December 2021 

On the 7th of December 1941, Japanese invasion forces landed in Malaya. An hour and a half later Japanese aircraft attacked the US fleet, at anchor in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Simultaneous attacks were also made on Hong Kong, Guam, Wake Island and the Philippines.

Since that day controversy has raged over how much the British and US Governments knew in advance about these attacks, and why they came as such a surprise to both countries.

In this It Happened Here episode, Bletchley Park’s Research Historian, Dr David Kenyon examines the intelligence background to the ‘Day of Infamy’ and explores just what British and US codebreakers really knew about Japanese plans.

Featuring the following contributors from our Oral History Archive:

Stephen Freer

Edward Simpson

Image: US Army Green Books (Public Domain)

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