Paul, get serious. I have been in contact with organizations of U.S. NAVY CRYPTOLOGISTS. You might try the official JOURNAL of U.S. Navy cryptologists, I think it is called, "Cryptologica." At any rate, there have been DEVASTATING reviews of Stinnett's book by people who actually DID the cryptology, including Commander Donaldson, not some half-baked radio assistant who decided to write a book after the fact. Of course, you will likely say that ALL these guys are involved in coverups too, and judging from the e-mails I get from Pearl Harbor Navy veterans, they would rip you apart if they ever heard you say that---even at 80 years old! :) In fact, there is a Pearl Harbor VETERANS' web ring dedicated to countering Stinnett's book---that is how outraged these CRYPTOLOGISTS are.
Let's see if you appreciate this, because you guys keep ducking this central fact about Stinnett's so called "evidence": There are FIVE steps to moving a piece of intel from a foreign radio transmission to the White House---1) interception; 2) translation; 3) decryption; 4) analysis; and 5) forwarding get thist THROUGH CHANNELS. Now, Stinnett ducks and covers, but never once, ever, even proves that #1 happened. He cannot prove that #s2-4 happened, because they didn't. The U.S. cryptologists and analysts themselves have said repeatedly that they did not decipher, nor analyze pre-Dec. 7 messages until . . . now, please get this, 1945! So #5 could not have happened. Interestingly, one of the "gotcha" documents that Stinnett purports to show that "showed" we knew where the fleet was is totally fraudulent for several reasons. Follow along now:
The "HITTOKAPU BAY" message was sent---sent mind you according to Stinnett in ENGLISH!!!! Come on. A moron knows that Japanese don't send any messages to their own fleets in English, let alone the supposedly secret rendezvous point! Second, the "HITTOKAPU BAY" message is all encrypted and in Japanese EXCEPT for the words "HITTOKAPU BAY." Suspicious? Third, there are (and please get this point before you respond with your pre-packaged defense) apparently no standard Navy insider routing codes on this message indicating that even if the Japanese were so stupid as to send a message about the location of their fleet, and do so . . . IN ENGLISH . . . it was never officially intercepted or passed on.
Now even to the most tinfoil person, this HAS to strike you as an indication of Stinnett's fraud. Do some research. Don't just chant the mantra, "He had FOIA documents." If you like, I could send you my seven-page review of his book, which is detailed in its specifics (he has, for ex, at least 23 specific places in which when he supposedly has "evidence," he only offers phrases such as "must have known," "probably knew," or, in other words DOES NOT HAVE EVIDENCE). It's sad that he has fooled so many good people and impugned so many patriots.
If I know of the pending attack on Pearl Harbor.
I setup a net of submarines and search aircraft and secretly track the Japanese carriers to their location North West of Hawaii. I position my carriers to intercept.
I can surprise and sink the Japanese carriers, as soon as the first bomb drops in Pearl Harbor. The minute the first planes are launched by the Japanese all the ships in Pearl are moved, every fighter on Oahu is at altitude waiting to pounce on the incoming planes.
It did not take a disaster, simply an attack, for there to be a declaration of war.
Even with the above scenario some Americans would die, some ships would be sunk enough to photograph and create a sense of outrage.
The additional benefit for FDR, would be much fewer American military resources sent to the Pacific.
Note: I believe that Americans were not informed of the magnitude of the disaster at Pearl Harbor, at the time. I believe the true number of causalities and ship losses were both kept secret for the duration of the war. It was not the magnitude of the loss of life or ships, but the very fact of a surprise attack, which outraged the American people; thus being totally prepared for attack and counterattacking would have served FDR's purposes.
On another point, certainly Pearl Harbor was connected to Hitler declaring war when he did; but given FDR's accelerating violation of neutrality, it was just a matter of time before Germany declared war.
What I read was that it was not really solidarity with the Axis partner (the treaty with Japan only required Germany declare war if Japan was attacked) but the Hitler’s certainty that a US declaration of war was immanent.
The US in the fall of 1941 (and after Dec 7) did nothing to assure the Germans that it would not be declaring war in the near future, despite German requests for assurances.