The Truth About Pearl Harbor

The Truth about Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941- Japan aggressively attacks the United States at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The attack was a shock to the American citizens, however was the attack a surprise to Franklin Delano Roosevelt or the United States government and military? No, this was no surprise to Roosevelt nor any other government official. The United States military actively engaged in a series of increasingly stringent economic warfare that would influence Japan in attacking United States territories, such as Pearl Harbor.

The American citizens have always believed that their home country was taking part in neutrality, but truthfully the United States has always been at war. The United States was not directly fighting in Germany, but the United States’s active involvement in its alliance with Britain, France, and the Soviet Union proved there was a side being taken. The United States actively cooperated with the military of Britain and provided information of the combat operations of the Germans. The United States also alerted the British when an aerial threat was going to attack, or if there was a marine threat of submarines in the Pacific.

Britain, France, and the Soviet Union, however, were not the only countries the United States was giving support to. The United States presented the Chinese with warplanes and pilots while China was at war with Japan. America was actively engaged in economic warfare against the Japanese where there efforts were to weaken the economy of Japan and eradicate their political stability. They did so by creating blockades to help China intercept the contraband that was going to be received by Japan (Higgs). The economic warfare against Japan was a provocation, intentionally given by the United States. This is just the main idea of George Victor’s words:

The claim that Japan attacked the United States without provocation was typical rhetoric. It worked because the public did not know that the administration had expected Japan to respond with war to anti-Japanese measures it had taken in July 1941. Expecting to lose a war with the United States, and lose it disastrously, Japan's leaders had tried with growing desperation to negotiate. According to Attorney General Francis Biddle, Roosevelt said he hoped for an "incident" in the Pacific to bring the United States into the European war. (Victor 4)

Franklin D. Roosevelt became the United States President in 1933. Roosevelt was very prejudice against the Japanese and admired the Chinese because according to historical documents, Roosevelt’s ancestors made their profits from the China Trade. Roosevelt made sure that the United States kept in close contact with China along with Britain and France. Roosevelt and his subordinates were fully aware that Japan was being put into an untenable position. The only likely way out of this untenable position for Japan would be going into war, the exact situation the United States government wanted. It was also documented that cryptographers were able to interpret the Japanese naval code. Coincidentally, this critical information was not shared with the military unit in Hawaii (Freeman).

The most provoking actions were engaged with regards to economic warfare. This can be setting up blockades or evict the economic assets of a country. This is exactly what Roosevelt did on July 24 1941, just months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt erased all the Japanese assets in America, and because of the pooled alliance, Britain and the Dutch East Indies proceeded with the same actions. As a result, Japan lost three-fourths of their oversea trade, then over time proceeded to loses eighty-eight percent of their much valued imported oil. All these losses are the fault of Franklin Roosevelt, which was done intentionally. Government officials addressed that when they revealed the naval code used by the Japanese, they then sent a warning to Hawaii from Washington DC, but it arrived too late. There was new technology used to seek and find the Japanese fighter planes on radar, but Roosevelt, in Washington DC, declared that they were a United States crew of B-17’s. Hawaii then thought less of it and had no time for preparation (Pvt McDonald).

December 8, 1941- the day after the tragedy at Pearl Harbor. On that day, Roosevelt delivered his infamy speech. In this speech Roosevelt says the following:

The United States was at peace with that nation, and, at the solicitation