Do you believe that in 1941, Pres. Roosevelt must have had responsibility for the Pearl Harbor attack?

Question

I am studying WW2 history. Most history books say that Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor forced USA's entry in WW2. Historically correct. But there are some books that claim more than that. Those books (not many) say that Roosevelt had prior knowledge of that attack. US military intelligence were intercepting and reading coded Japanese military and diplomatic messages. Roosevelt was informed of Japanese plan of attack on Pearl Harbor. At the time, Congress, being isolationist is against US involvement in any war (only token materiel support to England). So Roosevelt intentionally witheld this information. Commanders in Hawaii were not given this knowledge either, and so no preparation was made by them. And so the Japanese attack happened without much resistance. The next day, Roosevelt gave his famous "Day of Infamy Speech" before Congress. From isolationist attitude, Congress now unanymously voted for declaration of war. So US was finally at war with Japan.

Your opinion about this?.

Answer 1

I too have read up about Pearl Harbor and probably many of the same books as you. One of them went into great detail about the "East Wind : Rain" message that was to signal to the Japanese Attack fleet (Kido Butai) that the target was to be Pearl.

After muchc study I do not believe The President or any other person in the US Government or Military Knew specifically of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor before the actual attack.

However I do believe the US and the Military had many indications and warnings that should have led to a more alert state. I do belive the information the US did have at the time was mishandled and not sent to the people who needed it in a timely manner.
Just as Donald Rumsfield was in a meeting at the pentagon and warned that sometime soon there would be another big attack by terrorists right here in the US, He did NOT have specific info on the 9/11 attack and refuse to do anything about it.
In the same light Roosevelt knew it would take an attack much like what actually happened with Pearl to get the Americans ready to join the War. Just because they both had enough foreknowledge to see the attacks as likely if not inevitable, that is not the same as saying they knew and did nothing.
Only conspiracy nuts think that.

Answer 2

Former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt can not be held responsible for the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor. U.S. intelligence had enough information to know that the Japanese Emperor was set to launch an attack on Americans. What the U.S. did not know was where and when. There were rumors that it would be somewhere along the western continental coast, (Washington, Oregon or California). As the leader of a country, the president can not be held fully responsible for anyone attacking his. If this were the case, then how come the President wasn't blamed for the attack on the USS Cole, the bombing of the World Trade Center (the one with the nut driving a van into the parking garage), the Oklahoma City bombing, the Civil War, etc.?

Another reason why we can't hold Mr. Roosevelt responsible for the "Day of Infamy" is because it's immoral to attack someone based on the notion they are going to attack us. I'm not justifying the Japanese attack and saying that there was anything good about it, but it took them attacking us for us to enter the war.

Hitler, who actually was a brilliant man, figured this would keep the U.S. out of Europe. To the contrary, the U.S. launched assaults on both Japan and Germany. Had the U.S. focused it's strength on Japan, then Hitler would have been more successful. Would he have succeeded? Hell no! Sorry, heck no! His largest ally was Italy. Oh wait, it was actually only Mussolini. The Italian military served under him out of fear. Had the Italian "common folks" not have taken him down, then the mafia would have done it. Yeah, that's a whole nother topic dealing with WWII.

Hitler failed in his attempts to achieve global domination, because of his paranoia. He was scared of almost everybody, yet feared no one. He trusted nobody, yet had a huge cast of supporting characters. His ideas were great, but most weren't even his. Supposedly he hated the Jews, yet it was actually just an excuse to unite the German people. (He really didn't have a problem with the Jewish people.) And the list of his failures could go on, but you get the idea.

OK, I got a little off the topic, but it's all relative. The attack on Pearl Harbor was because of Hitler.

Answer 3

I think you always have conspiricy theories going around. Look at all the websites that say that the US government purposely flew the planes into the World trade center so we can invate Iraq.
I'm familuar with some of the matrials you are talking about and I tend to dismiss them.
1) Our ability to break the Japanse codes was very very limted (unlike the German'S) so it would have been hard to picture
2) the air-craft carrier argument is BS -- they were scheduled to be moved out months before FDR could have known about anything
3) Someone other than FDR (several people) would have had to have been in on this. By this time, they would have spilled the beans about it. Nothing of the sort has surfaced.
4) Risk profile does not add up -- nearly losing 80% of the Paciifc fleet is too high a cost for any patriotic president to do -- no matter how much they think congress is mis guided...

