"A date that will live in infamy"

The Daily Mirror, though obviously concentrating on news of the war in Europe, throughout 1941 kept its readers up-to-date with developments in the Far East. On February 25th, a headline proclaimed JAPS WARN WHITES TO QUIT THE PACIFIC. The report began:

As Mr. Matsuoka, Japanese Foreign Minister, told the House of Representatives in Tokio yesterday that the white race "must cede Oceania to the Asiatics," Mr. Churchill saw the Japanese Ambassador, Mr. Shigemitsu, in London. [...]

Japan's conception of Oceania, it was thought by US observers, extends to the entire South Pacific, including the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines and possibly Australasia.

This was based on Mr. Matsuoka's reference to the number of people that could be supported in such an area:-

"This region has sufficient natural resources to support between 600,000,000 and 800,000,000 people. I believe we have a natural right to migrate there."

There are pre-echoes there of present-day China's pretensions in the South Pacific.

In July, the Mirror stated:

Vichy [the Nazi puppet regime in France] and Japan are negotiating over French Indo-China, where the Japs want bases from which to threaten British and U.S. possessions.

The news of the talks came last night from authorised circles in Vichy soon after the British Singapore Radio had issued a blunt warning about Japanese moves in Indo-China. 

At the end of the month, it happened:

Japan began to occupy Vichy's Indo-China yesterday. Troops disembarked at ports in Cambodia [...] At the same time, Japanese military lorries entered Saigon, capital of Indo-China. Bombers roared above them. According to the Chinese National Military Council in Chungking, Japan has also presented demands to Thailand to join the "new order in South Asia".

On November 17th, there was a reinforcement from prime minister Tojo and foreign minister Togo  of  the message that Japan would risk war with Britain and America in her determination to press on with her expansion programme. On November 26th, the Mirror reported that President Roosevelt expected the Japanese to launch an attack on Thailand at any moment. All the while, Japanese special envoys were talking to the US administration.

So an attack by the empire of Japan on Western interests in Asia was not unexpected, but Pearl Harbor was in Hawaii: US territory. Moreover, peace talks were technically still in progress. What made the Japanese raid more shocking was that service families and civilians alike were preparing for Christmas at the time. Early estimates were that 1,500 Americans died in the bombing raid of 7th December, with an equal number severely injured.

In the end, it proved to be a disastrous miscalculation by the Japanese in that it brought the US into war not only with Japan but also against her Axis allies. Britain was no longer alone. Finally, the US wrought a terrible vengeance at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.