Short History Of... - Pearl Harbor, Part 1 of 3

Episode Date: April 24, 2022

On December 7th 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, changed the course of the Second World War. Forcing the United States into a conflict they were reluctant to enter, the attack killed over 2,500 people. But was it an act of aggression, or desperation? How did the Japanese pull off such an audacious stealth attack? And how were the Americans so unprepared? This is episode 1 of a special 3-part Short History of Pearl Harbor. Written by Jo Furniss. With thanks to Professor Phillips O’Brien, author of How The War Was Won; Dr Takuma Melber, author of Pearl Harbor; and Steve Twomey, author of Countdown to Pearl Harbor.  For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available for Apple and Android users. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's December the 7th, 1941. 620 AM, in the twilight before sunrise, somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The waves are monstrous, gunmetal grey and pumping like pistons. Relentlessly they ram the ship. Even high on the deck of the aircraft carrier Akagi, icy spray rains down. On deck, Commander Mitsuo Fushida boards his plane, a Nakajima B-5N. The torpedo bomber is a warhorse, fast, capable, reliable. It wears an emblem of a red sun. Fushida smooths his moustache, which is styled in the manner of Adolf Hitler. He presses a finger to his hachimaki, a headscarf inscribed with the words,

Determined to Win. It was a gift from the crew of the Yakagi. He prays he will see their faces again. He then pulls down his goggles, starts his engine, and taxis to the runway. The conditions are challenging, for Shida times his take-off to coincide with the swell.

Choose the wrong moment, and the bomber will be sucked down by one of these monstrous waves. But he is an expert pilot. He gathers speed, feels the bow of the ship rise and soars into the sky. Fushida watches the rest of the bombers take off. One plunges into the ocean, but soon 183 planes assemble in a holding pattern. At his signal, they commence their journey of 230 miles, heading south in a V formation. He finds the sight of this first wave glorious, but as the miles tick by, nerves begin to gnaw. He needs his squadron to sneak up on Pearl Harbor.

If the Americans see the huge swarm of aircraft coming, this may be a fight to the death, but safely hidden in the clouds for the time being at least, Commander Fushida flies on. It's just after 7am. Two American soldiers are enjoying the sunrise at Kahuka Point, the northern tip of Oahu, the third largest Hawaiian island. They've been out since the early hours on a training exercise, learning to use some new kit called radar. They're thinking of packing up their equipment when Private George Elliott spots something unusual on the screen.

He calls over Private Joseph Lockhart, who agrees that it's strange. The radar has picked up a blip that looks like an aircraft, 137 miles to the north. Private Elliot wants to call it in, but Private Lockhart twiddles the controls and says, the radar must be broken. The blip on the screen is so huge, it would have to have been made by a massive squadron. Elliot doesn't hesitate any longer. He alerts his headquarters at Fort Shafter, but is told to wait because the operator has to fetch his superior officer. Minutes later they get a response. Lockhart takes the call.

Minutes later, they get a response. Lockhart takes the call. Elliot tries to interject and insists that it's the largest massive aircraft he's ever seen on the radar. But the lieutenant at Information Center tells them not to worry about it. He's expecting a flight of B-17s to arrive from San Francisco. That explains the blip on the radar. Elliot frowns at his screen. This blip looks like more than a few B-17s to him, but Lockhart can only shrug. He got his orders. Privates Elliot and Lockhart watch the mass of aircraft

grow larger as it moves closer to Pearl Harbor. Commander Mitsuo Fushida pulls back the glass canopy of his Nakajima B-5N bomber and fires his pistol into the air. The cloud has cleared, and below him is paradise. Dusky hills, turquoise seas, golden beaches, and the clover-shaped outline of Pearl Harbor. The American fleet is lined up like the little models he used to train his pilots for this moment. He can see battleship row as clear as crystal. But there are no patrols, no anti-aircraft guns, nothing between him and his target.

At 7.49am, Fushida picks up his radio and sends a message to his entire squadron of 183 bombers and fighters. Toe to toe. It means attack. They have taken the American forces at Pearl Harbor completely by surprise. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a springboard that pitched the United States into the Second World War. Causing the deaths of over 2,400 Americans and 129 Japanese, it brought the conflict in Europe and the Pacific to the door of the United States. But why did the Japanese strike in December 1941?

