JAPAN STRIKES: DECLARES WAR (1941) newsclip

JAPAN STRIKES: DECLARES WAR.

HAWAII HEAVILY BOMBED IN SURPRISE RAID

Battleship Oklahoma Reported As Being Set On Fire

ATTACKING AIRCRAFT CARRIER STATED TO HAVE BEEN SUNK

Kurusu And Nomura Engaged In Talks At White House As Bombs Drop

WASHINGTON, Sunday: Japan is now at war with the United States and Britain.

Japan began hostilities this morning with simultaneous bombing attacks on the American army and navy bases at Honolulu and Manila. At the same time Imperial Headquarters in Tokyo announced: "Japan has entered into a state of war with the United States and Britain in the Western Pacific as from dawn to-day."

The United States Army has been mobilised and, with the Navy, instructed to carry out undisclosed orders.

More than 150 Japanese planes are carrying out bombing raids on the American vital naval and air base 2250 miles from San Francisco, while a naval engagement between units of the American and Japanese Fleets is in progress.

The first official announcement that war had started was made by President Roosevelt this morning, when he said that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbour from the air. Subsequently the President said that Japanese planes had attacked all the naval and military activities on the island of Oahu, the capital of which is Honolulu.

The island's naval base, Pearl Harbour, is being subjected to fierce bombing. Early reports declared that parachute troops had been sighted off the harbour point.

U.S.A. BATTLESHIP OKLAHOMA REPORTED ON FIRE

DECLARATION OF WAR Expected From U.S.

WASHINGTON, Sunday:

An early declaration of war on Japan can be expected shortly from White House. President Roosevelt has summoned an extraordinary meeting of the Cabinet for early this evening, and Congressional leaders have been invited to attend a conference with the administration shortly afterwards.

It is obvious that the President and other Government officials were taken completely by surprise. The Japanese envoys, Kurus and Admiral Nomura, were at the White House at the time of the announcement.

Before they saw the Secretary of State, Mr Cordell Hull, they were kept waiting fifteen minutes. Kurusu impatiently paced the floor engaging from time to time in whispered conferences with Nomura. Subsequently an official statement issued by the State Department said that Mr. Hull had informed them that the document presented by them as Japan's reply to his Note was crowded with infamous falsehoods and distortions. After reading the reply, Mr Hull said to Nomura:

"I must say that in all my conversations with you during the last nine months I have never uttered one word of untruth. This is absolutely borne out by the records. In all my fifty years of public service I have never seen a document more crowded with infamous falsehoods and distortions - and on a scale so huge that I did not imagine until today that any Government on this planet was capable of uttering them.”