Eighty Years Ago: Asia Pacific, Jan 23 – 29, 1941

Jan 23, 1941: Admiral Nomura Kichisaburo, Japan’s new ambassador to the United States, departs on board the passenger ship Kamakura Maru

Jan 24, 1941: Japanese Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku outlines huge stakes if war breaks out with the United States: “It would not be enough that we take Guam and the Philippines, nor even Hawaii and San Francisco. To make victory certain, we would have to march into Washington and dictate the terms of peace in the White House.”

Jan 25, 1941: Keel of battleship USS Wisconsin is laid at Philadelphia Navy Yard. Image: Department of Defense

Jan 26, 1941: Japan’s Emperor Hirohito sends formal congratulation to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt on his third inauguration, expressing his wish for strengthened relations. The two other Axis powers Germany and Italy send no such message

Jan 27, 1941: US Ambassador to Japan Joseph Grew sends secret cable to Washington: “My Peruvian colleague told a member of my staff that he had heard from many sources including a Japanese source that the Japanese military forces planned, in the event of trouble with the United States, to attempt a surprise mass attack on Pearl Harbor using all of their military facilities.”

Jan 28, 1941: US presidential envoy Lauchlin Bernard Currie, seen above with Madame Chiang Kai-shek, tours China to assess the country’s wartime needs

Jan 29, 1941: British, Canadian and American staff officers convene in Washington for talks about coordinated strategy in case of US entry into the war

Categories: War

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