ABSTRACT
The signal for war to begin was flashed from the flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet at 5.30 pm on 2 December, 1941, the day Admiral Sir Tom Phillips’s Eastern Fleet put in to Singapore. ‘NIITAKA YAMA NOBORE 1208’ was the brief message. ‘Climb Mount Niitaka 1208’, in other words, hostilities against the USA, Great Britain and the Netherlands begin on 8 December.
