
SBD Douglas Dauntless, 1940
27 November, 1941 – Cordell Hull tells Stanley Hornbeck (Far Eastern adviser) that he has washed his hands of the affair and it is now “in the hands of the Army and Navy.” An intelligence message is sent out to all commands: “IF HOSTILITIES CANNOT – repeat – CANNOT BE AVOIDED THE UNITED STATES DESIRES JAPAN COMMIT THE FIRST ACT.” Although, Hawaii received the message that indicated Japan’s strike was expected to hit..”PHILIPPINES, THAILAND OR KRA PENINSULA OR BORNEO.”
28 November – FDR tried to stall negotiations while the Far East prepared for attacks. A message was sent to all military commanders to prepare for war – every man to be told to remain alert and vigilant at their battle stations.
30 November – Churchill cabled Roosevelt that he should warn Japan that the United States would declare war in the event of any further aggression, including British colonies.
1 December – FDR agreed to Churchill’s cable and told Lord Halifax that any attack on British or Dutch possessions, “we shall be all be in this together.” The Japanese Emperor did not dissent to Operation Z, so the military sent out the code signal Hinode Yamagata (Malaya and Philippine attack on scheduled date) for the Southern Army and the Pearl Harbor Strike Force received the code – Nitaka Yama Nobore (Climb Mount Nitaka).
2 December – Admiral Kimmel in Hawaii expressed concern over over the lack of intelligence on the location of the Japanese Combined Fleet. (In Holland, the Naval center had the Pacific Strike Force on their maps and the information was given to D.C.)

Indian Commonwealth troops arrive at Singapore, Nov.’41
3 December – the HMS “Prince of Wales” docked at Changi Naval Base and reported a ‘powerful naval force’ was at Malaya. Adm. Kimmel received “highly reliable information” from Naval Intelligence that failed to include the 2 decoded Japanese messages that clearly showed their interest in the Hawaiian Islands.
4 December – the US Naval Governor on Guam was ordered to destroy all classified material. The Cheltenham Naval listening post in Maryland heard the Japanese message, EAST WIND RAIN, and passed it on to Commander Safford. No action was taken and all copied of the message somehow disappeared. The Japanese Strike Force, due north of Midway, refueled.
5 December – the carrier “Lexington” left Hawaii to ferry aircraft to Midway.
6 December – south of Cape Cambodia, 19 Japanese transports escorted by cruisers and destroyers was reported by a Royal Australian Air Force Hudson pilot before he was shot down. London put the entire Far East Command on alert. On Formosa, 27 transports filled with the 48th Division of the Imperial Army set sail for the Philippines as 400 pilots of the Imperial Navy’s 11th Air Fleet received final briefings for their bombing runs on the American B-17s at Luzon. Messages between Consul Kita and Tokyo were being ignored as insignificant and would not be translated by the US until Monday (8 Dec.). 2130 hours – FDR was handed the message that stated Japan rejected the US 10-point proposal and says outright, “This means war,” but he did NOT wish to alert or wake Adm. Stark or Gen. Marshall.
Member of the Japanese military were told that they were embarking on a great crusade to be free, “a hundred million Asians tyrannized by 3 hundred thousand whites.” Japanese civilians slept, unaware of the plans of their 169 ships and over 2,000 aircraft ready to set the Pacific sky ablaze.
Click on images to enlarge.
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Political cartoon of the times_____

the political side of Dr. Seuss
Click on images to enlarge.
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Farewell Salutes –
Ivan Billcliff – Hamilton, NZ ; RNZ Air Force # 411147, Cpl, WWII
Gene Cross – Belle Glade, FL; Civilian employee of Fort Benning, GA, WWII
William Finlayson – British Columbia, Can; RC Air Force, WWII, tail gunner
Cal Hale – Glendale, AZ; US Army,Sgt. Major, 3 tours Vietnam, Bronze Star
David Johnson – Tolland, CA; USMC, Cpl, Vietnam, 3 Purple Hearts
Jim McDonald – Kennesaw, GA; US Army, WWII
Charles Pernice, Orange, CA; US Army Air Corps, WWII & Korea, Flt. engineer & gunner on B-29s
Thomas Richards – Virginia Bch, VA; USMC, Lt.Col., Vietnam
Donald Wolf – Wood River, IL; US Navy, WWII
Andrew Zamora – Seal Beach, CA; US Army, Korea, 187th RCT
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Reblogged this on Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News.
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Much appreciated!
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I am not surprised at all. In the same manner, Stalin refused to believe intelligence reports, including the famous Colonel Abel who had managed to infiltrate the German highest command. It’s in Marshal Zhukov’s memoir “The Secrets of War.”
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No sense having intelligence if you refuse to use it. (Jeez, I know a few kids that could use that advice, eh? haha)
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LOL True that! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, GP!
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I sincerely wish the same for you too, Dolly!
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Thank you very much, dear friend!
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Reblogged this on Truth Troubles.
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Thank you!!
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I have no comment on this material accept that it is not a surprise to me, the lack of Military/Political Intelligence. I will reblog this one for you Sir.