Was it an act of aggression or desperation? How did the Americans fail to see the Japanese coming? And after the smoke cleared, how did this audacious attack alter the trajectory of the war and the fates of two nations? My name is Paul McGann, and this is part one of a special three-part short history of Pearl Harbor. It's November the 26th, 1941, twelve days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. A huge fleet has amassed in Hitokapu Bay, a natural port in the Kurilas Islands north of Japan. On board one of the aircraft carriers is Commander Mitsuo Fushida, an experienced fighter pilot who is there to lead the mission.

A hero of the Japanese conflict against China, he has one goal, to coordinate a spectacular aerial attack on the US Pacific Fleet. After months of preparation, including technological advances that will shock the world, the Japanese are ready to launch Operation Hawaii. The fleet sets sail, heading north, into the most treacherous region of the Pacific. The Japanese call this mobile strike force the Kido Butai, an armada on such a scale that it's been hidden even from their own people on the mainland. If they were to see it, word would get out that Japan is mobilizing.

Only a select few in Tokyo know about the mission. Emperor Hirohito, plus a handful of military commanders. That's it. The operation has been meticulously planned in top secret. It's ambitious. Audacious. Some would say absurd. Some would say absurd.

Dr. Takumo Melba, a Japanese-German academic, is the author of the book Pearl Harbor. Operation Hawaii was only one part of a major attack, not only on the U.S. Pacific fleet, but also on other Western colonial powers stationed in Asia. Without the Pearl Harbor attack or without keeping secrecy, the whole overall operation would have failed. This was pretty clear. So this would, in the end, maybe mean that the Japanese would have to withdraw troops from continents of China as well. And worst case scenario would have been the end of Japan's maritime power

already in late 1941. So the operation was at that time a revolutionary one, super modern operation. With the intention of ensuring Japan's control of the region, and their dominance of the sea, the fleet sails on until their homeland disappears behind the horizon. For Commander Fushida, this is a point of no return, an opportunity for him to once again take center stage in the theater of war. But faced with a vast expanse of frigid ocean, some of his pilots despair that they are never coming home. Many Japanese say they should not, cannot take on the might of America. The men who want war are known in Tokyo as Hawks, those who oppose it are doves. One of the doves is a man named Admiral Yamamoto, the commander-in-chief of the Japanese Navy. He speaks fluent English. He studied at Harvard. He once hitchhiked across America.

Yamamoto is surrounded by hawks, men like Fushida, who are dizzy for war after years of military triumphs in China and even Soviet Russia. But Yamamoto thinks Japan is foolish to pick a fight with an industrial powerhouse like the United States. It's ironic then that Yamamoto is the chief architect of the bold attack on Pearl Harbor, against his better judgment. Professor Phillips O'Brien is the author of several books on World War II, including How the War Was Won. Admiral Yamamoto might be the single most interesting naval officer of the Second World War. He's worldly, he visits the United States, he goes to the U.S. Naval War College, so he has a good idea about the United States as a power. He understands what the United States is and how powerful it will be. He also spends a lot of the time before the Second World War breaks out arguing against getting into a war with the United States. into a war with the United States. To him, it's madness, so much so that actually, at one point,

it looks like disgruntled army officers or right-wingers might actually try to kill him because he's considered too much of a dove when it comes to America. However, when the consensus in the Japanese government turns towards attack, Yamamoto goes along with that attack. And he says, okay, I'm going to come up with the best attack possible. And so he is the driving force between the overall coordination of the Pearl Harbor attack. Even if he knows in the long run, it's probably a disaster. Even though he plans the attack, Yamamoto remains deeply conflicted about Japan's chance against America, but also the political tides that have led to this mission.

Yamamoto doesn't want to antagonize America, and yet he sends Commander Fushida and the rest of the fleet steaming across the Pacific to kick a hornet's nest. Steve Toomey is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of the book Countdown to Pearl Harbor. Japan had a very exaggerated sense of its importance and ambitions. People often think the Second World War started in 1939. It really didn't. It started in 1937 when Japan went to war with China. And Japan was still at war with China four years later.

It really wanted to be the Roman Empire of the Western Pacific. Much of East Asia was under Western control. The French had Indochina. The Dutch had what we now call Indonesia. The British had Malaya and Singapore and Hong Kong. And the United States had the Philippines as a result of the Spanish-American War. what we now call Indonesia. The British had Malaya and Singapore and Hong Kong. And the United States had the Philippines as a result of the Spanish-American War. And Japan argued that we need to get rid

of these Western powers. They don't belong here. And so the Japanese had a good issue, but their solution was not very pleasant. They wanted to substitute themselves for those Western powers because they considered themselves superior, certainly to the Chinese.

