EXCEPTIONALLY RARE ARCHIVE OF DECODED JAPANESE MILITARY INTELLIGENCE COMMUNIQUES REGARDING THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR

An exceptionally rare and revelatory archive of classified Japanese military messages leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, as well as correspondence recorded firsthand in its immediate aftermath. This collection comprises three intercepted Japanese intelligence communiqués, translated by the U.S. Navy, alongside two manuscript letters penned by an airman stationed at Hickam Field, the primary airfield targeted alongside the Pearl Harbor naval base. Various places, 2 October - 23 December 1941. 6 pages, 8 x 10 1/2 inches and smaller. Together with a silver gelatin print of the Hickam Field entrance and two "Christmas in Hawaii" military souvenir booklets (1940 and 1941) detailing holiday menus and personnel.

Transmitted from Honolulu and Panama to the Japanese high command in Tokyo, the three typed intelligence documents in this archive relay crucial data regarding the U.S. naval presence in the Pacific Theater and expose specific vulnerabilities that would be exploited on December 7th. Messages dispatched from Panama in October track the passage of Allied vessels through the Panama Canal, meticulously noting ship types and cargo. By November 28, 1941, intelligence from Honolulu provided Tokyo with a strategic overview of defenses at both Pearl Harbor and Midway Atoll, observing: "There are eight 'B-17' planes at Midway and the altitude range off their anti-aircraft guns is (5,000 feet?)...13,000 (mostly marines) are expected to reinforce the troops in Honolulu during December or January...There has usually been one cruiser in the waters...south of Pearl Harbor and one or two destroyers at the entrance to the harbor."

The urgency of the Japanese intelligence-gathering peaked on December 5, 1941, just forty-eight hours before the strikes. This briefing recorded the arrival of three battleships and noted the departure of the USS Lexington, providing Tokyo with a definitive count of the sitting ducks in port: "8 battleships, 3 light cruisers, 16 destroyers." In a tragic lapse of timing, this specific message was not translated by the Navy until December 10—three days after the attack and far too late for American forces to take proactive measures.

The manuscript correspondence was penned in the chaotic weeks following the assault by Private Lewis J. Reese (1921-1977) of the 5th Bombardment Group. Stationed at Hickam Field, Reese’s unit bore the brunt of the initial Japanese air raid, losing 41 men and nearly its entire fleet of B-17 and B-18 bombers.

Writing to his family at the first opportunity "since the lid blew off," Reese maintains a stoic, reassuring tone, focusing on the upcoming holidays to shield his loved ones from the horror of the attack. However, in a letter to "Mary," his sweetheart and future wife, he offers a more candid account of the events: "I came through the raid all right, you know me, I was running up among the leaders of the pack... at the rate I was digging in I probably would have made it in record time."

Despite his proximity to the devastation, Reese’s letters underscore the absolute lockdown of military intelligence, as he repeatedly notes that his family will likely learn more from the newspapers than he knows himself. Even as he notes that he continues to "work on the same plane" with altered hours, the vagueness of his letters underscores the intentional withholding of information from the ranks, offering a compelling look at the controlled flow of information in the chaotic wake of the strikes.

Following the attack, Reese and the surviving members of the 5th Bombardment Group transitioned to heavy bombers, repairing the aircraft and conducting reconnaissance missions to locate the Japanese fleet. Reese would eventually rise to the rank of Captain before returning home to Dallas, Texas, where he married Mary and worked as a mail carrier with the United States Postal Service.

[World War II, WWII,  FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Adolf Hitler, Allied, Axis, George S. Patton, Air Force]  [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]