'Magic' was the name given to the American decoding of the secret Japanese codes used in diplomatic communications before and during the Pacific War of 1941-45. This important new work, presenting a Japanese perspective, argues for the first time that in the final phase of the eight months of US-Japan talks leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor, serious mistranslations in Magic were a significant factor in the cumulative effect of mutual misunderstandings which grew between the two sides over a longer period. In spite of the number of historians who take the opposite point of view, the...
'Magic' was the name given to the American decoding of the secret Japanese codes used in diplomatic communications before and during the Pacific War o...