Was Roosevelt responsible for Pearl Harbour

By the early morning of December 7, 1941 the Japanese Naval force led by Admiral Nagumo had parked his fleet of 6 aircraft carriers 230 nautical miles off the north coast of the Hawaiian Islands completely undetected. The fleet had approximately 423 aircraft with a final destination of Pearl Harbor. At 600 a.m. the first wave of 180 aircraft were launch to attach the sleeping Hawaiian bay. At 702 a.m. an Army radar station sights the aircraft inbound and report to their direct officer who is aware of a squadron of B-17’s due in from the west coast and write off the sighting am friendly forces. This was the first of many mistakes that would become evident within the hour.

Introduction: December 7 1941 marked a significant date, when the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the United States Naval base, Pearl Harbour. The day after the attack, on December 8 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt presented his Infamy Speech to American civilians stating that; “Yesterday, December 7th 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. I asked that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on December 7 1941”. The purpose of this report is to show that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had no prior knowledge about the surprise attack supported by historical evidence in comparison to Robert Stinnett’s thoughts, the American journalist and former sailor that knew about the Japanese planning a attack on Pearl Harbour in advance.

As early as January 1941, reports suggested that Japan might attack Pearl Harbor; but civilian and military officials in Washington and Hawaii ignored these reports, considering an assault on the Philippines or European territories more likely, and underestimating Japan's ability to conceal preparations for such an operation. By the summer of 1941 American leaders knew, due to the success of the magic cryptanalysis operation in breaking Japanese military operational codes that Japan was likely to take military action of some kind (Irive). Japan had only about a 12-month supply of petroleum to fuel its economy and war machine, so the Americans anticipated the Japanese would act quickly. The only questions they could not answer were when and where (Woods). Pearl Harbor had been a major naval

In January 1941, reports were received that Japan might attack Pearl Harbor but military officials ignored these reports. They considered attacks on the Philippines and other European countries to be more likely, underestimating Japan’s ability to conceal preparations for such an operation. Due to the success of the cryptanalysis machine called, Magic, American leaders started breaking Japanese military operational codes. The codes that were deciphered showed Japan was likely to take some type of military action (Irive). At that time, Japan had only a 12-month supply of petroleum to fuel its economy and war operations left. So the U.S. anticipated Japan would act quickly! The only questions that could not be answered were when and where (Woods). Pearl Harbor had been a major naval base since before 1898. In early

On November 26, 1941, the Japanese Task Force comprised of six aircraft carriers. A support force, which included two battleships, three cruisers, nine destroyers, three submarines, escorted it and eight oil supply ships, began their trek to Hawaii. They must travel four thousand miles across open sea and remain undetected by the UNITED STATES Forces. (Wisniewski 20) The UNITED STATES Military knew a surprise attack by Japan was possible and they thought they were prepared. Adm. Husband E. Kimmel and Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, the commanders of the UNITED STATES Naval and Army forces in Hawaii, respectively, had regularly scheduled training exercises and had taken many precautions to avert disaster. (Pearl Harbor’s History, Filmstrip)

On December 7th, 1941 Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan. On this horrific day over 2,400 Americans were killed by the bombs that the Japanese had dropped. A month preliminary to the attack, Japan sent a plenipotentiary to Washington to arrange the nation’s expansions in Asia. Although if the United States didn’t accept this aggression, Japan was ready to launch a surprise attack. President Roosevelt launched bombs to the Philippines between the Japanese and Dutch oil fields, before they had sent the plenipotentiary. The bombing of Pearl Harbor was over seven hours long, they were 353 Japanese fighter planes, torpedo planes launched bomb. They were a bombing blitz that destroyed 188 U.S. aircraft, had sunken 4 U.S. Navy battleships, and killed more than 2400 Americans with an additional 1,100 injured.

