There is nothing new on the conspiracy front and they existed then just as they do today.
I am a bit of a history buff and WWII is a fascinating topic beginning many years prior to actual combat. It is clear that our leaders in the West knew that Japan was going to expand and that had already begun. Britain knew this even better than we did and when the war in Europe broke out it was clear that the British could not capably defend their far East holdings.
It is easy to see in hindsight that war was going to break out in the region. What was NOT easy to see based on what I have read was that Japan would launch a sneak attack on the US Navy at Pearl Harbor. How could we have known? Sure, there were War College studies of “what if?” but nobody knew that Warplan Orange would happen or if it did it would involve a sneak Japanese attack on our main naval base.
Japan, like Germany, went whole hog in one decisive action while most of our intel types believed they would focus on one or two objectives at once. In hindsight, Japan was convinced we would declare war on them so they went for broke. In reality, they likely could have taken many of their goals piecemeal and lessened the chance of provoking us into war.
Pearl Harbor was a military victory but a strategic blunder of massive consequence. It guaranteed that we would enter the conflict on a massive scale.
I feel like Japan could have actually invaded and captured hawaii and that would have been big. They thought big but not big enough
Still, it seems incredible that both the army and navy commands at Pearl hadn’t taken more serious actions to prepare the bases for war. It was absolutely clear that the Japanese were going to continue aggressive action in the Pacific and we would be in their way.
Pearl Harbor was a recent move closer to Japan and with most of our naval eggs in one basket, it would be an attractive target.
Nobody thought about putting the bases on 50% readiness, leaves canceled, steam up, ready ammunition boxes filled and firing crews on watch, increased air patrols?
Imagine if there had been a climate change conspiracy and we had cut back on the use of those nasty fossil fuels to feed our B-17’s in Europe and carriers in the Pacific and our heavy industry that ultimately defeated Japan and Germany. We would still be fighting for our survival. The reason we were victorious was not because of our courage but because of our plentiful supplies of our natural resources among which were those beautiful fossil fuels.
Anyone think we DO NOT need fossil fuels in the future to fight China and keep NATO and the UN alive? Dream on.
Whether conspiracy or not we were caught flat footed on December 7, 1941.
It doesn't surprise me at all about the superiority of British intelligence. These are the people after all who invented radar. Seeing the enemy before he even knows you're there. The Brits have had to be resourceful as an island nation. The British have a long history of organizing guerrilla bands and skillfully attacking their enemies. So naturally any information gained has to be weighed as to who should know, even an ally. Churchill wanted the US in the war to save the empire and he knew we were the cash box and the industrial power house. That was his driving reason.