TheCodeBreakers
weighed anchor and sliced across the wrinkled surface of Tankan Bay.
They steamed slightly south of east, heading into the "vacant sea"—the
wintry North Pacific, whose wastes were undefiled by merchant tracks
and whose empty vastness would swallow up the force. They had been
ordered to return if detected before December 6 (Tokyo time); if
discovered on December 7, Nagumo would decide whether or not to
attack. Strict radio silence was enjoined. Aboard the battleship Hiei,
Commander Kazuyoshi Kochi, a communications officer for the force,
removed an essential part of his transmitter and put it in a wooden box,
which he used as a pillow. The force drove eastward through fog, gale
winds, and high seas. No one saw them.
Meanwhile, Hull, after a frantic week of drafting, consultations, and
redraftings, had completed the American reply to Japan's proposal. It
called upon Japan to withdraw all forces from China and Indochina and
annaabi.ee 
