On November 26, 1941, Adm. Chuichi Nagumo lead the
Japanese First Air Fleet, an aircraft carrier strike force,
toward Pearl Harbor, with the understanding that should
“negotiations with the United States reach a successful
conclusion, the task force will immediately put about
and return to the homeland.”

Negotiations had been ongoing for months. Japan
wanted an end to U.S. economic sanctions.       

       
The Americans wanted Japan out of China and
Southeast Asia-and to repudiate the Tripartite “Axis”
Pact with Germany and Italy as conditions to be met
before those sanctions could be lifted.

Neither side was budging. President Roosevelt and
Secretary of State Cordell Hull were anticipating a
Japanese strike as  retaliation—they just didn’t
know where.     

 
Adm. Chūichi Nagumo (1887 – 1944)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt^[
(January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945)

Cordell Hull
(October 2, 1871 – July 23, 1955)