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For some reason, there are still people who refuse to believe it. Thank you for sharing it.
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That is one very powerful scary story, pity that history has shown it to be true.
One can only hope that American intelligence gets more respect in this day and age.
Unfortunately with the current situation in the world, western countries are still pandering to those who wish to alter the cultures and lifestyles, based on an ideology, cloaked as religion.
Ian
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US security was scorned for missing 9-11, but when they stepped up surveillance and investigations – they were scorned for invading privacy – they can’t win.
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There are always warnings, and they are not heard. My family member is in the war zone right now. What stronger warning you can expect? Still, she has been unprepared on many occasions, now struggling to rescue her relative which could be done when it wasn’t dangerous. People never learn, including me.
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It is breathtaking reading the run-up in diary form. It has clearly been inevitable for some time and yet they had none nothing in Malaya except put in a few signal lines.
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Looking back – it all seems so unreal, doesn’t it? Thank you for reading here today, Hillary.
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The whole political strategy on both sides was so convoluted, it’s a wonder they ever got down to doing anything. Great post!
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I total disaster, wasn’t it! No wonder Dr. Seuss jumped in with his political cartoons!! The politicians were already a joke.
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Yes indeed !!!! 🙂
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Have to admit I didn’t realize how much the US was forewarned regarding the Japanese attack. Seems a shame that government and military have nearly complete control over our lives and the lives of others. Do we prepare today’s youth for war games such as these through the games they play on their electronic devices?
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I believe WWII answers that question for you too. After WWI, the “war-to-end-all-wars, was over – everyone relaxed and military units were reduced, weapons got old, equipment went unused – and then – WWII. My own father, Smitty, told me that when he was first given a uniform and helmet – it was WWI style – if he had gone into combat like that – the odds of him coming home would have been greatly reduced. Do we really want to go to sleep and have it happen all over again?
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Please feel free to reblog Jason’s post. Maybe you can do something, too, to accentuate the CLICK HERE for the text of the booklet. Unfortunately, I don’t have a limitless supply !
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I’ll see what I can do. I will try my best.
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Please don’t feel any pressure at all !
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No pressure here ( believe me, I’ve had people pressure me to reblog!), I am just trying to be more chronological than I was my first time thru the war. It’s a beautiful 2-for-one story I will be proud to reblog, Anne.
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I have one of those posty notes on the wall by my desk to finish an essay on how FDR discretely prepared for WW 2. Some historians have accused him of taking no action in the pre WW 2 years. Actually he did but had to be pretty slick to initiate things as an isolationist republican congress would not fund such things and the mood of post WW 1 America was so anti war the entire military apparatus received very inadequate attention. My father was is the CCC’s in upper New England as a teen in the early 30’s. They were very regimented in routine and work so they already had boot camp in a sense in the decade prior to WW 2. Just one obscure example.
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And another excellent point, Carl, thank you for sharing it with us. Sometimes as I’m reading the data, I have the suspicions that FDR might not have been smart enough to come up with these things on his own. Was he? or was he just the puppet? Hull, Eleanor and most of his advisers were all “Hawks” – so – what do you think? Or should I await your article?
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I’ll work on it, may I submit article to you? That would be great.
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I would think it might be best for you to post it on your own site as an alternative to your normal humorous ones and then I would re-blog it. That way, you would receive 90% of the viewers. Perhaps at the end of the post make it clear that you are normally a cartoonist and invite them to check out the rest of your site. If you could put it together for in say 2 weeks – you would hit V-J Day.
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Excellent summary, gpcox. You did a great job hitting the major “war warnings”. 🙂 Thank you.
Regarding the December 4th refueling, the Japanese tanker Shiriya radioed on December 1st to the Japanese carrier strike force already at sea, “…she was “proceeding to a position 30.00 N, 154.20 E. Expect to arrive at that point on 3 December.” This message was intercepted and deciphered by OP-20-G. The National Archives has over 100 messages to and from the Japanese fleet that had been intercepted en route to Pearl debunking the fallacy that the Japanese maintained radio silence. They were squawking like chickens in a coop.
It also appears the information the Dutch had on the Japanese fleet’s location was supplied by Johann Ranneft after visiting ONI on December 1.
The “East winds, rain” coded transmission was intercepted by Ralph Briggs of the US Navy and properly reported…and as you say, all record of that event was destroyed.
I feel it is also important to note (while keeping in mind your insightful report is in summary form) that the USS Lexington task force had just returned days earlier from being sortied by Halsey to the seas NW of Pearl. He sensed the Japanese fleet was heading towards Pearl. However, CINCPAC ordered his fleet to return, presumably because FDR did not want Halsey’s fleet to find and engage the Japanese strike force.
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This is an excellent additional summary, Koji. I’m thrilled to know you’re out there with back-up facts and details! Thank you!!! 😉
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I don’t know what FDR was thinking. I don’t know what politicians today are thinking. Sometimes I wonder if they think at all. In that respect, the cartoon says a lot. Or perhaps they do think but, unlike us, they have lots of power hungry minions around to help confuse the issues.
