Codes of War-Pearl Harbor

The Codes of Pearl Harbor are a collection of intercepted messages from Japanese government and military and messages to and from US officials surrounding the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.

Some historians have pointed out that the decoding of these messages should clearly have indicated the extraordinary interest of the Japanese government in position of ships in Pearl Harbor on a daily basis. If any thing, the messages show that Pearl Harbor was a very likely target to be attacked by Japan. After reading these , it’s hard to believe no one figured out Hawaii was the target. And that is the purpose of this presentation. To show the students that it was fairly obvious war was breaking out at Pearl Harbor. Sure, there were thousands of messages to decode, and many were decoded by different intelligent agencies in different places. That all helped Japan in keeping their secret. Plus the fact most thought Pearl Harbor was too far away from Japan to be a target.
As I show these slides in class, I have the students write down what is important in each message. ( I usually group the kids by 4 or 5, and make them responsible for slide 2, next group side 3 , etc.) Each eventually focus on 5-6 slides Of course, we take about the key words, and phrases.
Keeps the class interest and makes them think. Fun activity.

Store: Hook Them on History - Doug Stuart