Eighty Years Ago: Asia Pacific, Oct 30 – Nov 5, 1941

Oct 30, 1941: As fears of war in East Asia mount, Britain urges its citizens in Japanese-occupied parts of China to evacuate

Oct 31, 1941: Japanese troop concentrations are reported in central China, triggering fears of an imminent offensive to cut off the Burma Road, the vital supply line to unoccupied Chinese territories

Nov 1, 1941: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order stating that the Coast Guard shall ‘from this date, until further orders, operate as a part of the Navy, subject to the orders of the Secretary of the Navy’.

Nov 2, 1941: Japanese General Homma Masaharu is informed in Tokyo that he will be given a key field command in the upcoming offensive against western possessions in Southeast Asia

Nov 3, 1941: Admiral Nagano Osami, Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff, hands detailed plan of Pearl Harbor attack to Emperor Hirohito

Nov 4, 1941: Japanese task force carries out first dress rehearsal for planned attack on Pearl Harbor

Nov 4, 1941: Japanese plane sprays plague-carrying fleas over densely populated Chinese city of Changde

Nov 5, 1941: George C. Marshall, chief of staff of the US Army, warns President Franklin D. Roosevelt that ‘at the present time the United States Fleet in the Pacific is inferior to the Japanese Fleet and cannot undertake an unlimited strategic offensive in the Western Pacific’

Categories: War

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