The Japanese continued their advance through China, and suddenly, with the colonial powers overrun, excepting Great Britain, all of the Far East looked truly vulnerable. As if to underline that threat, the Japanese abruptly demanded far larger supplies of oil from the East Indies, now under the sway of the Dutch government-in-exile in London. Fearful that a beleaguered Britain would withdraw its own forces from the Far East, Washington made a fateful decision; it transferred the American fleet from its base in Southern California to Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. Since the fleet
...more