For the last three years, conflict in Europe has been raging. By 1941, the French and the Dutch are overrun by the Nazis, meaning that their colonial assets in the Pacific are ripe for the picking. America knows that Japan is watching Southeast Asia with envious eyes. Japanese troops continue to advance in Hunan

and units are engaged in a converging movement on the Chinese positions on the south bank of the Mi River. Already some detachments have reached the north bank. They say the Chinese forces opposing the Japanese consist of ten divisions and they're expected to make a firm stand. Heavy artillery duels are going on most of the day and every night, and the flat countryside is almost hidden behind the smoke screen. There's still a war in the east. Franklin Roosevelt ordered the fleet to move from the west coast to the island of Oahu, which is where Pearl Harbor is.

And he did it as a deterrent. It was a loaded gun pointed at the head of the Japanese, basically saying, if you continue this sort of behavior, you'll have to deal with us. But President Franklin D. Roosevelt underestimates the hawks, fearless men like Commander Fushida. Roosevelt's decision to move the U.S. Pacific fleet is interpreted by Tokyo not as a deterrent, but as a threat. And that impression is compounded by Roosevelt's next decision, to place Japan under economic sanctions. The United States is the Saudi Arabia of the world.

In 1941, it supplied most of the world's oil and Japan got most of its oil from North America. Now, why he embargoes oil on Japan, which is an extremely serious thing to do, is because the Japanese move into Vietnam, South Vietnam, which at that point was part of the French Empire. What Roosevelt seems to believe, and we always have to be very careful because Roosevelt's incredibly cagey politician, is that this is Japan working in tandem with Germany, extending their alliance, acting together, and that the Japanese are sort of doing the Germans' work in Asia. And I think that's why he doesn't react to it as if it's just a Japanese move. He reacts to it as if it's a Japanese and German move.

The oil sanctions forced Japan into an act of desperation. The majority of the military had an interest in winning the war against China. And they would have done everything possible to win this war. And they needed access to oil to win the war, to keep tanks moving and to keep battleships moving in the Pacific. America embargoes the oil supply to stop Japan from invading Southeast Asia. But now the only way for Japan to get its oil is to invade Southeast Asia. And to do that, Commander Fushida needs to put the U.S. Pacific fleet out of action.

The United States was the only other power in the Pacific that could do anything about it. The Dutch had been overrun by the Germans. The French had been overrun by the Germans. And as you know, the British had their hands full all alone in Western Europe. And only the United States, which had a large fleet in the Pacific, could do anything to the Japanese by way of deterrence. And Roosevelt's policy was to get them to stop being such violent aggressors. If you need resources, let's do it in a peaceful way and negotiate about it. Often people say, well, there you go. The U.S. caused the war by depriving them of their oil. That's sort of like blaming the police for arresting the perpetrator.

I think Roosevelt in some ways thought that actually what it would do is force them to back down because otherwise they'd then have to attack the United States and start a war they can't win. them to back down because otherwise they then have to attack the United States and start a war they can't win. So I think, is he willing to risk war with Japan? Yes. He also thinks it's going to back down, but he's primarily doing this to, I think, aimed at keeping Germany in check as well. This is all part of, in his mind, a German engineered plot and he is most concerned with Germany. So on November the 26th, 1941, Commander Fushida is on a mission. He must destroy the US fleet at Pearl Harbor, put the Americans out of action in the Pacific,

and leave Japan free to invade Southeast Asia and get the oil. But the first step of Fushida's long-term plan depends entirely on the next 12 days. The Kidubutai fleet must stay hidden while it crosses the Pacific. The Japanese must also prevent codebreakers in Washington and Hawaii from catching wind of the fleet. And then Fushida can play his leading role in the greatest military heist since the greeks stole into troy in a wooden horse it's november the 26th 1941 the japanese fleet needs to stay invisible for the next 12 days and 3000 miles.

