“FDR provoked nothing, he responded appropriately to defend our nation.”
And it worked. If they fleet had not been there Japan could’ve simply invaded Hawaii and held it. And then their fleets would be hanging out off the west coast and the panama canal and the US would’ve been Effed.
It was the right move, and I doubt it was FDR’s idea anyway.
Japan was never going to invade Hawaii. It’s at the outside range of their logistics. They did not have enough shipping to support an invasion. There was no way the Imperial Japanese Army would have provided troops for such an operation. They only provided 10 division for the entire invasion of the Southern Resource Area.