The Japanese government lost patience with the negotiations with the Americans, who stubbornly insisted that a withdrawal from China be part of any peace agreement.
The Japanese continued the talks anyway, because they provided useful cover as the Imperial Navy planned its attack on Pearl Harbor.
- Listen now:
Playlist:
Fanfare
Opening War Theme
Symphony No. 5 in C minor
Composed in 1808 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Public domain.
Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.
Closing War Theme
Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.
Mark,
I like that you mention that the attack on Pearl Harbor was preceded by the British attacking the Italians in in Taranto. However, while it was a surprise to the Italians, I beleive that the Brits and Italians were at war already. Of course in the US Fleet exercise of 1924(?) the Aggressor “attacked” Pearl with one carrier, had complete surprise and the Referees, scored the attack a success but refused to mark the ships as sunk, since the attack was not “realistic”. Yeah, stupid goes around many, many times.
The exercise was on Sunday, February 7(!), 1932. And yes, Japanese observers took note. Robert A. Heinlein, then a junior navy officer, was on the _Lexington_, which launched the “attacking” planes. This was long before Heinlein became a famous science-fiction author. William H. Patterson describes the incident in volume 1 of his biography of Heinlein (_Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with his Century_, 2010.)