That's a tall order. The Kido Butai Mobile Force boasts six aircraft carriers, including Yakagi, from which Commander Fushida will launch his attack. There are 360 aircraft on board. Torpedo bombers, like his Nakajima B-5N, plus fighter planes and dive bombers. In addition there are two battleships, three cruisers and nine destroyers acting as escorts, plus seven fuel tankers and three submarines. The Armada is exposed while crossing the vast expanse of the Pacific.

If it is spotted, they will be drawn into a sea battle. If the Americans are waiting for them at Pearl Harbor, Commander Fushida will fly into an ambush. It was absolutely clear that the whole Pearl Harbor attack was a high-risk operation, and the only chance was surprise. attack was a high-risk operation and the only chance was surprise and also surprise attacks combined with a concentration of the whole naval power of Japanese navy. Although they've been training for months, the sailors and pilots do not know where they're headed when they leave Japan. Like the rest of the world, they assume it is Southeast Asia.

Like the rest of the world, they assume it is Southeast Asia. Only once they are deep into the Northern Pacific are they informed of their remote destination. Even then, the crew is forbidden from throwing trash overboard, for fear of anything incriminating being picked up by US or British patrol boats. There is no radar, so the fleet sails blind. They cannot put up reconnaissance aircraft in case the pilots get lost and have to radio the ship to ask for a location, that would of course give away their position to anyone listening in. As they sail through the treacherous seas with no idea of what lies ahead, they live in fear of being spotted by enemy aircraft or passenger

liners. On one occasion, their hearts are in their mouths when they see a cruise ship in the distance, but if it notices the fleet, it does not radio a warning. For the most part, they have the wintry wastes of the Northern Pacific all to themselves. Even so, the stealth approach is a huge risk. It's an interesting thing. When an operation is usually considered to be particularly daring or risky, that means it has a significant chance of failure and therefore is actually being attempted in a way

that is unnecessary or can be counterproductive. Now, Pearl Harbor is a great example of this. Japan is doing something very difficult in the sense that they're trying something that hadn't been tried before. They're using carriers to attack ships at harbor, thousands of miles from their home base. So they really are attempting something quite extraordinary. The fleet maintains radio silence. It receives incoming messages with orders from Tokyo and intelligence from contacts in Hawaii. But for its entire journey, it does not radio back even once. Any outgoing signals would light it up like a beacon.

And to further throw the enemy off the scent, the Japanese broadcast fake radio signals that suggest their ships are headed south. Everyone has assumed the Japanese will strike Southeast Asia. And so the Imperial Navy plays along with this misconception. It just would be almost impossible to imagine an attack on Pearl Harbor being part of that war breaking out. If the war is going to break out, it will begin with an attack down from Japan to the south,

down to the Philippines, down to Singapore. The key thing for the Japanese is to get oil, and they're going to have to go to what is then called the Dutch East Indies, which is today Indonesia, and they're going to get the oil. So when intercepted radio signals appear to show Japanese ships moving south, towards the oil, not one of the Allied intelligence agencies that are monitoring the fleet's movements smells a rat.

The man who could scupper Commander Fushida's plans is Lieutenant General Walter Short, the head of the US Army in Hawaii. On November 27, 11 days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, he strides across the tarmac of Wheeler's airfield. He is responsible for the defense of the US Pacific Fleet stationed in Oahu. He commands 45,000 soldiers, but today he is worried. Short is confident that the US will soon be at war with Japan. And the Pacific Fleet, his responsibility, is stationed on an island that is home to 150,000 Japanese residents.

There are more Japanese than American troops. There are more Japanese than ethnic Hawaiians, even. And Short believes that each one of the Japanese is loyal to Japan, even if their homeland is America. oil to Japan, even if their homeland is America. A Hawk fighter plane is towed onto the runway, making Short break his stride. He slaps its flank as it passes, as though it's a fine, thoroughbred horse. Under his command, his men are moving the planes onto the tarmac, where they can be observed. Soon they're lined up, wingtip to wingtip.

