Japanese Carrier Force Gets Underway

Exactly seventy years ago, November 26, 1941, a Japanese carrier force, the Kido Butai, under command of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, got underway from Hitokappu Wan in the Kurile Islands, under strict and effective radio silence. The force of six aircraft carriers, with 359 airplanes embarked, was the most powerful carrier force with the greatest concentration of naval air power ever assembled up to that time.

Accompanying the force were two fast battleships, two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, nine destroyers and three fleet (long-range) submarines. An advanced expeditionary force including twenty fleet submarines and five midget submarines, had already departed Japan enroute to the objective area. The force also was accompanied by eight oilers for refueling along the way.

The day the Kido Butai left the Kuriles, Japanese negotiators in Washington received a note from US Secretary of State Cordell Hull proposing a solution to the crisis in the Far East. Japanese leaders dismissed the Hull note as the same old proposal they had rejected before.

Japan had not yet made an irrevocable decision for war. Nagumo got underway with the understanding that if "negotiations with the United States reach a successful conclusion, the task force will immediately put about and return to the homeland." The final decision was to be made early in December.

November 26th was a particularly active day on the diplomatic front in Washington as Ambassadors Nomura and Kurusu frantically sought agreement with Secretary of State Hull. Messages to them from Tokyo (intercepted, decoded and translated by US Army and Navy intelligence) emphasized the importance of oil. Tokyo wanted agreement for the US to supply 4 million tons of oil per year.

Nomura and Kurusu reported diminishing hopes for agreement, and dutifully reported that Hull was meeting with the Chinese ambassador as well as with them. Nomura and Kurusu knew nothing about the Kido Butai's movements.

The clock was ticking.