the 1991 afterword; ISBN 9781101664216. The digital file's publication date is not independently established.