INTERVIEW: The Forgotten Spy Who Fought Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor had a spy most people have never heard of.

Leon Carroll Jr. joins Why Wars Happened to uncover the forgotten story of Douglas Wada, a Japanese-American intelligence officer whose work in Hawaii helped shape the earliest days of WWII.

⏱ Timestamps

00:00 – Welcome to Why Wars Happened

00:50 – Meet Leon Carroll Jr.

01:41 – Douglas Wada: The All-American Kid

03:05 – Rise of the Office of Naval Intelligence

04:37 – Writing Ghost of Honolulu with Mark Harmon

07:24 – Wada’s identity as a Japanese American

10:46 – Meeting Wada’s family

15:32 – Hawaii before Pearl Harbor

17:27 – Japanese espionage in Hawaii

19:28 – The first U.S. POW in WWII

22:03 – Wada’s secret work & interrogations

24:52 – Baseball and Japanese American culture

29:52 – Researching hidden history

33:26 – Remembering Doug Wada’s legacy

35:54 – What’s next for Leon Carroll Jr.

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