On this
day in 1941, Adm. Chuichi Nagumo leads the Japanese First Air Fleet, an
aircraft carrier strike force, toward Pearl Harbor, with the
understanding that should "negotiations with the United States reach a
successful conclusion, the task force will immediately put about and return to
the homeland."
Negotiations
had been ongoing for months. Japan wanted an end to U.S. economic sanctions.
The Americans wanted Japan out of China and Southeast Asia-and to repudiate the
Tripartite "Axis" Pact with Germany and Italy as conditions to be met
before those sanctions could be lifted. Neither side was budging. President
Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull were anticipating a Japanese
strike as retaliation—they just didn't know where. The Philippines, Wake
Island, Midway—all were possibilities. American intelligence reports had
sighted the Japanese fleet movement out from Formosa (Taiwan), apparently
headed for Indochina. As a result of this "bad faith" action,
President Roosevelt ordered that a conciliatory gesture of resuming monthly oil
supplies for Japanese civilian needs canceled. Hull also rejected Tokyo's
"Plan B," a temporary relaxation of the crisis, and of sanctions, but
without any concessions on Japan's part. Prime Minister Tojo considered this an
ultimatum, and more or less gave up on diplomatic channels as the means of
resolving the impasse.
Nagumo had no experience with
naval aviation, having never commanded a fleet of aircraft carriers in his
life. This role was a reward for a lifetime of faithful service. Nagumo, while
a man of action, did not like taking unnecessary risks—which he considered an
attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor to be. But Chief of Staff
Rear Adm. Isoruku Yamamoto thought differently; while also opposing war with
the United States, he believed the only hope for a Japanese victory was a swift
surprise attack, via carrier warfare, against the U.S. fleet. And as far as the
Roosevelt War Department was concerned, if war was inevitable, it desired
"that Japan commit the first overt act."
Taken from: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/japanese-task-force-leaves-for-pearl-harbor [26.11.2014]
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