Monday, December 11, 2017

Pearl Harbor: Hawaii Was Surprised; FDR Was Not

Via Kearney

http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/52a24c926da811bb6ea704ce-1190-625/unforgettable-photos-from-the-japanese-attack-on-pearl-harbor-76-years-ago-today.jpg
 

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, Japan launched a sneak attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, shattering the peace of a beautiful Hawaiian morning and leaving much of the fleet broken and burning. The destruction and death that the Japanese military visited upon Pearl Harbor that day — 18 naval vessels (including eight battleships) sunk or heavily damaged, 188 planes destroyed, over 2,000 servicemen killed — were exacerbated by the fact that American commanders in Hawaii were caught by surprise. But that was not the case in Washington.

Comprehensive research has shown not only that Washington knew in advance of the attack, but that it deliberately withheld its foreknowledge from our commanders in Hawaii in the hope that the "surprise" attack would catapult the U.S. into World War II. Oliver Lyttleton, British Minister of Production, stated in 1944: "Japan was provoked into attacking America at Pearl Harbor. It is a travesty of history to say that America was forced into the war."

9 comments:

  1. My mother always called Roosevelt "the American Destroyer". It was common knowledge who he was and what he did in those days.

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  2. FDR and his cronies knew weeks in advance the Japanese were
    coming. The most expensive ships were brought in. The
    last I read the number of men murdered by FDR was a good amt.
    over 2,000. The men burned alive in the oil. I wonder how
    many knew they had been used as guinea pigs. All to provoke
    a war. Now you know why to doubt anything they say.
    I wish FDR had burned alive with the men he murdered.

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  3. "They knew" sounds good for conspiracy theorists but is untrue. The US knew the Japanese would do something. They did not know what or when. In the days prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor the US displayed a great deal of incompetence is dealing with the information they had. Differences between the Army and Navy, technical issues, and the distance from Washington, DC to Hawaii all played a role. Kimmel and Short, although not blameless, were made the scapegoats. Incompetence, mismanagement, and blatant stupidity all played a role.

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  4. Again in the words of Rudyard Kipling:
    "If any question why we died,
    tell them because our fathers lied."

    In my life time I can not think of a war/conflict/police action that was not based on a lie as to why we sent troops in. I could be wrong. If there is an exception, it does not come to mind.

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    Replies
    1. The first attack in the Gulf of Tonkin did occur, but not the second from all I have researched.

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  5. A different take, back then:
    https://nationalvanguard.org/2017/12/the-german-attack-on-pearl-harbor/

    "What's old is new again."

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