Did the U.S. Government really get a warning that Pearl Harbor would be attacked 3 months before it happened?

Question

I have been assigned to do a report on Pearl Harbor. I have heard lots of rumors that the feds broke the Japaneese code and knew about the attack but let it happen anyway just so they would have an excuse to jump into the war. We were already helping the Brits by lending naval warships, and the Chineese had American Mercenary pilots fighting the Japaneese (the Flying Tigers). The 3 month warning is probably why there were no Aircraft Carriers in the harbor at the time of the attack. This allegation is particurlarly troublesome to me because over 2000 of our servicemen died there.

Answer 1

Strange you have asked this see below:

email=[e-mail]
subject=World War II
comments=The History Channel recently ran a show concerning an event preceding the attack on Pearl Harbor. An Australian newspaper had done a story stating the Japnense would attack Pearl Harbor. The story mentioned that while the US Navy confinscated all the copies they could there were copies that survived and there was plently if proof this had occurred. I have be unable to assertain the name of the paper or the contents of the actually story. I hoped somone would do more than send
me on another 6 weeks investigation and try to help me secure answers to my questions. I would greatly appreciate any assistance you can provide. Gary Adams Submit=Submit subject= name=user action=submitFeedback

I recently sent it to a friend there in Australian who could not find out anything. However there has been a second show on the same subject. Without proof it really does you much good (I think we knew) but it is interesting you can just report it truthfully.

God Bless You and Yours along with the Southern People.

Answer 2

There are a great many facts about the Pearl Harbour attack, and many programs or web sites which skilfully emphasise some of them, soft-pedal others, and leave out the rest, to persuade their readers to reach some conclusion which the authors want them to. You need to read about this in a lot of different places.

FACT: the Japanese drew up a declaration of war, intending for their Ambassador in Washington to hand it over half an hour before the attack. They didn't tell him why the timetable was important, and he screwed up. He handed it over an hour after the attack, and was COMPLETELY UNAWARE that the attack had even taken place, far less how it had turned out.

FACT: all the top military and politicians expected the declaration of war, and some of them even knew the timing, because the diplomatic code was broken. But nobody expected the Japanese to open up with such a daring strike. It was unlike anything they had done before, and strategically there were a lot more obvious things that they were expected to do first, instead.

Deduction: because the Japanese declaration of war would have been handed over anyway, no matter how the attack had turned out, it is difficult to see how anybody in America could have anything to gain by letting the attack succeed, if they had a choice to counter it instead. It was war, whichever way.

Extra: William Friedman, the leader of the team who had broken the Japanese "Purple" diplomatic code, was appalled by the Pearl Harbour disaster, and was overheard saying to himself immediately after it, "But they knew! They knew!". He wasn't any more specific, but other people have chosen to read a lot into it.

Question: why do the conspiracy theorists NOT tell you that the Japanese had already fully committed themselves to war, irrespective of the outcome of the Pearl Harbour attack?

Answer 3

Not directly, but there were a number of indirect indications that Japan might undertake some sort of military action in regards to American presence in the Pacific. The reason there were no US carriers at Pearl on December 7, 1941 is that Admiral Halsey, one of the brighter stars in the Armed Services, did suspect that an attack might be imminent and ordered the carriers out to sea, justifying it by pointing out that a great many of the crew members had a minimal amount of training and experience at sea. On the morning of the attack, radar operators actually did detect the incoming aircraft and reported same, but were told to ignore what they saw because a flight of American aircraft were expected from the mainland right about that time. The radar operators couldn't tell what they were looking at beyond that the radar "targets" were incoming aircraft. And no, our intelligence apparatus had not decoded the Japanese military code at that time - that didn't happen for many months following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Yes, in hindsight our military should have been much more cautions and should have made more and better preparations - but that they didn't is unfortunately typical of America's defense apparatus: it's historically been much better prepared for the last war than for today's war. It wasn't ready for 9/11 despite a great deal of evidence that something of the kind was being planned and it certainly wasn't properly prepared for the current conflicts in Iraq and Afganistan.

