Japan’s sudden attack on Pearl Harbor pushes US into fighting

The

Sunday Post on December 14, 1941, was dominated by the momentous developments in the Second World War.

Just a week earlier, the Japanese Imperial Army had staged a surprise attack on the US naval base of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The attack was a defining moment in the conflict as it brought America into the war.

And the paper reports how the US island base of Guam in the Pacific Ocean had “probably been captured”.

Of course, we know now that it had indeed fallen to the Japanese and wouldn’t be recaptured for another three years.

The paper also reports the Commander in Chief of the Japanese forces made a “demand for the surrender of Hong Kong ‘to avoid useless bloodshed’.”

An indication of how bloody the war would become was hinted at in a small inset story.

“Japan has been preparing secretly for war with Britain or America for more than 20 years, according to Captain Yokoi, Japanese Naval Attache in Berlin,” it read.