also impressive is the degree to which the Japanese were able to disguise that traffic, and the level of detail and planning that went into the Japanese concealment effort.
one of the most intersting things i read: the FBI was tapping all the phones of suspected Japanese spies and monitoring the calls back to Japan. One in particular was reporting on “flowers” and other stuff. this agent correctly figured out that this was a report on naval activity and in fact pretty much called the Dec 7 attack based on his work,
but no one really would listen. combined with rocheforts report that he had lost the location of the jap carriers, and other intel from decoded messages in DC, it all sounds like 9-11 failure to connect the dots. in the retrospectoscope there was plenty of evidence when and where the japs would attack.
its still unbelievable that they managed to arrive off hawaii totally undetected.
The bulk of the journey that the Japanese fleet took was off of normal shipping lanes so as large as the Pacific is, I’m not really surprised that the fleet covered that distance without being detected. However, once they began getting close to Pearl, the fact that the reconnaissance, that they were charged to do, was so poorly conducted that it failed to detect the fleet, and failed to have the proper channels in place when they detected the aircraft coming in is almost inexcusable.
The Japanese were very effective with their deception methods that they employed in covering their tracks leading up to the attack. Even their assemble area played a role in this. Just as the Japanese were asking for reports on the locations of American ships, we were trying to do the same thing in return though we had next to nothing as far a men on the ground in Japan so the task was far more difficult. Assembling at Hitokappu Bay eliminated even the slightest possibility of a HUMINT discovery because of its severe remoteness.
A good article on the Japanese radio deception was written by R.J. Hanyok called “Blinded by the Rising Sun: Japanese Radio Deception Before Pearl Harbor”. I’m not sure if you can get it online, but if you want it, Freepmail me your address and I’ll send it your way.