A series of Japanese codes broken by the U.S. Crytologist in 1920 revealed the country preparation for war, after decoding another of message that orders a ship to be position in Pearl Harbor (Glick). Before the raid Britain had broken Japanese codes and had key clues (Glick). They broke Japan’s diplomatic code; American officials knew about the Japan’s Embassy order to destroy its codes machines (Pearl Harbor). On October 9, 1941 the War Department decoded a Tokyo-to-Honolulu dispatch instructing the consul General to divide Pearl Harbor into five areas and to tell the exact location of American ship in that area (Perloff). The Dutch army decoded a dispatch forecasting attacks on four areas including Hawaii (Perloff). There were a lot of different Japanese codes that were cracked, warning of the Japanese going to attack on Pearl Harbor.

Military and government to decrypt the Japanese war codes as well as communicate effectively with each other. As Parker explains in his publication Pearl Harbor Revisited,

On the evening of Dec 5th, 48 hours before the attack, both British and Dutch cryptanalysts said they had reports of Japanese carriers heading for Hawaii as early as November 1941. (Smiley, G.,

These messages, intercepted on December 3rd and 4th weren't translated until December 10th. The messages showed Tokyo asking for information concerning Pearl Harbor. Japan had no reason to ask for this information, unless it planned to use it to attack ships in the harbor. If translated sooner, these messages would have warned the US of the imminent attack. Many indicators for Pearl Harbor could have repeated before the attack on the calm morning on 9-1-1.

Introduction On December 7th of 1941 one of the most critical events on America’s history occurred, the surprise attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into the Second World War and changed the course of history (Gordon). This occurrence marked history due to the lack of explanation given by the Japanese at the time. To this day the reasoning behind their attack is still unknown. 1939 is a fundamental year, which marks the start of World War II.

Prior to the upcoming Coral Sea battle, a number of Japanese military messages had been intercepted by the U.S. Navy signals intelligence unit. The first, dated March 28, 1942, was encoded as stating “The objective of MO will be first to restrict the enemy fleet movements and will be accomplished by means of attacks on the north coast of Australia.” (“Battle of the Coral Sea”) Subsequent messages were intercepted that provided allied forces with updated details concerning IJN fleet progress, as well as elements of IJN plans that included battleship and carrier logistics. This resulted in the U.S. Navy’s deployment of a cotillion of numerous warships and support craft, and also the carriers Lexington and Yorktown (“Battle of the Coral Seas”). In the upcoming battle, these ships would do battle against a superior IJN force comprised of far more battleships, submarines and support craft, as well as aircraft carriers.

American Intelligence broke Japanese codes but misunderstood the intent of the Japanese messages. Decoded messages made it clear that an attack would come in a matter of days after November 29, but the place of attack was not clear. Most officials were convinced Japan would move against British or Dutch possessions to the south. American Intelligence noted a fleet of Japanese ships sailing in the general direction of Hawaii but was more concerned with a large Japanese convoy moving toward the China Sea. Partly because of the vast distance between Hawaii and Japan, few officials believed an attack was possible on American territory.

intelligence decoded a message. This message indicated that Japan would attack the next day and it was delivered to Washington around nine o’clock in the morning, more four hours before the attack started (“A Pearl Harbor Timeline”). While those four hours would have been crucial for commanders to prepare to defend the naval base, the message was not forwarded, arriving after the attack had already begun (“A Pearl Harbor Timeline”). The attack lasted for two hours and twenty minutes, resulting in 150 damaged aircraft, 9 damaged ships, 160 destroyed aircraft, and 12 sunken ships (“Today in History – December 7”). The attack on Pearl Harbor ended with 2,400 Americans dead and 1,200 others were wounded (“A Pearl Harbor

According to the book The Pearl Harbor Myth: Rethinking the Unthinkable, the author says the President Roosevelt surprised his advisers twelve days before the attack, by saying the war on Japan was about to begin. So, if Roosevelt knew, why didn’t keep the caution in military bases or the whole country. It was also said that Henry Stimson the secretary of war, noted on his diary that President Roosevelt asked what should they do. The question was should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger for ourselves. Many generations of scholars always disregard Stimson diary and accuse him of writing too fast, or writing about what he believed. Stimson also wrote that by long traditions, our presidents are not seen