Yet, early in 1941, despite the secrecy, U.S. Ambassador Grew heard from Peru’s minister to Tokyo about a rumor that Japan was planning an attack on Pearl Harbor. Grew reported it to Washington, where it was immediately discounted. American officials simply could not believe—then or in the months following—that such an audacious assault was even possible. Moreover, officials in the Navy and State departments were astonished that an ambassador of Grew’s caliber could take seriously such an obviously ridiculous story.
