Eighty Years Ago: Asia Pacific, Oct 16 – 22, 1941

Oct 16, 1941: Steep drop at Shanghai Stock Exchange amid fears of imminent war in Asia

Oct 17, 1941: New hardline government headed by General Tojo Hideki takes over in Japan

Oct 18, 1941: General Tojo Hideki, Japan’s new prime minister, stays on concurrently as minister of war, concentrating political power in his own hands

Oct 18, 1941: Richard Sorge, Soviet-German spy who has posed as Tokyo correspondent for Frankfurter Zeitung and fed Stalin valuable intelligence, is arrested by Japanese police

Oct 19, 1941: Units of the US Army’s 194th Tank Battalion arrive in the Philippines amid lingering concern over Japan’s growing ambitions in the western Pacific

Oct 20, 1941: USS Hornet, a 20,000-ton aircraft carrier, is commissioned at Naval Station Norfolk

Oct 21, 1941: US intelligence writes in report to President Roosevelt it is ‘highly probable’ that Japan’s Kwantung Army, stationed in Manchuria, will launch attack on Soviet Union when the opportunity arises, and advises growing military aid to China to pin down Japanese forces

Oct 22, 1941: Battleships USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma collide off Hawaii, leaving the Arizona with a 30-feet hole in her side and forcing her to sail into Pearl Harbor for repairs

Oct 22, 1941: Japanese passenger ship Taiyo Maru leaves Yokohama for Honolulu, Hawaii. Onboard are officers of the Imperial navy posing as crew members, ordered to record weather conditions in preparation of planned attack on Pearl Harbor

Categories: War

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