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If I have a choice in your statements – I pick ALL of the above. And don’t forget the old stand-by line: “No matter what the question – the answer is Money!
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Oh, yes, that’s a good one!
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wow.. what a photo! womenlivinglifeafter50.com
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Thanks, Sue.
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What an amazing picture, GP.
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Thank you very much, Jacqui.
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I can’t really look up to someone who nicknamed Stallin “Uncle Joe”…
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It’s hard to condemn when we also have people who follow the wrong leaders blindly. Sometimes humans are too close to the forest to see a single tree….
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True!
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Yes , the US was an isolationist country before the Pearl Harbor attack . And then suddenly it wasn’t .
Japan was dominating Asia militarily ,their government now dominated by militarists , trying to control resources which their island nation did not have . Was FDR trying to cut off Japan from the rest of the world , and was that mainly out or racism and war-mongering ? Well, I respect your opinion and admire your research , so I’ll wait . I’m probably jumping the gun .
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I only put my personal opinions in the comments, Dan and I allow the readers to do the same, but when I’m answering the comments I think sometimes I may be guilty of having that old line stuck in the back of my mind – “No matter what the question – the answer always comes back to money!”
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Thank you for including the cartoon. I think political cartoons are so powerful. Wonder if politicians today ever look back at these wars and think, maybe there is a better way.
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I sure wish the political minds would learn something from all this! Power and money seem to be too intense for them to look past. Thank you for coming by today.
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Dear GP Cox
I see it like Dan in the first commentary here. It seems to me as it was seen as a collateral damage that these decisions ended the lives of so many people. Cynical isn’t it?!
Thanks for your brilliant documentation like always.
All the best
Klausbernd and Dina
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Collateral damage, to me, has to be calculated by some very cold people OR we wouldn’t be at war in the first place. To me – when the first man falls – that’s too many! Thank you for your opinions, Klausbernd & Dina – say hello to Siri and Selma there for me!
GP Cox
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Seems like there is no shortage of warfare in the world today.
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No there is NOT, Ron. I can continue to hope that some politician somewhere will learn their history and learn the lessons.
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In fairness to FDR , I think he could see the inevitability of US involvement in war and he could see the almost total unpreparedness of our armed forces . No doubt he moved the country toward war in political ways , but wouldn’t war have come one way or another ? I’m not one of those who think the military’s surprise at Pearl Harbor was a Roosevelt conspiracy . And I don’t think for a minute that 1930-40s Japan was the savior of Asia . European / American involvement in Asia is a separate issue , not a legitimate excuse for Japanese aggression .
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Why did FDR cut off Japan from the rest of world? I find it difficult to believe he was very concerned about Manchuria; back in those days, the rich (as he was) were educated with definite Aryan principles. The polls were showing that 65% of the US public considered the war in Europe as Europe’s own concern – he had no backing to go into Europe with our troops, plus he was at the point of illegally sending money and materiel to England on the LendLease program. And intimidation of Germany fell flat. Not looking good for FDR, but on the other side – we are trying to look back with 2014 eyes, so it is difficult to correctly determine what was in FDR’s head.
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I don’t think politicians have changed a bit…
What we see today is a power struggle just like in the 30s and 40s.
History repeats itself.
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Unfortunately – you speak the truth, Pierre. They seem incapable of learning from it – so, yes, it does repeat.
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The “East wind, rain” message: received, delivered, disappeared; such grievous behavior by trusted parties. I cannot fathom how anyone could be so cavalier with the lives of so many. No one ever should have been left in so vulnerable a position as they were at Pearl Harbor.
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Leads one to believe there was more at work here, doesn’t it? Thank you for commenting.
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It’s sad to think of how many decisions were made during the war that involved calculations that included ‘casualties’ as a variable.
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I have a lot of trouble reading those statistics, very cold. Thank you for including that point, Dan.
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We knew the Japanese were coming. We did everything we could to set ourselves up. The airfield with the planes lined up like fish in the barrel. Allowing our ships to be photographed and the pictures sent to the war room to be studied. Thinking who would attack us on Sunday morning. We were in la la land and the Japanese took advantage of our dream world.
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Thanks for giving your opinion, Barry. IMO – only the public were in lala land – the politicians had their own agendas – we wee almost as much as the Japanese public were in the dark.
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It is a shame but the politicians are still with agenda and we the public are in the land of the la la. Do you think the Japanese people would have been totally behind the war or just doing what the war lords told them to do>
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Oh wow, that’s a tough one. I do think as long as Japan was able to import the resources she needed to operate as a fairly major nation – no – the civilians would not have been behind them. Even the Emperor was not completely behind the idea – he had always wanted to be an astronomer – not a ruler.
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The Nelson touch … the good old ‘blind eye’; someone is playing for high stakes here.
Very handy sometimes but no fun for the poor uninformed expendables …
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Isn’t that the truth!! I get a severely twisted stomach when I read the politics – I could have made a blog by itself with the data I had for these two posts! Thanks for your comment.
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