PEARL HARBOR : DID ROOSEVELT KNOW?

 

 It is hard to believe that tomorrow is the 68th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. There are people who believe that Franklin Roosevelt knew about the attack in advance and even allowed it to happen in order to draw America into WW2. I am not a fan of Franklin Roosevelt but I can't believe that an American president would purposely stand by and allow thousands of our military to be needlessly sacrificed along with the American fleet in order to justify our involvement in WW2. Maybe I am too naive but from a historical perspective this belief makes no sense. Historical records show that Roosevelt thought Hitler to be the greatest threat. Britain was fighting Germany alone and Roosevelt wanted to enter the war on the side of Britain. The American people, however; were overwhelmingly opposed to entering the war. During the 1940 presidential campaign Roosevelt made this promise to the American people at a campaign rally in Boston. " I have said this before but I shall say it again, and again, and again, your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign war". This statement made in October 1940 illustrates the fact that many politicians will say whatever they have to say to be elected. Britain was fighting for their very survival. France had surrendered to the Germans on June 25th. When Roosevelt made this statement he had to know that this was a promise that he was not likely to keep. Although Japan was a thorn in his side Roosevelt's focus was on Hitler. 

 By December 7th 1941 America had broken Japan's diplomatic code. Roosevelt and the War Department knew that the Japanese were going to attack us at 1:00 PM Washington time. There is a five hour time difference between Washington D.C. and Pearl Harbor. The Japanese had released a 14 part message to their embassy over a period of hours on the morning of Sunday December 7th and by the 14th and final part of the message we knew we were about to be attacked. The problem was that we didn't know where we were going to be attacked. All of our military installations were warned with the exception of Pearl Harbor. The Navy tried to warn them but they couldn't get through because of problems with the ionosphere. The Army in it's wisdom sent the alert message by Western Union and the message arrived about an hour after the attack had begun. Nobody believed that the Japanese had the logistical capability to pull off an air attack on Pearl Harbor so far away from Japan. 

  What many American's fail to consider is the fact that if Hitler had not declared war on the United States, four days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt would have faced a dilemma. He wanted a Europe first policy in fighting the war as did Winston Churchill. American's were furious at the Japanese and that is who they wanted to fight. They had no beef with the Germans. Hitler's declaration of war ended Roosevelt's dilemma. In my view the two worst mistakes that Hitler made in the war was invading Russia and declaring war on the United States. By treaty, Hitler was under no obligation to declare war. Under the terms of the Tripartite Pact between Germany, Japan, and Italy, each of the signers were obligated to declare war only if one of the three countries were attacked by an enemy. In the case of Japan, they were the aggressors, not the United States. Like the attacks on September 11th, Pearl Harbor was the result of underestimating our enemy and missing the vital clues leading up to the attacks. I am reminded of the first time that I saw the movie Sixth Sense. The first time I saw that movie it gave me the creeps. At no point did I realize that Bruce Willis was a ghost until it was revealed at the end of the movie. The second time that I saw the movie I realized that clues were everywhere but I failed to see them. When you study Pearl Harbor and September 11th we can see all the clues that were missed by the experts.