That Sunday morning in December 1941 on the Hawaiian island of Honolulu had started peacefully enough. Lieutenants were still familiarizing themselves with the naval base’s new radar system when a radar operator on the far end of the island informed the on-duty lieutenant of an unusually large blip on his radar screen—signs of a fast-approaching aircraft fleet over a hundred miles away. The lieutenant’s first reaction was, “Don’t worry about it.” He assumed the blip was a squadron of B-17 bombers due in from San Francisco, not the first wave of Japanese bombers.
