The Japanese spy at Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack

At the Japanese consulate in Honolulu there has been working, since 27 March 1941, a young "vice-consul" named Tadashi Morimura. It is a cover: he is in reality Takeo Yoshikawa, a reserve naval ensign trained at the Naval Academy, whom a stomach illness had pushed out of an officer's career before his recruitment by naval intelligence. His mission is precise: to observe and report to Tokyo the movements of the American Pacific Fleet, anchored at Pearl Harbor.

For months, with neither a network nor sophisticated equipment, he relies on direct observation. He roams Oahu, rents small aircraft, frequents a Japanese restaurant overlooking the base to count the ships. He passes to Consul General Nagao Kita reports of great accuracy on the position of the battleships, which enable Admiral Yamamoto's staff to refine the planning of the attack. A key point: Yoshikawa himself does not know that an attack has been decided, still less its date.

On 6 December 1941, on the eve of the attack, he has his last report on the fleet at anchor transmitted. For this agent under diplomatic cover, at the moment war is about to break out, the question arises starkly: remain at his post at the risk of being arrested, flee the island, or choose death over capture?