Pearl Harbor Was Allowed to Happen?

Question

This theory states that President Roosevelt (FDR) provoked the attack, knew about it in advance and covered up his failure to warn the Hawaiian commanders. FDR needed the attack to sucker Hitler to declare war, since the public and Congress were overwhelmingly against entering the war in Europe. It was his backdoor to war.

Theorists believe that the US was warned by, at least, the governments of Britain, Netherlands, Australia, Peru, Korea and the Soviet Union that a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was coming. All important Japanese codes were broken. FDR and Marshall and others knew the attack was coming, allowed it and covered up their knowledge.

This is one of the few conspiracy theories i believe. Does anybody have any evidence to make me think twice?

Answer 1

So you think that FDR let the Japanese sink almost the entire American 6th fleet and kill over 2,000 seamen and others, then let themselves wide open to further attacks from Japan, and leave them without a navy.

Try reading the how this attack was planned and executed. Of course the American Intelligence knew an Attack on Pearl harbour was likely, but never thought tht the Japanese could sail their carriers over 2, 000 miles without them being detected. So that intelligence was put in the Pending Tray.

Just who are these Theorists who tell us that these other countries knew of an attack on Pearl Harbour and warned the US of what it already was aware of. I wonder sometimes, how long before another theory surfaces years after the event has taken place.

Answer 2

We may have had clues that it was going to happen, but we didnt ahve the where and when.  

Just like 9/11.  We knew something had a chance of happening... but you cannot guard everything.

If FDR KNEW it was going to happen, he wouldnt of left ALL of those ships in one place.  He would not have lost so much of his ship fleet!  He would of had them on an exercise or something.  

Answer 3

Yes we in Britain knew all about it we probably planned it so you all could come and save our as**s.

Answer 4

I think it is partially right; the government probably knew an attack would take place but I doubt if it was known when or where.  The breaking of the Japanese Code was important but since targets are usually coded as are date it is not an exact and easy task to figure out.  The attack on Midway was pinpointed because the US had Midway send out an uncoded message saying the water purification system was down (they then jumped on them for not coding it) which being important was transmitted by Japanese command to the Japanese attack force and that is how the US knew the target.  Warnings by countries who have some thing to gain are questionable and I do think it was widely held in the government and military that an attack on Pearl Harbor was "impossible" to do secretly.  Hitler had not kept any other treaty he signed and the one with the Japanese had very little in it for the Germans; I think everyone was surprised he kept it so that reasoning is not real solid.

Answer 5

He knew, all the new and best ships were moved out to sea they left the junks, j*p subs were spotted in the harbour, radar spotted a mass moving towards them, most of the world forewarned them, just like 9/11 they needed a reason for war  

Answer 6

why else do u think the aircraft carriers where out at sea when the attack happened................just like 9/11 theres too many obvious blunders for the official version to be believed

Answer 7

yes i agree, america likes to join any war, they dont really need excuse. they just send the troops.

when america has a new president, its like the 1st thing he does is have a war

Answer 8

Well it does seem very likely especially in view of the fact that the ships were sent there from the West Coast of the USA Admiral Richardson  objected because there was little or no protection and disobeyed orders twice before he got removed.

Is the 8 point memo by t McCollum on how to force Japan into war with US on public record?

Answer 9

No, because the logic your using here, Japan attacks the US to get into the war with Hitler is flawed.  Using the same logic, Japan would have declared war on Russia when Germany attacked Russia.  In this case you're thinking about the Tripartite Pact, which did not state that if one country (Japan) attacked another (USA) then the others would come to their defense.

In fact, several top Japanese officials felt pressure from Germany to go to war against the US to divert US attention away (not towards) Europe.

One other thing might also help here, many experts believed in the attack, but not at Pearl Harbor, but at the Philippines and within 24 hours of a declaration of war by Japan.

I've studied it for 25+ years and have yet to read or see anything that tells me that the US knew the attack was coming to Pearl Harbor.

Answer 10

Nonsense! If President Roosevelt needed a pretext to enter World War Two he was given it by the Germans almost two months before Pearl Harbor. A German U-Boat torpedoed and sank the U.S. Navy Destroyer USS Reuben James in international waters in the North Atlantic and we had a lot of dead and wounded sailors and officers from that sinking. That was an act of war and he did not go to the Congress for a declaration of war.

Pearl Harbor happened because the Navy was ordered to move the Pacific Fleet from San Diego to Pearl Harbor. The Navy moored those battleships all in a row, even though the after-action results from a simulated air attack on Pearl Harbor carried out by the Navy in 1932 pointed out the vulnerabilities of that anchorage. They were also given a pointed reminder that battleships could be successfully attacked from the air and sunk almost a year before the Pearl Harbor attack when the Royal Navy attacked ships of the Italian Navy in the port of Taranto, Italy.

But, there was one Japanese Naval officer who did take note of both of those events. He used the "lessons learned" to develop the air operations plan for the Combined Northern Fleet in its attack on U.S. military installations on Oahu. Even to the point of having other officers and petty officers create a torpedo with wooden fins to work in the shallow waters of Pearl Harbor. His name was Minoru Genda and he retired from the Imperial Japanese Navy in the rank of Rear Admiral. I spent four hours with him and an interpreter in a coffee shop in the Ropongi District of Tokyo in 1969.

The Japanese JN-25 Naval code was not broken by us or any of our allies. Even in the preparation for the Battle of Midway in June of 1942, we could only decipher and use 10% of the encrypted messages transmitted by the Japanese. We did have access to their diplomatic code. But, the diplomats didn't have the term "Kaigun" (Navy) anywhere on their curriculum vitae. So they did not have access to the JN-25 code system.  

Answer 11

Do you have any evidence that would make you think once?

Answer 12

At the end of the day - it happened, it's long gone history.

Answer 13

well FDR was by far one of my least favorite presidents for my own special reasons..

so sure, why not?

Answer 14

Not only had the US been warned more than once about the coming invasion, for several days before the attack the Japanese consulate in Washington burned all their official documents and sent their diplomats and employees home. The signs were pretty obvious.

It is interesting to note that Pearl Harbor was identified by the US government as the military site most vulnerable to attack as far back as the summer of 1907.

Answer 15

Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction.  The Americans were taken completely by surprise because they were a strong military power and they didnt think anyone would actively attack them.  You have to bear in mind that they didnt have satellites and communications werent what they are now. Although it was a huge loss for the American navy it was also a masssive tactical blunder by the Japanese.  Although it was a very well coordinated surprise attack.  Without it America would probably never have entered the war and Europe would probably be ruled by the Third Reich.

Answer 16

Desertviking in his first paragraph sums up to a certain extent what is known as an absolute, the British (via the Enigma machine obtained by the Polish Underground) were constantly warning the US about the locations of the "Wolf Packs" awaiting convoys from the US to Britain, this information was to the greatest degree ignored by the US authorities.  Similarly it is thought that Churchill knew about the attack which destroyed Coventry (again via Enigma) and did nothing that might give away the fact that we could read their encrypted message traffic.  As to Pearl Harbour it may have been so, we may never know but in war, usually anything and everything can happen.

B rob careful, you know whats going to happen now!!

Answer 17

Most gamblers have some sort of feelings and some intelligent guesses for things to happen.