I've always loved World War 2 movies and books, ever since I was little. History and wars and things have always been my love.
However, I just recently heard this. Apparantly, before Pearl Harbor, the Japanese gave the U.S. some sort of ultimatum and demanded something. The Japanese, however, didn't take into account the time difference, and attacked before the U.S. had time to act.
Anybody else know anything about this??
Isn't it spelled "Pearl Harbor"?....but no, I haven't heard that before.
It was delivered at the same hour as the attack was taking place. That was there plan.
SEKYscout Wrote:Isn't it spelled "Pearl Harbor"?....but no, I haven't heard that before.
Yep, I wasn't even thinking
This is the part of the article that I believe your referring to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor
Breaking off negotiations
Part of the Japanese plan for the attack included breaking off negotiations with the United States 30 minutes before the attack began. Diplomats from the Japanese Embassy in Washington, including the Japanese Ambassador, Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura, and special representative Saburo Kurusu, had been conducting extended talks with the State Department regarding the U.S. reactions to the Japanese move into Indochina in the summer (see above).
In the days before the attack, a long 14-part message was sent to the Embassy from the Foreign Office in Tokyo (encoded with the PURPLE cryptographic machine), with instructions to deliver it to Secretary of State Cordell Hull at 1 p.m. Washington time (In fact, Japan halted all further communication with the U.S. 30 minutes before the attack was scheduled to begin). The last part arrived not long before the attack but, because of decryption and typing delays, and because Tokyo had neglected to inform them of the crucial necessity to deliver it on time, Embassy personnel failed to deliver the message at the specified time. The last part, breaking off negotiations was delivered to Secretary Hull several hours after the Pearl Harbor attack:
Obviously it is the intention of the American Government to conspire with Great Britain and other countries to obstruct Japan's efforts toward the establishment of peace through the creation of a new order in East Asia ... Thus, the earnest hope of the Japanese government to adjust Japanese-American relations and to preserve and promote the peace of the Pacific through cooperation with the American Government has finally been lost
The United States had decrypted the last part of the final message well before the Japanese Embassy managed to, and long before a fair typed copy of the decrypt was finished. It was decryption of the last part with its instruction for the time of delivery which prompted General George Marshall to send the famous warning message to Hawaii that morning. It was actually delivered, by a young Japanese-American cycle messenger, to Gen. Walter Short at Pearl Harbor several hours after the attack had ended. The delay was because of an inability to locate General Marshall after decryption and translation of the 14th part (he was out for a morning horseride), trouble with the Army's long distance communication system, a decision not to use Navy facilities to transmit it, and various troubles during its travels over commercial cable facilities. Somehow its "urgent" marking was misplaced during its travels and it was delayed by several additional hours.
Japanese records, admitted into evidence during Congressional hearings on the attack after the war, established that the Japanese government had not written any declaration of war until after they heard of the successful attack on Pearl Harbor. That two-line declaration of war was finally delivered to U.S. Ambassador Grew in Tokyo about 10 hours after the attack was over. He was allowed to transmit it to the United States where it was received late Monday afternoon.
BFritz Wrote:I've always loved World War 2 movies and books, ever since I was little. History and wars and things have always been my love.
However, I just recently heard this. Apparantly, before Pearl Harbor, the Japanese gave the U.S. some sort of ultimatum and demanded something. The Japanese, however, didn't take into account the time difference, and attacked before the U.S. had time to act.
Anybody else know anything about this??
I would suggest you pick up a copy of Tora Tora Tora on dvd. And if you really are interested go to Pearl visit the Arizona Memorial, I can vouch for it and ground zero being the most somber sites I have ever visited.
The day I was there, we saw a Military funeral and after the services divers were taking the ashes of a survivor who had passed away and placed them on board the USS Arizona.