This means they are outside the protection of the aircraft hangars. It's a risk, but Short thinks the Japanese community will sabotage his aircraft given half a chance. So he won't give them that chance. give them that chance. They really seem to think that the greatest immediate threat to Pearl Harbor in case of war would have been espionage or sabotage. Japanese spies operating on Pearl Harbor by individuals or small groups trying to sabotage American equipment. And that absolutely seems, in many ways, a greater concern from them immediately than a carrier attack. So Short does something that seems rational to him, which is he takes American aircraft from dispersed

positions around the airfield where they would have been safe from air attack. And what he does is he brings them closer to the main airstrip in mass groups, keeps them farther from the wall. You can theoretically protect them from espionage, or you can protect them from sabotage better. But what you've done is you've made them much more easier to destroy from air attack. In some respects, Lieutenant General Walter Short is right. There is a Japanese spy operating on Oahu. Only the spy isn't interested in sabotaging US aircraft. He is a cog in a much bigger war machine. The spy doesn't know Commander Fushida, but he's feeding intelligence on a daily basis

right back to the Kiributai, where Fushida is planning his strike. I would call him actually the eye of the Japanese attackers. And without him, the whole attack would have been impossible. A young Japanese man enters the Shuncho-ro tea house on Makanani Drive. A geisha recognizes him and shows him to his usual table by the window that has a view of a Pearl Harbor. As the man is a regular, the geisha knows him as Tadashi Morimura, a secretary at the Japanese consulate. But his real name is Takeo Yoshikawa.

The diplomat is also a spy. He orders a whiskey, and then another. Yoshikawa is such a good customer that the owner of the tea house lets him stay over if he's had too much to drive home. Some nights he sleeps on the roof terrace, which has a telescope and a perfect view of the port. Like a certain famous fictional spy, Yoshikawa is fond of drinking and women, and he likes to mix business with pleasure. This is a very interesting story. It sounds a little bit like a James Bond story, maybe, as a spy.

But he was able also to come very close to important American persons stationed in Pearl Harbor. He got a close insight into the everyday lives of persons responsible for the U.S. Pacific Fleet and for the troops stationed there. Every day, Yoshikawa performs his duties at the Japanese consulate in order to keep up appearances. He then goes out and spends the rest of the day as a tourist. He conducts his espionage while hiding in plain sight. He takes long drives around the island, passing Wheeler's Field, where Lieutenant General Short is moving planes onto the tarmac for safekeeping.

He takes his girlfriends on pleasure flights and maps the military installations of Oahu from the air. He goes on a glass-bottomed boat trip to check for torpedo nets. Later in his memoirs, he will even claim that he swims underwater across the harbor using a reed straw like a snorkel to breathe, and that he takes on side hustles as a gardener or driver to get close to American military personnel, win their confidence, and pump them for information. Steve Toomey. We have to appreciate that in 1941, there were no satellites in the sky peering down and taking high-resolution photographs of individual cars, as we can do today. We had no sophisticated listening devices, giant dishes that could pick up radio signals,

which meant two things. One, that when the Japanese set sail for Hawaii, they had no idea whether the fleet was going to be there when they got there. And two, it made the reliance on the spy even greater. They needed his eyes to see what they were sailing toward. He provided regular data to them about which ships were in harbor, where they were anchored, and whether the Americans were conducting aerial reconnaissance, and whether there were barrage balloons floating over the ships.

And so he was providing essential information about the status of the fleet. Takeo Yoshikawa may not have a license to kill, but he certainly has a steely streak. Back in 1937, he received a personal letter of thanks from Adolf Hitler for helping to locate British transport ships off West Africa, allowing the Nazis to sink them. For his mission in Oahu, Yoshikawa does not know about the Kido Butai. In Oahu, Yoshikawa does not know about the Kido Butai. But in the days leading up to Operation Hawaii, Yoshikawa sends encrypted radio messages to Tokyo that are picked up on board the Akagi and passed to Commander Fushida. These dispatches are overheard by American cryptographers on Hawaii and in Washington

as well. In one telegram, Yoshikawa makes a rare mistake and refers to a surprise. If American intelligence had decoded that message in time, and gotten suspicious about the nature of this surprise, history might tell a different story. But they missed it. American code breakers do decipher hundreds, even thousands of messages. Paper spews day and night from decoding machines. But the clues are lost in the noise. As Commander Fushida steams across the Pacific Ocean towards his destiny at Pearl Harbor, both Washington and Hawaii missed the warning signs that Japan is on

the warpath. It is December 3, 1941, four days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Today is Commander Fushida's birthday, which he will spend on board the Akagi aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean. Two things happen on the day Fushida turns 39, both of which can be considered bad omens. First, the sea conditions are rough. They have been difficult for the whole 3,000 mile journey. But now that the Kiribati is on its final approach to Hawaii, the weather doubles down.

