On December 8, 1941, Japanese forces landed on the Malay Peninsula and also began their attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. In addition, that same day an Imperial edict was announced in which Japan declared war on the United States and the United Kingdom, triggering the start of the Pacific War (the Greater East Asia War). |
- Document 1 is issue No. 199 of Shashin Shuho, which was published on December 17, 1941. This issue mentions the start of Japan’s war with the United States and the United Kingdom, but does not provide any coverage of specific battles.
- Document 2 is issue No. 200 of Shashin Shuho, which was published on December 24, 1941. This issue contains a vivid illustration of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (see the third image).
- Document 3 is issue No. 202 of Shashin Shuho, which was published on January 7, 1942. This issue features photographs of the Pearl Harbor attack purportedly taken by the Naval Hawaii Air Strike Unit (see the second to fifth images).
- Document 4 is issue No. 205 of Shashin Shuho, which was published on January 28, 1942. This issue provides additional coverage of the attack on Pearl Harbor in its “Second detailed report of naval battle in Hawaii.” There are photographs of the Japanese air forces flying their attack run on Pearl Harbor, which were supposedly taken by the Naval Hawaii Air Strike Unit (see the third and fourth images).
- Documents 5 and 6 are the Japanese translations (in two-installment form) of the report about the findings of the post factum investigation and assessment of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor conducted by the Roberts Commission led by Owen Josephus Roberts, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. This investigation was ordered by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on December 18, ten days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. For this translation, it is unclear when and how it was compiled and who translated the documents, but you can see that the translation was written on the letter paper of the Japanese Embassy in Germany.
For additional documents and commentary about the announcement of the Imperial edict declaring war on the United States and the United Kingdom, see the following website. (Note: Only part of this exhibition is available in English. The following link is in Japanese.)
*Special Internet exhibitionThe US-Japan War Talks as seen in official documents: Detailed Chronology
December 8, 1941
Imperial edict declaring war on the United States and the United Kingdom
http://www.jacar.go.jp/nichibei/popup/19411208c.html
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