Posted on 12/08/2018 2:26:02 PM PST by rktman
On Dec. 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan bombed the U.S. Pacific Fleet which was stationed in Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. In addressing Congress the next day, President Roosevelt called it “a date which will live in infamy.”
But Roosevelt’s reputation should live in infamy too. The line that Roosevelt enthusiasts and left-wing historians have peddled for so many years is that the attack was a complete surprise.
Here’s a sample from The American Pageant, a typical left-wing American history textbook widely used in American high schools:
Officials in Washington, having “cracked” the top-secret code of the Japanese, knew that Tokyo’s decision was for war … Roosevelt, misled by Japanese ship movements in the Far East, evidently expected the blow to fall on British Malaya or on the Philippines. No one in high authority in Washington seems to have believed that the Japanese were either strong enough or foolhardy enough to strike Hawaii.
That’s the left’s version, and it’s in line with the rest of the “fake history” they want American high school students to learn. The Education and Research Institute (ERI — of which I am chairman) has written a critique of The American Pageant, which tells a more accurate story about Pearl Harbor and scores of other events in American history.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
And it was the icon of the Democrat party FDR who interred the Japanese Americans in 1942.
Toland contends President FDR knew.
Prange contends FDR did not.
I thought it was telling that Prange basically argued: FDR did not know, but even if he did, it was a good thing because we needed to get into the war.
I think FDR knew we were going to be attacked, but never believed the Japanese could hit us so hard and do so much damage. Before Pearl Harbor, and even for a short while later, Churchill and FDR very much underestimated the Japanese.
The British navy paid a terrible price with the sinking of the Prince of Wales and and the Repulse. Churchill sent them in the South Pacific without any air cover, The sinking occurred on 10 December, 1941, three days after Pearl Harbor.
Yeah, I get it. It’s like,history? Just old stuff.
While I do believe that FDR was trying to maneuver this country into war, primarily because of England and Europe, his policies did finally squeeze the Japanese. When Oil and Scrap Metal, among other things, were cut off by the U.S., Japan decided on War.
It was only a matter of time till some kind of hostilities started and FDR knew this, but he had no advance knowledge of a specific target, my take anyway.
There is a lot more to that story. Kimmel and Short are not totally to blame.
I was reading about the building and refitting of battleships during WWII.
Something I had not thought about but makes obvious sense is the vast increase in antiaircraft guns. Still didn’t stop a lot of them being sunk but those British ships might have survived with more.
There’s some interesting history, there:
Early in the war a very real fear Stalin had was that the Japanese would attack him in the east, putting him in a two front war. Stalin needed all available troops for fighting at Stalingrad and Kursk, obviously.
One of Stalin’s most effective spies was Richard Sorge, who was dispatched to Japan to ferret out the question of Japanese intentions against Stalin. After much digging and risk Sorge informed Moscow (from a radio on a beach, as the Japanese Gestapo equivalent closed in on him) that Stalin needn’t worry about any eastern front —the Japanese were very busy elsewhere:
Only by being armed with this precious info could Stalin feel free to shift west the yuge legions of troops up until then tied down in a needless eastern guarding action (this had major implications at Stalingrad and elsewhere).
But before all that in fact Sorge many times plainly told Stalin the exact date of Barbarrossa’s opening day. And later when Hitler postponed Barbarossa Sorge told Stalin that, too.
Yet true to his paranoid nature Stalin disbelieved and did nothing.
He also did NOTHING to save Sorge, who went to the noose never losing faith Stalin would save his neck.
Oh, and Stalin did nothing to save his own son, taken POW by the Wehrmacht.
What an insect.
I am no admirer of Roosevelt. He was a left winger in the extreme. Roosevelt recognized the need of the USA entering the war against Germany. At this time the USA was isolationist and it was politically impossible for Roosevelt to enter the war against Germany and Japan.
I myself have always suspected he welcomed this attack as the USA then became on a war footing against Japan and Germany with our total industrial might to defeat both.
At the successful conclusion of the war when we had the atomic bomb and total supremacy on the field of battle, Roosevelt gave it all away to the Soviets. He gave away Eastern Europe and allowed the Soviet Union to become a great power for evil. Soon followed after his death Mao in China. I do not think he did this in ignorance. The Soviets were evil and Roosevelt was their handmaiden by choice. He was also evil.
At best Roosevelt was a fool, I do not think he was a fool and thus just plain damn evil.
The Soviets didn’t warn the US, but no one knows why.
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One reason is that soon after Pearl Harbor, the Soviets transferred dozens of army divisions to the Eastern Front to help fight the Germans. The Japanese did the Russians a big favor when they attacked Pearl Harbor. They knew they were safe from Japanese attack so they could concentrate on the Germans.
Interesting factoid: The Japanese plan for attacking Pearl Harbor was originally developed by an American Admiral, who used it to stage a simulated attack in 1932. The simulated attack was overwhelmingly successful, but the bureaucrats refused to believe the Japanese could pull it off. https://www.military.com/navy/pearl-harbor-first-attack.html
The Soviets didn’t warn the US, but no one knows why.
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One reason is that soon after Pearl Harbor, the Soviets transferred dozens of army divisions to the Eastern Front to help fight the Germans. The Japanese did the Russians a big favor when they attacked Pearl Harbor. They knew they were safe from Japanese attack so they could concentrate on the Germans.
That’s sad and disgusting.
I recently read a book which stated that the fuel from the above ground tanks at Pearl Harbor was pumped into underground tanks before the attack.
Stalin had lots of supporters in the FDR administration
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At the Potsdam Conference, Truman told Stalin about the bomb. Truman and Churchill wondered why Stalin was not surprised by the news. Stalin knew all about the Manhattan Project from his spies in the Roosevelt administration.
I think the pivotal word is “surprise” attack.
In military history, most of the time it’s only a “surprise” because the attack does not make sense strategically.
The Kenpeitai?
Very informative history lesson.
Stalin also did not attempt to use the capture of Otto Hitler for any effect. Otto was Hitler’s nephew and the younger son of his brother (who foolishly insisted on fighting under his own name). Only after the war did it come out that the Soviets interrogated him and then executed him several months after capture.
When later on told of Nazi entreaties to exchange his son Jakub for captured Nazi officers, Stalin replied: “I have no son.” A real lover of humanity.
L8r
Thanks. Skimming through the article, it looks like pretty flimsy evidence.
He also did NOTHING to save Sorge, who went to the noose never losing faith Stalin would save his neck.
Oh, and Stalin did nothing to save his own son, taken POW by the Wehrmacht.
Yes. Stalin was a truly evil sociopath.
But reading Churchill's biography, written from his notes, diaries, and the notes and diaries of the people around him during the war, I came to the conclusion that Stalin was more clear sighted than either Churchill or Roosevelt. He outmaneuvered and out-thought both of them on several occasions.
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