Attack on Pearl Harbor

battle_name=Attack on Pearl Harbor

Breaking off negotiations

Part of the Japanese plans for the attack included breaking off negotiations with the United States 30 minutes before the attack. 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.

Related Topics:
Washington - Kichisaburo Nomura - Saburo Kurusu - Indochina

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Just before the attack, a long 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 just before the attack was scheduled to begin (that is, 1 PM Washington time). Because of decryption and typing delays, the Embassy personnel could not manage to do so. The long message breaking off negotiations was delivered well after the intended time, and well after the attack had actually begun.

Related Topics:
Tokyo - Purple - Secretary of State - Cordell Hull

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The Japanese records admitted into evidence during a Congressional hearing show that the Japanese had not even written a declaration of war until after they heard of the successful attack on Pearl Harbor. The two-line declaration of war was finally delivered to Ambassador Grew about ten hours after the attack was over. He was allowed to transmit it to the United States where it was received late Monday afternoon.

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The United States had decrypted both parts of the final message well before the Japanese Embassy had managed to finish. It was that decryption of the second part which prompted General George Marshall to send his famous warning to Hawaii that morning. It was actually delivered, by a young Japanese-American cycle messenger, to General Walter Short at Pearl Harbor several hours after the attack had ended. The delay was due to the fact that General Marshall was out riding when the Navy requested to use the Army's communications system, then to difficulties with the Army's communications so it was finally transmitted by commercial cable, and had somehow lost its "urgent" marking during its travels.

Related Topics:
George Marshall - Walter Short

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