Answer 4

Keep reading, you have much to learn grasshopper!

I don't know where you are getting your info but the threats on Pearl Harbor were very similar to the 9/11. The intel said an attack was eminent but no location, dates... and so on. It's pretty hard to point the finger at the President when there are others in the chain of command that also have the same intel as the President. Wow, look at that... JUST LIKE 9/11!

Answer 5

We knew the Japanese were going to bomb Pearl Harbor before they did. I mean come-on President Roosevelt liked the thought of our boys baking inside the Battle Ship Arizona before they died. The President was looking for a better way to get a good nights sleep.

OTHER CONSPIRACIES TO THINK ABOUT:

1. The Jews did not suffer in Germany because there was no Holocaust. Actually it was the Jews that was torturing the poor blond haired deprived Germans. Those tattoos on the Jews arms and hands that are still alive today (by the grace of God) are really there because they want to be hip.

2. America did not land on the Moon. We payed billions of dollars for the 360 foot Saturn 5 rocket so we could look at it and say wow that is a big rocket. We kept approx. 400,000 technicians, scientists and construction contractors quiet, with zero leaks to the public. The rocks that we thought that came from moon and have proved to be from the moon are really from the Pacific Ocean.

3. The Mafia whacked JFK, via the Russian connection, via the Cuban connection.... The man on the grassy knoll was a CIA agent acting on orders from Giancana from Chicago and Marcello from New Orleans, with duplicity from Castro and Kruschev....true story.

4. Aliens landed in Roswell and we transported them to Area 51 to back engineer their technology, where do you think the stealth air craft came from? Again, we kept it secret by brain washing the thousands of workers who were in on the scam.

5. The Moon we see every night is really not there along with the planets, stars as well as the Planet Killing Asteroids. Those were put there by the evil United States to toy with our minds.

6. The fossils of homo eructus, neandertals and 15 other hominids that are extinct were put there by paleotologists, archeologists, and assorted rock hounds to enhance their careers. Creationism is the only reality.

7. America is a conspiracy and is a fake country and none of us Americans really live here.

8. I was never born so this response to your question is a fake.

Answer 6

I also recommend researching the diplomatic message Roosevelt sent to the Emperer of Japan requesting an immediate meeting to discuss the threat of war after decrypting one of those messages - but the request was delayed and never acted upon. Also, the threat of war was only one peice. They couldn't find the Japanese fleet before it attacked - so even if they thought there was going to be an attack - from where - with what?

Answer 7

The messages that were decoded were not decoded in full...
Our intelligence network could only assume it was going to be pearl.
Another possibility was Midway Island...
The Japanese,in order for their ruse to work so they may have total surprise actually had their Ambassador in the white house at the time waiting to discuss peace negotiations with the President.
The reason for the Pearl harbor attack was the U.S. had cut of oil supply to japan and they could not continue their war with china without it.
The President withheld information that was not clarified.
He couldn't possibly make these accusations with the japanese wanting to sit at the negotiating table.

Answer 8

It's bovine excrement. Think about this, given the American mentality at the time (when Democrats still had their balls) all Roosevelt had to do was announce that an attack fleet from Japan was enroute to Hawaii to attack and Americans would have been lining up at the recruitment offices. Anyone who tells you that he let this happen deserves a tinfoil beanie. Send them here:

http://zapatopi.net/afdb/build.html

Answer 9

He did indeed have prior knowledge. It's what led the US into the war. He knew that nothing short of a rabbit punch would wake up the people of the US.
Wendel Vilkie almost won the election based on a pacifist stance. You can't get out of a depression by not entering into a war. So Roosevelt did what he felt he had to. He sacrificed soldiers so that others could die, and big buisnesses could make lots of money.
Isn't capitalism nice?

Answer 10

I guess that was the same info that George W had before 9/11.

People always try to second-guess history.