Exactly. No matter what, they would have been contacted by the outside world, probably directly by Admiral Harris (the commander of the Pacific Fleet). 38 min

Exactly. No matter what, they would have been contacted by the outside world, probably directly by Admiral Harris (the commander of the Pacific Fleet). 38 minutes makes no sense at all unless they were really trying to figure out if they were under attack or not. They probably viewed this admission of error as being less embarrassing as not knowing that they weren't under attack when Japan released a statement within a few minutes saying it wasn't true. They look even more incompetent in that scenario.