Climb Mount Niitaka

Greetings:

Many of you who are WW II buffs know the code that was sent back after the successful attack on Pearl Harbour; "Tora! Tora! Tora!"  There was even a "fairly accurate" movie of the same name.  However, during that movie, you might have seen, or heard, the phrase, "Niitakayama Nobore" or, in English, "Climb Mount Niitaka".  This was the code words sent to Japanese Admiral Nagumo to open his Top Secret documents that would direct him to attack Pearl Harbor (American spelling this time).  This was OOA December 2nd (today) or about 76 years ago today.

At that point in time the Japanese fleet was cruising in the northern Pacific under a heavy squall of storms making it impossible for the American flattops to find them.  (The American aircraft carriers from Pearl Harbor were all out at sea looking for the Japanese fleet at that time which explains why they were not in dock at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked five days later.)

Anyway, many Americans have called it a "Sneak Attack."  No such thing.  It was just a total failure on the part of clumsy diplomats to formally declare war prior to the attack.  Like President Trump has said many tims, you never tell the enemy when and where you are going to attack nor when and where you are going to withdraw.  That is just plain stupid.  Why would the Japanese tell us that they were going to attack on December 7th and then attack on December 7th?  OK, the Geneva convention did say that you should at least declare war first before attacking another country but, looking back, did Germany declare war before attacking Poland?  Sure.  15 minutes before.  Or was it 30 minutes before?  Big deal.

Anyway, look forward to the December 7th posting. "Tora! Tora! Tora!" might have meant "Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!" but did it really?  More on that later...

jco