The wind speed is eighty miles per hour. The ships need to refuel, but it's too dangerous. Waves crash over the deck of the aircraft carrier so violently that a crew member is swept overboard to his death. Fushida mourns the man, but then the fleet steams on towards its destination. On the same day in Washington, Army intelligence officers intercept a message from Tokyo that stands out from the noise. ''Stop using the code-breaking machine,'' the Japanese embassy is told. ''Dest Destroy it completely.

U.S. intelligence is shaken by this message. It signals an escalation in hostilities, but they don't know why. The United States had done very little code-breaking of Germany, but quite effective code-breaking of Japan, particularly of their diplomatic cables. In the interwar period, they had gotten their hands on Japanese codebook and the Japanese had a system where you would send a message to and from one machine and the settings on the machine had to be the same for you to decipher the message. But the United States had found a way to break that traffic.

So they were able to read a lot of the Japanese foreign ministry codes coming to the Japanese embassy in Washington. Now, when it comes to Pearl Harbor, this is a tricky situation. On the one hand, the Japanese embassy in Washington is not being told of Pearl Harbor. Until the actual message

of the declaration of war comes, it's not clear that any of these tables actually indicate an attack is going to occur. Nonetheless, the Americans are so enamored of their ability to crack the Japanese code that they call their deciphered messages the magic. But while the British success in breaking the German Enigma Code in 1941 is widely credited with shortening the war. The magic in Washington proves to be a red herring for the Americans. Well, you might say it makes them a little too confident that they know what the Japanese are going to do because they've broken the code.

Because they were reading all this traffic and there hadn't been a sign that the Japanese were definitely going to attack, it might be that magic makes them a little too confident. But the Japanese have been very careful not to send certain vital information through were definitely going to attack, it might be that magic makes them a little too confident, but the Japanese have been very careful not to send certain vital information through the diplomatic cables. No one on the Japanese side knows that the Americans have been listening to their communications for weeks.

But they maintain a total radio silence about Pearl Harbor just in case. The period running up to December 1941 is tense, as Tokyo and Washington edge towards and back away from all-out war. The Japanese have two diplomats in Washington, Ambassador Nomura and Special Envoy Kurusu. These men are stuck between a rock and a hard place, Tokyo and Washington. Some Americans are suspicious of Caruso.

After all, he personally signed a pact with Nazi Germany and Italy the previous year. But now he's vocal about wanting to achieve peace, and even gives a soundbite to American news reporters. Gentlemen, you all know how difficult my mission is. But I'll do all I can to make it a successful one for the sake of two countries, the Bank and the United States. Nomura and Kurusu are awaiting orders from Tokyo. They have to respond to a letter from the U.S. Secretary of State,

which contains a list of demands. In return for reinstating the oil supply, the US wants Japan to pull out of China and Indochina. To give up their imperial ambitions. The diplomats relay the message to Tokyo, but they know the Japanese government will never give in to an ultimatum. They had to be negotiating all summer with the Japanese regarding the oil and their aggressive

behavior in the Pacific. And they were very odd negotiations because the US was not asking for anything. There was nothing that the United States could compromise on, really. It was, look, don't invade people. Respect their borders. If you have issues, negotiate them. Don't kill them. So all of the giving and the stopping and the surrendering and the compromising were

going to be on the Japanese side. They don't want to give up what they have. They don't want to admit that by 1941, they've put the country in an almost impossible situation with the US oil embargo. And so it's almost like they resort to war because they can't admit that they have to back down and no one's willing to stop it.

In Washington, Nomura and Karusu don't know about Operation Hawaii. They follow instructions from Tokyo, never realizing that the peace talks are a charade. The Japanese are stalling for time to allow Commander Fushida to get into position and launch the aerial attack that will change everything. The Japanese attack fleet had sailed on November 26th, so the chance that things were going to stop at that point were growing less and less with each mile the fleet put behind it on its way to Hawaii. President Franklin D. Roosevelt doesn't know that Operation Hawaii is underway either.

He thinks he still has a chance to avert war with Japan. On December the 6th, he decides to send an olive branch to Tokyo. He sits down at his writing desk and addresses a letter to His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, Hirohito. I address myself to Your Majesty at this moment, he writes, in the fervent hope that your majesty may, as I am doing, give thought in this definite emergency to ways of dispelling the dark clouds. I am confident that both of us have a sacred duty to prevent further death and destruction in the world. to prevent further death and destruction in the world. The letter is intended to be a dove of peace, but it is swooped on by the hawks of Tokyo. Japanese Army commanders order their telegraph office to delay delivery of Roosevelt's message by half a day. They know what the US President does not. By tomorrow, Commander Fushida will be in position and Pearl Harbor will be under attack.

