12/6/41 11:00 Hours Washington DC

The group was assembled in the White House conference room as requested. Secretary of War Harold Stimson, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, Admiral Harold Stark, and General George Marshall were there with their aides. Each had brought several staff members. Two men accompanied J. Edgar Hoover. Only the Secretary of State was alone. The president entered just after eleven and they were seated. He slowly looked around the table, seemingly unsure of how to begin, then lowered his head and said, “I’ll have Secretary Hull tell you why we’re here.”

The Secretary rose slowly. “I’ll read you a message we intercepted last night. Because some of you aren’t cleared to know I can’t tell you how this message came into our possession but I can tell you we are totally certain of its authenticity. None of the information from this message or even its existence can be discussed with anyone outside this group.” He read from the document. When finished he looked up at the men at the table. “I’d like to have your opinions.” Quiet discussions started among the delegations from each branch of the services. He sat down and leafed through the papers he was holding. Finally he stood up again.

“Navy first, tell me what they’re up to.”

The Admiral looked at one of his men, “George, you’ve been watching the Japanese, what do you make of it?”

George looked down at the notes on his pad. “I’d say the Japanese are planning to attack us tomorrow just after 1300 hours Washington time. I’d make that just after dawn at Pearl, say about 0730 hours. I call this an attack on the islands and the fleet there.” He looked at the Admiral, “A Sunday morning attack, at dawn and without warning, this could easily be a devastating attack. Our forces would be at a low state of readiness with many men on leave. It’ll be exactly what Billy Mitchell predicted.” Both the admiral and general winced. Billy Mitchell was thrown out of the military in the 1930’s for predicting such an attack, an attack the brass had called impossible. Now one of their aides was predicting it was imminent.

The Admiral looked up with a smile, “That’d be my assessment if we didn’t know their main carrier fleet is in the Sea of Japan. We’ve been monitoring their radio traffic for weeks. They haven’t been keeping the kind of radio silence we’d expect if they were planning a surprise attack. Just yesterday we saw radio traffic to and from one of the carriers…” His voice trailed off. “Just a minute, let me show you the messages.” He opened his brief case and pulled out a stack of messages. He flipped through them and pulled out three and handed them to George. “They can hardly attack Pearl when they’re in the Sea of Japan.”