[scrabblehack]

Surely they didn’t start all the way from Japan? I’m pretty sure it wasn’t. Maybe it was west of the International Date Line, or was it?

[Alas Babylon!]

No. As this map shows, six Japanese carriers left their home port in the Kuril Islands (1) and made their way across the stormy, cold North Pacific, under total radio silence and in infrequently travelled seas (due ot the many storms in the late Fall).

They launched their aircraft from a point only 200 miles North of Oahu (2). After worrying that the American carriers weren't there and the potential of American submarines, the Japanese carriers went bake to Japan (3).

[Hot Tabasco]

Surely they didn’t start all the way from Japan?

This was a carrier group that left Japan in the dead of the night straight towards the Hawaiian Islands while all the U.S. attention was focused on the Jap navy in the S. China sea.

I found this article yesterday, it's well worth the time to read it.........

Pearl Harbor: Who Blundered