At Dawn We Slept by Gordon W. Prange & Donald M. Goldstein & Katherine V. Dillon

Author:Gordon W. Prange & Donald M. Goldstein & Katherine V. Dillon [Prange, Gordon W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 1991-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

Kida nodded approval and directed Yoshikawa to encode and send the message immediately; he did.

It is certainly astonishing that Kita should have authorized that amazing reference to a surprise attack. There have been many small indications throughout our story that the consulate knew more than it ever cared to admit. Yoshikawa stated that in this case he “wanted to get the point across to Tokyo that if Japan attacked at that time, the chances for success would be good.” He assured us that Kita agreed and, further, that Okuda may have read the dispatch before it went off; Okuda did not recall whether he had done so.54 Probably he had not, for one can scarcely picture the shrewd vice consul permitting such an incendiary sentence to go to Tokyo, especially since the consulate now used only the PA-K2 code.

“If we had gotten that message on the 6th, I assure you the whole picture would have been different,” said Bratton.55 But a question has arisen on this point because a Navy translation by one Joseph Finnegan does not contain Yoshikawa’s key words. Asked later which version he thought right, Finnegan replied, “Without hesitation, I believe the Army translation is correct.” Although a Japanese-language officer, Finnegan had been away from the work for a little more than three years when, on December 9 or 10, Kimmel ordered him to Rochefort’s unit.56 And of course, Yoshikawa stated that he included the telltale sentence.

Had circumstances permitted immediate action on Yoshikawa’s dispatch, there would have been time to warn Hawaii, time for Short to move to full alert, time for Kimmel to deploy for battle. But the Army could not translate this intercept until December 8. PA-K2 was not a top priority code and no snap to solve, being a checkerboard system with complicated spelling tables involving a shuttle transposition.57 And the cryptanalysts could not know until they dug well into it that Yoshikawa’s message held anything out of the ordinary.

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