The submarine they buried, proof Pearl Harbor wasn’t a complete surprise.

SS:

Why comparing Russia’s “Pearl Harbor” to the real Pearl Harbor is an insult, and what the truth reveals.

On December 7, 1941, at 03:42 Hawaiian time, something happened that too many people either forget or were never taught.
The U.S. minesweeper USS Condor spotted a periscope southwest of Pearl Harbor’s entrance buoy a Japanese midget submarine, part of a pre-attack infiltration.
Condor alerted the destroyer USS Ward, and by 06:37, the Ward engaged and sank the submarine, firing the first U.S. shots in the Pacific Theater of WWII.

This happened an hour and 18 minutes before the first Japanese aircraft began their infamous attack on Pearl Harbor at 07:55.

The Ward’s commander, Lt. William Outerbridge, was new to the role, but he did his duty.
He sent a detailed report to Naval Command on Oahu. Yet, nothing was done. No general alert. No mobilization.
No planes scrambled. No battleships moved.
The warning died on someone’s desk.

In August 2002, the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory rediscovered that midget submarine.
It was resting in 1,200 feet of water, exactly where Outerbridge said it went down.
A hole from a 4-inch, 50mm shell was still visible in the conning tower.
The sub’s torpedoes were still loaded.
The two Japanese sailors inside, forever silent witnesses to a crucial piece of history.
This discovery finally confirmed what reports had said all along, but by then, decades had passed, and too much damage had been done.

Where it gets darker.

Historians like Gordon W. Prange, John Toland, and Robert J. C. Butow, the men who helped shape our mainstream understanding of Pearl Harbor, knew about the Ward’s encounter through Navy reports and interviews.
They referenced the incident in their works. But they didn’t have access to the physical wreck or proof of the Ward’s kill, because the sub lay undiscovered until 2002….

Great post