You will find those two words “cowardice” and “sneak attack” in nearly every account or mention of the attack from noon (Hawaii time) Dec. 7, 1941 until the 1970s, so I really doubt that it is a modern phenomenon… we are just repeating the description in the history books, movies, that our parents/grandparents, etc used… and so on.
I realize that it was a sound way of executing the less-than-brilliant plan, and required considerably courage by all involved, but the fact still remains that it was a “sneak attack”.
The much ballyhood multi-part message that was delivered late by the Japanese Ambassador did NOT, in any way, constitute a “Declaration of War”.
It said that Japan was breaking off negotiations… something that did not automatically mean a commencement of hostilities… either then or now.
Even if it had been delivered before the attack started, there would still have been NO “State of War”, and the attack would still have been a peacetime attack.
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