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Pearl Harbor is first of all a gift of nature: the river of the same name empties into a bay of the Island of Oahu, the less mountainous of the volcanic archipelago of Hawaii and one of the favorite resting spots since the arrival of the first polynesien immigrants.
For European explorers of the XVIII century the Pacific was the end of the earth: Cook arrived in 1778, gave the name "Sandwich" to the string of islands and was killed there the next year. The natives defend, besides their language, their sovereignty. It was threatened by France in the 1830s, then by England. Then geography regained its rights: the young republic of the United States, only 37OO kilometers away, started its expansion in the Pacific, beginning with the conquest of California in 1848 and the purchase of Alaska with its continuation, the Aleutian Islands, in 1867. Hawaii is like the left handle of a pair of pliers where the Aleutians is the right.
Little by little the boats that made landfall at Honolulu, fishing for whale, delivering furs to China or bringing Chinese products to the United States, became mostly American. In 1875 the king of Hawaii had to accept a treaty of protectorate, that reserved to the US the usage of Pearl Harbor for trade as for military installations. In 1893, the queen who succeeded him was deposed in favor of a republic directed by American colonists, and on 7 July 1898 Washington proclaimed the annexation of the country.
It becomes thus a border zone, separating the territory on which the US plants its flag from countries whose independence it must respect, and possibly mistrust: the closest being Japan, 5000 kilometers away. The Admiral Mahan was then the main theorist of the nascent American imperialism. Here is what he writes about these Islands: Hawaii, in the general picture of the Pacific, is a strategic point of first importance. It is a large center of movement, an incomparable station midway between America and Asia, an advanced position from which one can very well lead an offensive action, a base of operations for storage and repair; but to control trade it is less useful, because the space is large enough for anyone who wants to avoid detection. On the other hand, when one possesses these Islands, one has by the mere fact a defensive asset that is added to their offensive value, because one excludes the enemy, for warlike action as well as commercial action.
Mahan indicates here the extreme value of position, along with its Achille's heel: one can accumulate here provisions of all sorts and forces of all nature - and do it increasingly as the Japanese threat grows. But the Islands are far from everything else: the enemy is not therefore constrained to pass certain points that outposts a lot closer to coasts afford. An enemy of America can profit from the situation of Hawaii in the middle of the ocean to steal its trade in stages and in full view. Similarly, it can be said, an enemy on the way to the United States can very well pass elsewhere; and an enemy on the way to Pearl Harbor may not to be noticed in time.
The art that it is necessary to deploy here is as old as war itself: it is that of information. One has to see the enemy by reconnaissance missions, assured mainly by aviation since the first world war. One has to scrutinize his intentions: this work was now given especially to the decipherers of secret codes, new military specialists who also appeared during WWI.
The climate is tropical, which favors the development of tourism: the large beach of Waikiki occupies the waterfront to the east of the capital Honolulu, Pearl Harbor is to the west. If in 1941 the slowness of maritime transportation discouraged vacationers from outside, if the first airline hydroplanes, the famous "Clippers" , transported mainly administrators and businessmen, the soldiers and sailors on the other hand did not lack distractions.
Pearl Harbor is therefore in a paradoxical situation: it is both an advanced position, against Japan, Russia and any power that would want to eclipse the United States in this ocean, and a tranquil zone, underpopulated, exotic, where soldiers of all arms have place for their camps and their training, where distance, helped by huge fortifications, creates an impression of great security.
The personality of the two military leaders there in 1941 reflects this duality: Admiral Kimmel, chief of all the fleet of the Pacific, is a brilliant combattant, with an offensive spirit. On the other hand General Short who has only a local command, is placed here by his chief, Marshall, based on his aptitude to organize training. Kimmel would not normally be at Pearl; the admiral commanding the squadron of the Pacific resides in time of peace at San Diego (California), where most its boats are anchored. But this is no longer a time of peace: the fleet has been installed at Pearl Harbor since April 1940 to address the dangers that accumulate. It is now time to show what set of forces prepared the thunderbolt that will strike on a sunny December morning...
Delpla@amgot.org
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