Bike couriers delivered the news of the Japanese surprise attack
on Pearl Harbor 70 years ago today. The caption for this photo
says these bike messengers scrambled from the White House after
learning of the attack on Pearl Harbor the evening of December
7, 1941, presumably to deliver the facts to the news outlets of
the day. Japan intended to deliver a formal declaration of war
30 minutes prior to the beginning of the attack, but bureaucrats
at the Japanese embassy in Washington were slow in decoding,
typing, and delivering the message to Secretary of State Cordell
Hull. The U.S. Army had already decrypted the declaration on the
evening of December 6 and dispatched war warnings to all Pacific
area commands. Communication problems delayed receipt of the
warning in Honolulu until after 7:30 AM, Hawaii time. A
Japanese-American bicycle messenger was immediately sent to
deliver the warning to General Walter Short, who was in charge
of defending Pearl Harbor. The messenger was pedaling to Fort
Shafter when, at 7: