Never forget that there was no Declaration of War until after the attack. Image from here includes this description:
Photograph taken from a Japanese plane during the torpedo attack on ships moored on both sides of Ford Island. View looks about east, with the supply depot, submarine base and fuel tank farm in the right center distance.
A torpedo has just hit USS West Virginia on the far side of Ford Island (center). Other battleships moored nearby are (from left): Nevada, Arizona, Tennessee (inboard of West Virginia), Oklahoma (torpedoed and listing) alongside Maryland, and California.
On the near side of Ford Island, to the left, are light cruisers Detroit and Raleigh, target and training ship Utah and seaplane tender Tangier. Raleigh and Utah have been torpedoed, and Utah is listing sharply to port.
Japanese planes are visible in the right center (over Ford Island) and over the Navy Yard at right.
Hawaii Time 7:53AM 7 December 1941
Tacky Raccoons 
Sympathies
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The declaration of war was supposed to be given just prior to the attack, but the Japanese neglected to factor in the … not necessarily incompetence, but more the lack of relevant skills, of the embassy staff involved. They took longer than planned-for to prepare for their meeting with Pres. Roosevelt, so they didn’t present the formal notification in time.
That is, of course, why it was referred to as a “sneak” attack. By the time the notification came, it had been obviated by the attack.
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Herr Eagle– None required. This post is just a remembrance.
Wheels– The sneak attack included Hawaii. the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, Malaya, Thailand, Shanghai and Midway.. Had the notification come an hour prior to the attack (as the Japanese had intended) would that negate that it was a sucker punch?
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Sehr geEhrter Senor B
Another welcome & interesting observation from Signor W
One irony – the Americans had deciphered and read the Japanese Declaration of War BEFORE the Japanese in their Washington Embassy
BUT the Americans were unable to get a Warning through to Hawaii/the Philippines etc or to the British — even with instantaneous communications through telegraph wires & wireless
…… Not that a Warning to the British would have made any difference, because the British Leadership in Malaya was so lamentably [expletives deleted] useless
Am I right to think that the Pearl Harbour attack had an effect similar to the attack by the kindly General Beauregarde on Fort Sumter, in mobilising Yankee Support into your Civil War
2,402 Pearl
2,977 9/11
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That’s true, G. Through the MAGIC program, we’d intercepted and deciphered the communication; Roosevelt knew in advance what was going to be presented.
Another part of the problem was complacency on the part of the military. IIRC, radar contact reports were ignored or dismissed.
I’m going to have to go back and re-read The Codebreakers by Kahn; it’s been a few decades. I don’t recall if he said anything about the difficulties involved in deciphering telegraphic transmission of a language like Japanese, which normally uses a largely pictographic character set to resolve a large number of homophones.
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Herr Eagle– True. Washington knew an attack was imminent, but they weren’t quite sure which islands were involved, and they didn’t bother to notify forces in Hawaii until after the fact. (A comparison with the attack on Fort Sumpter is irrelevant, as the War between The States was about secession, not conquest.)
Wheels– The Codebreakers is an excellent book, as is W.J. Holmes’ Double-Edged Secrets. Real eye-openers. The Japanese codes were broken by reading their weather reports and correlating coded names for island with known weather. I need a refresher course, too.
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Another one I’m going to have to go back to is The Game of the Foxes by Ladislas Farago. That’s about the espionage that was going on.
Another one I read in high school (was it really about 40 years ago?) was more a personal remembrance by one of the original OSS people, titled Pardon me, but you’re stepping on my cloak and dagger, by Roger Hall (had to do a search to get his name). Pretty amusing, as I recall.
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wheels– I’ll have to chase down a copy of Foxes and put it on my to-read list.
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