this ship. that ship. so many aircraft. he is outraged. not only of the japanese but we weren t prepared for this attack. oliver: there are those who believe that roosevelt knew in advance that pearl harbor was going to be bombed? roosevelt had no desire to be in a war against japan. he told winston churchill at one point prior to pearl harbor that a war against japan was a war in the wrong place and the wrong en enemy and the wrong session. he wanted to fight alongside the british in defeating naziism. 6700 miles away the japanese were launching a war of aggression. japan was a nation ruled by an emperor. a tradition dating back centuries. the real power was held by the military war lords. throughout the 1930s japan was a rapidly growing
the edge of war and diplomatic mission was equally as busy as diplomats try desperately to avoid war. on november 14 alived in san francisco smiling his toothy smile as he sang the old song of japanese friendship. on november he and the japanese ambassador were received by the president in the presence of the secretary of state. these two honorable men came to washington hoping to negotiate a diplomatic solution to the problems. oliver: but the special envoy didn t know that japanese prime minister had already decided to go to war if the negotiations weren t successful. their deadline, 29 november, 1941. tell us about what things were like for the japanese in the days leading up to the war? the militarists had a death grip literally on japan s future and the army that led
november 27 war winning message and orders initiated from the navy department were dispatched to go reenforce. as it is even now even politics can get in the way of intelligence sharing. kimmel never knew that general short had not gone on full alert while short thought that admiral kimmel had launched long distance aerial reconnaissance around the island of oahu which he had done. and so this was a great mistake that arose out of the old divisions between the army and the navy. by 6 december japan and the united states were in a collision course for war. that evening a troubled fdr left his dinner guests early, retired to his study and drafted this letter. in an unprecedented move, he directed this effort for peace. this message was held up by
mission was equally as busy as diplomats try desperately to avoid war. on november 14 alived in san francisco smiling his toothy smile as he sang the old song of japanese friendship. on november he and the japanese ambassador were received by the president in the presence of the secretary of state. these two honorable men came to washington hoping to negotiate a diplomatic solution to the problems. oliver: but the special envoy didn t know that japanese prime minister had already decided to go to war if the negotiations weren t successful. their deadline, 29 november, 1941. tell us about what things were like for the japanese in the days leading up to the war? the militarists had a death grip literally on japan s future and the army that led that under hideki were
using a character code. nine characters and a period. they stopped using that code completely and started using a five digit code which the navy promptly named jm 25. oliver: to maintain security, yamomodo changed the code. even with the number of people that we had there was no way that could have been broken in time to read anything prior to pearl harbor. oliver: war stories investigates tracked down boris who remembers that august of 41 was a strange time in jo pan. he had been living in tokyo for go years as part of a special u.s. navy program. the naval at the embassy sent a message to washington saying they should go. we you saw the war coming on. oliver: but there was one problem. the japanese refused to let him and his colleagues leave. the young officer watched in surprise as the beautiful wife