I dunno, IIRC the Japanese declared war just far enough in advance to ensure the US wouldn’t have time to respond. Unless, ya know, you just happened to have the fuckin’ Nimitz up your sleeze.
Radio officer: Captain, we just intercepted a Japanese message declaring war on our fathers.
Captain: Yippe ki ay motherfucker! 
No, they didn’t. The declaration came after the attack.
A trip to wiki confirms you’re right about the formal declaration of war, but it seems they did have enough information to justify a pre-emtive strike against any warships near Hawaii
Technically, America fired the first shots, against mini-subs that had penetrated Pearl Harbor. But that is way different from attacking a whole fleet on the high seas.
Regardless, there wouldn’t have been much in the way of international repercussions, as the UN didn’t yet exist. Such an attack may or may not have changed Hitler’s decision to declare war on the US.
But I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an immediate move to impeach Roosevelt.
Well that would spawn an interesting spin off question.
If you were Roosevelt, you have the choice of a pre-emptive attack and impeachment or allowing Pearl Harbour to go ahead - what do you do?
And something else that occurs to me. Once all of the ordnance on the Nimitz was expended, what sort of a platform could it become for the heavy bombers of the era, and would it make much difference? Or may a few flights of Spitfires to offer protection to the bombers in the final stages of a bombing run (wasn’t part of the problem of fighter protection back then that the fighters didn’t have enough range?)
Well a few things come to mind here.
first off by the time the smoke clears, the Japanese ambassador would have declared war.
Secondly I am reminded of the logic of one Harry Calahan
[Harry Callahan has to explain why he shot a man]
Harry Callahan: Well, when an adult male is chasing a female with intent to commit rape, I shoot the bastard. That’s my policy.
The Mayor: Intent? How did you establish that?
Harry Callahan: When a naked man is chasing a woman through an alley with a butcher’s knife and a hard-on, I figure he isn’t out collecting for the Red Cross!
[walks out of the room]
The Mayor: He’s got a point.
6 IJN carriers in the waters off Hawaii launching a alpha strike with fully armed planes. Somehow I don’t think they are collecting for the Red Cross.
Lastly and this is the one I really like, the IJN attack was sailing under radio silence. With just a little bit of luck, word would not get back to Japan on the fate of their attack force.
All they would know is that:
A) they sent out 6 carriers
B) They declared war
C) Pearl Harbor was not bombed
D) Nobody came home
This would have the entire Japanese high command going 
WTF?
Ah, a secret war. I was thinking about that from the other side, that the US would keep the carrier from the future a secret from everyone, including the US population.
Actually, I think if the Japanes force was attacked, they would break radio silence. The point of it is to keep their location secret, and it would be obvious that it no longer was.
The radio used in those days was not a 100% sure thing that you grabbed a mike and you had Tokyo on the line.* If the attack was violent enough and fast enough a message might not make it off the IJN ships and even if it did, it might not be received due to radio conditions at the time.
*Read some WWII US submarine history for more on this, there were times where a sub could not contact Pearl, but might get Australia or maybe no one.
Here’s a photo of an F6F on a hangar catapult in 1943 on the Essex-class Yorktown.
Here’s a pic of one in use on the Essex-class Hornet. The accompanying text comments on them being impractical and removed except in the case of the Hornet.
I believe the original idea was to be able to launch scout aircraft without having to interrupt whatever was going on up on the flight deck.
I just wanted to say that I loved that movie when I was a kid and I must have watched it a hundred times on Betamax (I lived in a country where VHS lost the format wars). I completely forgot about the movie for about 20 years and I rediscovered it last year. Still awesome as ever.
They planned all along to break radio silence, and did so to show that complete surprise had been achieved, when the Japanese warplanes were actually over Pearl Harbor and broadcast the coded message “Tora Tora Tora.”
That’s pretty much what happened at Midway; when that was over the Japanese had effectively lost the war though it dragged on for a long time.
What do you mean the Marines would be useless? They have SEALs on board as well. These guys have sniper rifles with night vision and thermal scopes. Yes they are a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of people in the war, their equipment is just so much better. I mean c’mon freakin NIGHT VISION, back than you had to shoot up a flare if you wanted to attack at night and that showed off your position as much as theirs. Behind the lines strikes with helicopters + SEALS = short guerrilla war
That is true, and it was one of their aircraft sending back to the fleet. It is extremely doubtful that the transmission could have reached back to Japan.
OTOH, it may also have been a signal that cued the fleet that it was okay to send their own report back to Tokyo. Though I’ve read many things about this message being sent, and it’s literal meaning, I’ve never read anything about what other actions this message might have triggered.
Oops, forgot to ask this. They sent the Tora tora tora message to indicate they had achieved surprise and the attack was starting. Did they have a list of other messages to send if the circumstances were different: like, “We are here, but we haven’t achieved surprise. Defenses are fully alerted and active.”
I have never heard there were a list of messages to send, but it would make a lot of sense for there to be one.
There’s a SEAL team on every carrier? I am doubtful. Though I did note upthread that the personal weapons of normal Marines could make a big differrence if they could be copied. But I’m thinking sniper scopes and night vision vision goggles are kinda specialized and wouldn’t be with a normal marine security detachment.
But I could be wrong.
It is an aircraft carrier…Why wouldn’t they have a full magazine of different weapons and equipment. Night vision would be a huge advantage
How reliant are the precision munitions and such on GPS?
The antiship munitions aren’t because the targets move. They are generally either radar guided or laser guided.
But… if this is the Nimitz of 1980, GPS didn’t exist yet, I don’t think. And, how much of their munitions would be precision of any type?
Becasue they have no need for it? Carriers don’t deploy troops into battle. They have a Marine detachment for some pretty rare events --slapping a sailor into the brig, guarding a prisoner. They might have some specialized gear for seach and rescue – pilots shot down in enemy territory, for example.
It would be nice if a Marine would wander through this thread.
