HIS343Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Type B Cipher Machine, Cryptanalysis
Document Summary
American officials did not think japan would attack their country. To western modes of thought, it made no sense, this rationalism was paralleled by a racism that led americans to underrate japanese abilities and will. The preconceptions blocked out of american minds the possibility that japan would attack an american possession. Evidence attack could have overcome american preconceptions, but intelligence, which relied almost solely on the missions via purple had found no such evidence. Japan had sealed all possible leaks, knowledge limited to as tight a circle as possible. Plans for it were distributed by hand to the ships of the task force, no reference to a raid on pear harbor ever went on the air, even coded. Could not imply knowledge of an attack on pearl harbor, for it is impossible in logic to leap from a general belief to a specific prediction.
