The Pearl Harbor problem is one of the most difficult in historical science. Much has been said about this tragedy, a huge range of opinions surrounds the events of sixty-five years ago. The approaches and concepts were affected by the logic of the internal political struggle in the United States and the confrontation with the Cold War. But the Russian public, both history buffs and most professionals, know those days and events that are already far from us more by hearsay. The distance and time separating us from the island of Oahu, lost in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, give domestic historians a unique chance to take an unbiased look at the problem. That is why most of the book by military historians M.S. Maslova and S.L. Zubkova is dedicated not so much to the morning events of December 7, 1941, but to the complex interweaving of political, military and diplomatic realities that made the Japanese attack inevitable.