By: History.com Editors

1941

The order is given: Bomb Pearl Harbor

History.com Editors

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Published: November 16, 2009

Last Updated: March 13, 2025

On November 5, 1941, the Combined Japanese Fleet receive Top-Secret Order No. 1: In just over a month's time, Pearl Harbor is to be bombed, along with Malaya (now known as Malaysia), the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines.

Relations between the United States and Japan had been deteriorating quickly since Japan’s occupation of Indochina in 1940 and the implicit menacing of the Philippines (an American protectorate), with the occupation of the Cam Ranh naval base approximately 800 miles from Manila. American retaliation included the seizing of all Japanese assets in the States and the closing of the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping. In September 1941, President Roosevelt issued a statement, drafted by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, that threatened war between the United States and Japan should the Japanese encroach any further on territory in Southeast Asia or the South Pacific.

Could Pearl Harbor Have Been Prevented?

A look back at the intelligence failures and oversights that led to the successful Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

The Japanese military had long dominated Japanese foreign affairs; although official negotiations between the U.S. secretary of state and his Japanese counterpart to ease tensions were ongoing, Hideki Tojo, the minister of war who would soon be prime minister, had no intention of withdrawing from captured territories. He also construed the American “threat” of war as an ultimatum and prepared to deliver the first blow in a Japanese-American confrontation: the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

And so Tokyo delivered the order to all pertinent Fleet commanders, that not only the United States—and its protectorate the Philippines—but British and Dutch colonies in the Pacific were to be attacked. War was going to be declared on the West.

Timeline

Also on This Day in History

Discover more of the major events, famous births, notable deaths and everything else history-making that happened on November 5th

1556

Mughal victory assures Akbar’s ascension

Fifty miles north of Delhi, a Mughal army defeats the forces of Hemu, a Hindu general who was trying to usurp the Mughal throne from 14-year-old Akbar, the recently proclaimed emperor. The Mughals, whose culture blended Perso-Islamic and regional Indian elements, established an empire in the north of India in the early 16th century. Victory […]

1605

King James learns of Gunpowder Plot

Early in the morning, King James I of England learns that a plot to explode the Parliament building has been foiled, hours before he was scheduled to sit with the rest of the British government in a general parliamentary session. At about midnight on the night of November 4-5, Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of […]

1862

Dakota Indian trials conclude, with more than 300 sentenced to hang

In Minnesota, after five weeks of trial proceedings centered around actions taken during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, more than 300 Dakota men are found guilty of raping and murdering Anglo settlers and are sentenced to hang. A month later, President Abraham Lincoln commuted all but 39 of the death sentences. One of the Native Americans […]

1862

Lincoln removes General McClellan from Army of the Potomac

A tortured relationship ends when President Abraham Lincoln removes General George B. McClellan from command of the Army of the Potomac. McClellan ably built the army in the early stages of the war but was a sluggish and paranoid field commander who seemed unable to muster the courage to aggressively engage Confederate General Robert E. […]

1872

Susan B. Anthony casts a vote, prompting arrest

On November 5, 1872, 48 years before American women gain the right to vote with the 19th Amendment, pioneering women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony illegally attempts to cast a vote in the presidential election. Anthony, who had devoted five decades of her life to women’s suffrage, gets arrested two weeks later for the shenanigan—and […]

1912

Woodrow Wilson wins landslide victory

Democrat Woodrow Wilson is elected the 28th president of the United States, with Thomas R. Marshall as vice president. In a landslide Democratic victory, Wilson won 435 electoral votes against the eight won by Republican incumbent William Howard Taft and the 88 won by third-party Progressive Party candidate Theodore Roosevelt. The presidential election was the […]

Woodrow Wilson and Edith Wilson.

1940

FDR re-elected for a third term

On November 5, 1940, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is re-elected for an unprecedented third term as president of the United States. Roosevelt was elected to a third term with the promise of maintaining American neutrality as far as foreign wars were concerned: “Let no man or woman thoughtlessly or falsely talk of American people sending its […]

1968

Richard Nixon elected president

Winning one of the closest elections in U.S. history, Republican challenger Richard Nixon defeats Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Because of the strong showing of third-party candidate George Wallace, neither Nixon nor Humphrey received more than 50 percent of the popular vote; Nixon beat Humphrey by less than 500,000 votes.  Nixon campaigned on a platform designed […]

1977

George W. Bush marries Laura Welch in Midland, Texas

On November 5, 1977, 31-year-old future President George W. Bush marries 31-year-old Laura Welch at the First United Methodist Church in her hometown of Midland, Texas. Bush was the son of George H.W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States. Both father and son worked in the oil business in Texas before entering politics. […]

1994

George Foreman becomes oldest heavyweight champ

George Foreman, age 45, becomes boxing’s oldest heavyweight champion when he defeats 26-year-old Michael Moorer in the 10th round of their WBA fight in Las Vegas.

2007

Writers strike stalls production of TV shows, movies

Members of the Writers Guild of America, East, and Writers Guild of America, West—labor organizations representing television, film and radio writers—go on strike in Los Angeles and New York after negotiations break down with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), a trade group that represents TV and film producers in the United […]

2009

Army major kills 13 people in Fort Hood shooting spree

On November 5, 2009, 13 people are killed and more than 30 others are wounded, nearly all of them unarmed soldiers, when a U.S. Army officer goes on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in central Texas. The deadly assault, carried out by Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, was the worst mass shooting […]

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Citation Information

Article title
The order is given: Bomb Pearl Harbor
Website Name
History
Date Accessed
March 24, 2025
Publisher
A&E Television Networks
Last Updated
March 13, 2025
Original Published Date
November 16, 2009

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