Editor’s Note: This column is adapted from the column “East Wind, Rain” by Richard Olivastro, which originally ran in December of 2007.

Just before dawn at 6 a.m. — 70 years ago today — six Japanese aircraft carriers turned into the wind in order to launch 181 planes: torpedo bombers, dive bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters. Later, 170 planes constituted a second wave in the infamous sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. 

As the first wave wings south, at about 6:30 a.m., a U.S. Navy vessel and a PBY spot an unidentified submarine periscope following an American vessel into Pearl Harbor.

“They attack and sink it. They also immediately message base command as to what has happened, (but) no one sounded a general alarm.” 

About 30 minutes later, a U.S. Army radar station detects “a huge blip (that) filled the entire screen.”

The soldiers on duty phone an alert to base HQ, but “there was no one at the plotting table.”

An officer calls back within minutes but tells them “not to worry.”

The alert American servicemen who spotted the Japanese submarine and the approaching Japanese air strike force acted promptly. The Navy attacked and sunk the submarine; and the Army radar technicians alerted their command center.

The officers who were promptly alerted that fateful morning would later explain that they did not consider the reports significant enough to take action. “The report of the submarine sinking was handled ‘routinely,’ and the radar sighting was passed off as an approaching group of American planes due to arrive that morning”.

As a result — TACTICALLY — the strike force of the Empire of Japan “achieved complete surprise when they hit American ships and military installations on Oahu shortly before 8 a.m.”

Thus, some say, the U.S. was caught napping.

But the truth is …

On that morning while some American ‘lower brass’ were ‘asleep’ on duty at Pearl Harbor and made two fatal tactical mistakes, it was high level military and civilian officials in Washington, who for their own reasons, chose to close their eyes, minds and hearts.

To gain perspective and some understanding, we must be willing to go back — before Dec. 7. In this instance, back at least three days.

That’s Dec. 4, when senior radio operator Ralph Briggs came on duty to his post at the U.S. Navy shortwave monitoring station in Maryland.

The radio crackled as Briggs tuned his receiver to a specific station in order to begin daily monitoring of the regional weather forecast from Radio Tokyo, Japan.

Briggs began transcribing what he heard.

A few miles away at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, D.C., Chief Petty Officer Kenici Ogemoto also was listening to the weather report. When he heard the words, he rushed into the office of the naval attaché, Capt. Yuzuru Sanematsu, and shouted, “The winds blew.”

At the same time in the East Indies, Dutch naval intelligence led by Lt. Gen. Hein Ter Poorten, had succeeded in intercepting and decrypting the Japanese naval message at their intercept station on Java Island.

What all three men heard at 8 a.m. that day — Dec. 4th — were words each was waiting for:

“Higashi no kaze ame … “East Wind, Rain.”

Each of them knew what those words meant.

Those three words, one of three possible “execute” messages Japanese diplomats around the world were told to begin listening for beginning on Nov. 19 meant war with the United States.

Briggs understood this. He immediately teletypes the alert message to Washington.

Poorten immediately sent all the details of the “Winds Execute” message to Colonel Weijerman, the Dutch military attaché in Washington, to pass on to the highest U.S. military authorities.

At the Japanese Embassy, Ogemoto and Sanematsu directed the staff to gather all secret papers for burning and prepare to destroy all code hardware and cipher codes.

In Tokyo, Japanese officials were going over the final note to the American government. The note will not include a simple declaration of war. Instead, it will say, “In view of the attitude of the American Government it must be concluded that it is impossible to reach an agreement through further negotiations.”

The Japanese decide this note will be delivered at 1 p.m. Washington time — 30 minutes before the attack on Dec. 7.

Back in the United States — and at stations around the world — the monitoring of Japanese transmissions continues. The United States has had Japan’s codes and has been “decoding secret messages (almost) faster” than staff at Japan’s Embassy in Washington.

The next day, Dec. 5, “all Japanese international shipping has returned to home port.”

On Dec. 6, Japan “sends the first segments of a 14-part message to its embassy in Washington, ordering them to present their final demands to the United States exactly at 1 p.m. Washington time, tomorrow (Dec. 7).”

Again, the message is intercepted and decoded by the U.S. Navy’s Cryptographic Department.

Lt. Cmdr. Alvin Kramer shows the message to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who reads the document, and says, “This means war.”

That afternoon, the Japanese strike force, which departed the Kuril Islands 12 days earlier and met no ships along the way, is north of Hawaii. Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo orders his strike force to increase speed to 25 knots.

At 21:00 hours on Dec. 6th, the Japanese fleet reaches its launch destination point at the 158th meridian. That is 490 sea miles north of the Hawaii Islands.

Nagumo sends this message to his warriors:

“The fate of the Empire rests on this enterprise. Every man must devote himself totally to the task at hand.”

The “task at hand” is the sneak attack to be launched early the next morning: Dec. 7, 1941.

Back to the attack:

Tactically, the Japanese strike force “achieved complete surprise when they hit American ships and military installations on Oahu shortly before 8 a.m.”

Thus, as many say that the U.S. was caught napping has some truth, including:

Some ‘lower brass’ onsite were ‘asleep’ on duty… and made two fatal tactical mistakes.

Why?

The sinking of an unidentified submarine attempting to sneak into your naval base harbor should immediately sound alarms heard by all levels.

If those individuals had reacted appropriately, the Japanese would not have achieved total tactical surprise despite the fact the strike force was only 55 minutes out.

But, the core cause was the blinders installed by top officials in Washington.

The fact is top Naval and Army Commanders responsible for Pearl Harbor and the surrounding installations on Oahu were kept in the dark.

The president and many others in the military chain of command were well aware of the intelligence intercepts the U.S. and our allies were getting by having the Japanese codes.

Thus, strategically, the record is now clearer (and more nauseating) every passing year.

If only senior political and military officials had handled their jobs more responsibly.

If only senior political and military officials had alerted all U.S. commanders appropriately of what they knew strategically of Japanese plans and force actions under way.

Then, if the attack could not be thwarted, American forces would have been prepared to inflict a heavy price on the attacking Japanese strike force.

But that was not to be. As a result, 70 years ago today, 2,403 Americans gave their lives that fateful day. There were 1,187 military and civilian wounded.

The shock of the sneak attack jolted Americans out of innocence, forged a national will that galvanized America and a generation that would lead the fight and win World War II.

I join with all Americans today as we stand and gratefully salute America’s “Greatest Generation.”

Richard is president of Olivastro Communications and founder of Citizens for Change. A professional member of the National Speakers Association, he is available pro bono for charitable fundraisers and public forums and can be reached via e-mail at RichOlivastro@gmail.com or by phone at 1-877-RichSpeaks.