I think it was a very heartfelt letter, a very father-to-father letter, and I don't think it would have made a difference. I think they had cast the die and were going to take their chances. So now war is inevitable. Despite the peace talks, the United States has already picked a side. Roosevelt is supplying ships, planes, tanks and ammunition to the British and their allies. He compares this military aid to lending a hosepipe to a neighbor whose house is on fire. this military aid to lending a hosepipe to a neighbor whose house is on fire. You lend it,

Roosevelt says, so your neighbor can put out the flames that threaten to burn down your own house. And so our country is going to be what our people have proclaimed it must be the arsenal of democracy. Our country is going to play its full part. And when, no, I didn't say if, I said when, dictatorships disintegrate for the good of humanity. The surprise of December 7th was not that the country went to war. It's where it went to war. The White House had told Congress not to adjourn for the Christmas holidays because it might be called upon to vote on a declaration of war.

Newspapers were full of the threat of war due to the failure of negotiations. There were reports of Japanese fleet movements. In other words, the country knew that the days of technical peace were about to end. As the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill observes, no one can stop it. Like the Mississippi, it just keeps rolling along. Roosevelt, I believe, has wanted to get in the Second World War probably since he has been re-elected in November 1940. He certainly, from the moment he's re-elected,

starts preparing the United States for war. And I think, personally, he wants to get in the war. However, he also believes the American people do not share that view. And therefore, he's very cautious. What he wants to do is to be eventually be able to go to the American people and say, we have to go into this war because we were dragged into it. to go into this war because we were dragged into it. By December 6, 1941, it's clear from the magic that America is being dragged into war. The amount of Japanese chatter rises. Codebreakers in Washington are drowning in intelligence.

But the magic amounts to crumbs scattered all over the ground. There is no clear path to follow. On December the 7th, magic reveals the most highly anticipated and feared message of the last few months. Magic means the United States can actually decode the message telling the Japanese ambassador to declare war on the United States on December 7th in the morning.

They decode that probably at the same time if not before the Japanese decode it. So they have the message actually there, ready to go, but it doesn't get up the chain of command and out to Pearl Harbor in time. It is 7.49 a.m. on December 7th. A beautiful Sunday morning on Oahu. Commander Fushida flies with the glass canopy of his Nakajima B-5N bomber open, breathing in the tropical air. After a few moments, he sends up a dark blue flare. This is the signal to stage a stealth attack. But the commander of the fighter squadron fails to respond. He hasn't moved into position

as planned. Perhaps he did not see the flare. Fushida hesitates. He then decides, no, the fighter commander didn't see the signal, and so Fushida sends up a second flare. But two flares is the command to attack, and Fushida realizes his mistake at once. One by one, the fighters fall into a steep dive. Commander Fushida curses himself. He has fumbled the ball on the line. They have attacked eleven minutes earlier than planned. They have wasted their advantage. But no matter.

Fushida also goes into a dive. When he makes out the American ships lined up along battleship row, he releases his first torpedo. He banks steeply and sees a water spout that suggests it hit home. Smoke rises from Pearl Harbor. At 7.53 a.m. Fushida picks up his radio and cries, Tora, Tora, Tora. The code word stands for tiger, tiger, tiger. A predator that survives by ambushing its prey. After months of planning and 12 days of military and diplomatic stealth, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor is underway.

December 7, 1941 is a day that will end in glory for Commander Fushida, infamy for the Japanese and ignominy for one American, arguably the man who should have seen it coming. Next time, on this special short history of Pearl Harbor. The war warnings and missed messages

that lead the head of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral Husband Kimmel, to a day of infamy. Pearl Harbor is a moment where I think American hubris at its superiority, the self-cheerleading of so many in America was exploded by, literally, by torpedoes and bombs. It is an extraordinary thing to have pulled off Pearl Harbor, but all it's doing is signing the death knell of the Japanese empire. Pearl Harbor aside, we were going to be at war with Japan in a matter of hours anyway. So it was the surprise of the place and the surprise of the timing, not the surprise of the war.