tip George Elliott and Joseph Lockard were on the job scanning the skies on their mobile radar unit U S Navy battleships were among the vessels docked at Pearl Harbor Suddenly at 7 02 a m the two young Army privates noticed something odd on the radar screen A big blip appeared to be heading southward toward Oahu at a fast pace They assumed it was a large group of aircraft about 130 miles 209 km away As they tracked the blip they called the
information center at Fort Shafter to report the sighting Lieutenant Kermit Tyler answered the call He knew that a fleet of American B 17 bombers had left California the previous day and were due to arrive that morning Tyler assumed this was what was showing up on the radar screen But the information about the bombers was classified so he decided not to share it with the two privates He simply said to them Don't worry about it 1 Satisfied that there was no cause for concern Lockard and Elliott went to breakfast when their replacements arrived When they last tracked the blip it was just 22 miles 35 km from Oahu Soon after Rear Admiral William R Furlong aboard the ship Oglala looked up and saw what
American servicemen called the red meatball on the side of an approaching plane It was the Rising Sun symbol of Imperial Japan This was no drill or the arrival of friendly aircraft from California This was a very real attack by 183 Japanese planes Moments later naval operations officer Logan Ramsey was shouting into a loudspeaker for all to hear Air Raid Pearl Harbor 2 A HISTORY OF HATRED The sneak attack on Pearl Harbor was the climax of anti American feelings that had been brewing among the Japanese for nearly a century It began in 1853 when U S battleships under the command of Commodore Matthew Perry anchored near Tokyo and
forced Japan to sign a diplomatic agreement with the United States This opening of the proud isolated kingdom led to Japan being forced to trade with Western nations Humiliated by these events Japan resolved to transform itself into a world power that could compete economically and militarily with the United States and Europe Japan achieved this goal and set out to show off its military strength in wars with China 1894 1895 and Russia 1904 1905 both of which Japan won
