" IN TOKYO, the American ambassador to Japan heard something about a possible surprise attack. “There is a lot of talk around town to the effect that the Japanese, in case of a break with the United States, are planning to go all out in a surprise mass attack at Pearl Harbor,” the ambassador, Joseph Grew, wrote in his diary. “Of course I informed my government.” It was January 24, 1941. "

― Nicholson Baker , Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, The End of Civilization