There is mystery and suspicion around what exactly happened - but Japan absolutely intended to declare war in person citing the flagrant disregard for seeking a common ground ( their words ). They basically said it was obvious the United States was not interested in working things out - therefore there "would be no further negotiations"
It's a scary pattern that started post 1900. Basically we ran face first into imperialism.
For all intents - Japan is a vassal state, still. They have their own thing going - we still exert a ton of influence and have tied them to us economically so much that it's an inseparable relationship.
I dunno how to look at that after reading books like The Grand Chessboard.
Yes. The attack was planned to happen at 1:20 - 1:30 and the Ambassador of Japan supposedly was planned to delivery the declaration at 1:00PM
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/WorldWar2/memo.htm
There is mystery and suspicion around what exactly happened - but Japan absolutely intended to declare war in person citing the flagrant disregard for seeking a common ground ( their words ). They basically said it was obvious the United States was not interested in working things out - therefore there "would be no further negotiations"
The Japanese claimed they tried to message about it 2 weeks prior. I left that out.
Itβs one of those things we know very little about.
If I recall the actual memo was locked under National Security law for 55 years or so.
It's a scary pattern that started post 1900. Basically we ran face first into imperialism.
For all intents - Japan is a vassal state, still. They have their own thing going - we still exert a ton of influence and have tied them to us economically so much that it's an inseparable relationship.
I dunno how to look at that after reading books like The Grand Chessboard.