 On December 7th, 1941, Japan attacked an American military base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. However, an important message was sent that warned of an imminent attack from Japan. The message was received on the 6th of December, but wasn't translated until the 8th, one day after the attack. If the US military had translated these messages earlier, there's a good chance the Navy fleet would have been deployed to attack the Japanese, but they didn't, which saved a whole lot of lives. Why? Well, at the time, ships versus aircrafts usually didn't end well for the ships. Ships just weren't equipped to defend themselves from an air attack. Yes, the fleet was bombed in the attack. Eight ships sank, but there is a huge difference between ships getting sunk in the harbor, where crews were easily rescued, and six of the ships saved. Versus out in the open ocean, where those same ships would have wound up on the ocean floor, along with 20,000 sailors on board. Click on the link below to see the full video.