:: There being no cable between the Hawaiian Islands
:: and the mainland at the time
Wait...what?
"The first trans-pacific cables were completed in 1902-03, linking the
US mainland to Hawaii in 1902 and Guam to the Philippines in 1903.
Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji were also linked in 1902.
scott
IIRC, the message was sent via courier instead of cable or telephone to
prevent interception. Did the military not even trust its own cryptographic
methods? Or did they not think withdrawal of the Japanese ambassador was not
very critical?
The message was sent by Western Union. There being no cable between the
Hawaiian Islands and the mainland at the time, the message went by commercial
radio, in plaintext, and thence by civilian bicycle messenger (of Japanese
ancestry, as it happened) to Fort Shafter, where it was read while the attack
was in progress.
David Kahn's fine book, _The Codebreakers_, discusses this in rather more
detail. I recommend the original version; the paperback and later hardback
editions contain rather less meat.