Answer 4

bh8153 is the only reasonable poster here......everyone else wants to believe a conspiracy but they don't let facts get in the way.......

the poster about Halsey sending the carriers to sea......Halsey was a very junior Rear Admiral on 7/12/41, in command of Enterprise's task group and had no operational control over where Enterprise would go, let alone the other PacFleet Carriers

the usually reliable southron, who says the US Navy confiscated Australian newspapers......in Dec 1941 there were probably 50 US Navy people in Australia, outside of any ships that might have been in port, and the Australians would never have stood for it........imagine someone saying the British confiscated all the copies of the New York Times one day....think about just how that would work.......

the poster who quotes John Toland, who I have read MANY times and don't see how anyone could say Toland concluded FDR knew...

on Dec 7th, the US had broken the Japanese diplomatic code, but not the naval code.we knew the Japs had sent a message, "East Wind, Rain" which we didn't know what that meant, (after the fact it meant war with the US )

think about it..even if FDR wanted an attack on US interests to draw an isolationist US into the war..which is possible........if he knew as much as the paranoids think, he could have sent a message to Kinmmel and Short in Hawaii and MacArthur in the Philippines to "stand to and lock and load Sunday morning 7 December"......an attack on Pearl Harbor, w/o the casualties and destruction that occurred would have served FDR just as well......

Answer 5

i have studied it for over 25 years, and there is not any data that FDR knew about an attack on Pearl Harbor. Many felt extremely particular that an attack ought to ensue, yet the position of attack grow to be usually considered the Philippines, not Pearl. also the provider fleet wasn't out for maneuvers. there have been 3 carriers contained in the Pacific fleet on the time of the attack, the corporation, on its previously from handing over planes to Wake Island grow to be to have again on the sixth, yet grow to be in the back of agenda via a hurricane. The Lexington grow to be on its thanks to provide planes to halfway. those deliveries were area of a protection rigidity construct-up for bases contained in the Pacific for what they knew grow to be a coming conflict, yet not anticipated so quickly. The Saratoga grow to be transferring into San Diego. the last carriers were on the eastern u . s . a . or Atlantic. No conspiracy, purely undeniable data!

Answer 6

Pulitzer Prize author John Toland "President Franklin Roosevelt knew in advance of plans to attack the naval base but remained silent."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Toland_(author)

******"Now let us turn to the fateful period between November 27 and December 6, 1941. In this period numerous pieces of information came to our State, War, and Navy Departments in all of their Top ranks indicating precisely the intentions of the Japanese including the probable exact hour and date of the attack. " ********
ftp://ftp.purdue.edu/pub/Liberal-Arts/History/pha/pearl.harbor/misc/army_1.txt
(odd link is not clickable i guess the dash in the line in not accepted :|) the link is (put together)
ftp://ftp.purdue.edu/ pub/Liberal
-Arts/History/pha/pearl .harbor/misc/army_1.txt

I know a guy that his uncle died in pear harbor and he says it was BS and that they did have early warning. Well even if you get the answer or conflicting answers, the next question to answer is who benefits and what was gained in the end?

Well that is what the news, documentary, books, government official, and a source said.

Japan lost in WW1 and they called it WW1 since they knew their will be a WW2 and knowing that they had to know what goes on before hand so decoding must have been done well before the incident.

"There is ample evidence that FDR not only knew about an attack, but invited one. Unthinkable? Think again: "...everything that the Japanese were planning to do was known to the United States..." ARMY BOARD, 1944....He wanted war, the American people did not. After Pearl Harbor, we immediately joined World War II. Roosevelt had his war.. ."
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_199801/ai_n8800377


"There might develop from the embargoing of oil to Japan such a situation as would make it not only possible but easy to get into this war in an effective way. And if we should thus indirectly be brought in, we would avoid the criticism that we had gone in as an ally of communistic Russia."

"An embargo would probably result in a fairly early attack by an on
Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies, and possibly would involve the United States in early war in the Pacific."
ftp://ftp.purdue.edu/pub/Libera-Arts/History/pha/pearl.harbor/misc/

"none of the Naval and Military officials in Hawaii were to be informed and he was not to advise the Red Cross officers who were already stationed in the area. When he protested to the President, President Roosevelt told him that the American people would never agree to enter the war in Europe unless they were attack [sic] within their own borders." (The Red Cross)
http://www.usni.org/NavalHistory/Articles99/NHborgquist6.htm

Well I guess we cant make war without the peoples support, and people support you when they are afraid. You can't make an omelet (war) without breaking a few eggs (people), so it seems.
The links have references.

( am not saying that yahoo is doing a conspiracy to not let college links go, lol so ill just say they are not good)

Answer 7

all signs point to yes...
however the administration believed that the Japanese would not do it...

also they thought that the Jap navy (and naval airforce) didnt have as much capability as was really the case. Effectively they made a judgement call and were WAY wrong...

The USA administration today also knew NY was THE target of an operation months before it happened and they yet again arrogantly believed that "no one would be so stupid as to attack the USA.."

Answer 8

yes although i believe you were also warned by British military intelligence