File talk:PearlHarborCarrierChart.jpg

This chart is from "Reports of General MacArthur, prepared by his General Staff.", printed in 1966 by the Government Printing Office. The map shows the route of the Kido Butai (Striking Force) from the Japanese Home Islands to the launching point north of Hawaii and back to Japan. To the original map I have added the routes of the USS Enterprise and USS Lexington. The longitude and latitude for each day was taken from copies of the deck logs for each ship as included in the "Congressional Investigation Into The Attack On Pearl Harbor."

If you look at the map you will see that the dates show when the carriers left port and where they were on the day of the attack. What you can't see from this map is that the Enterprise had been scheduled to return to Hawaii on Dec. 6th, but had been delayed because heavy seas had made it difficult to refuel her escorting destroyers. The ship was eager to get back in port on Sunday, they had a major softball game scheduled against their prime rival in the league, USS Arizona, to be played that afternoon.

You can also use this chart to locate the position of a Japanese tanker that, according to some people, was near Hawaii and broadcasting her position. The author of that item mistakenly confused "156E" with "156W" for the longitude. 156E is very close to where the Kido Butai's path crosses the 30S latitude line, near Wake Island.

So, from this one chart you can see that the Japanese chose a very careful route to Hawaii, one with little traffic. You can also see that the carriers were not "hustled out of port just before the attack", as some people claimed, and that, in fact, one of them was trying to get back into Pearl before the attack happened. And, that the reports that a Japanese naval vessel was broadcasting from "north of Hawaii" is very, very wrong.

Commons
I've uploaded this image to the Commons. unf (discussion) 62.43.36.154 15:27, 18 October 2005 (UTC)