US President Donald Trump on Thursday startled Japan's prime minister by mentioning the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, a seemingly light-hearted remark sure to elicit unease in a country now a firm US…
AND they technically tried to warn the US about it, but the diplomat responsible for delivering the notice was late because of bureaucracy among other things! It was literally not even supposed to be a surprise attack!
The 14-part ultimatum message was encrypted from Japan, the embassy had to decrypt then translate into English. To preserve secrecy the embassy didn’t employ locals, and few of the embassy staff knew English so progress was slow. The instruction to deliver the message at 1pm also didn’t mention this was absolutely critical. The Ambassador arrived at the State Department over an hour late.
Meanwhile army intelligence had decrypted and translated the message much faster, but a litany of failures meant the warning of probable attack had to be sent by telegram - not even paying for priority service - and arrived at the base after the attack.
However, it was intended to be a surprise attack, and the declaration of war was only delivered ten hours later.
Pretty sure it was still going to be a surprise, just not zero warning. Iirc their goal was delivering the declaration minutes before the first planes arrived.
Pretty sure the Japanese told the rest of the Axis Powers of their plans
AND they technically tried to warn the US about it, but the diplomat responsible for delivering the notice was late because of bureaucracy among other things! It was literally not even supposed to be a surprise attack!
The 14-part ultimatum message was encrypted from Japan, the embassy had to decrypt then translate into English. To preserve secrecy the embassy didn’t employ locals, and few of the embassy staff knew English so progress was slow. The instruction to deliver the message at 1pm also didn’t mention this was absolutely critical. The Ambassador arrived at the State Department over an hour late.
Meanwhile army intelligence had decrypted and translated the message much faster, but a litany of failures meant the warning of probable attack had to be sent by telegram - not even paying for priority service - and arrived at the base after the attack.
However, it was intended to be a surprise attack, and the declaration of war was only delivered ten hours later.
Pretty sure it was still going to be a surprise, just not zero warning. Iirc their goal was delivering the declaration minutes before the first planes arrived.
…source?
Literally any history book, this is high-school level information. JFC
Japan declared war on the U.S. and the British Empire later that day (December 8 in Tokyo), but the declarations were not delivered until the next day
Literally every class I’ve ever taken, and every documentary I’ve ever seen has said it was a surprise attack.
Some documentaries suggest that the allies suspected an attack may be coming at some point, but they didn’t “know”.
So, no. Not literally every history book shows this as a pre-agreed upon attack.
Maybe not in American history books but any other history books, yes.