World War II: Pearl Harbor

Not too long ago (probably sometime in June or July), I had to listen to a rant by my roommate/landlord about how FDR knew the Japanese were going to bomb Pearl Harbor. This, of course, made FDR a complete rat bastard in the eyes of my roommate. However, while I can't lay claim to whether or not FDR was a rat bastard, I'm pretty certain that FDR had no clue that Pearl Harbor was the definitive target.

Oh, our government had to have been expecting something... there were too many rumors and warnings floating about... but I doubt he knew Pearl Harbor was about to be fucked all to Hell.

How do I know this?

Well, look at it this way: a little known fact about "The Day of Infamy" is that the Japanese didn't just attack one US territory (Hawaii was not a state at the time), they attacked THREE. 1) Hawaii, 2) Wake Island, 3) The Phillippines.

And in analyzing the supposed "reasons" that FDR "allowed" (I love quotations... can't help it) the bombing of Pearl Harbor, we actually come to the opposite conclusion.

Some say that FDR needed an American disaster in order to gain support for entering the war. As such, Pearl Harbor provided just such a disaster. Well, no. Pearl Harbor sucked, that's for sure, and in terms of loss of ships (permanent and temporary) it was a pretty bad hit (despite the fact that our aircraft carriers weren't there... I'll hit that point in a second), but in terms of disasters? I'd say, and most WW2 historians will probably agree with me, that the Philippines was a far worse disaster than Pearl Harbor ever was (Bataan Death March, anyone?). But, no, nobody is running around claiming FDR knew the Philippines were going be invaded, are they?

Some say the reason that the aircraft carriers weren't there is proof, PROOF I say, that FDR knew Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked. Well, no. At the time, the US had two major carrier bases in the Pacific: Pearl Harbor and San Diego, California. And, in fact, all three carriers in theater at the time were on SCHEDULED deployments (to Midway, coming back to Hawaii, to San Diego, etc.)... deployments that were scheduled long in advance of December 7th (or December 8th by the Japanese calendar). In addition, US naval doctrine (not to mention WORLD naval doctrine... with the possible exception of the Japanese) still held the aircraft carrier BELOW the battleship in terms of naval superiority. If this logic was to be followed, FDR would've probably had the battleships mysteriously deployed, not the aircraft carriers.

There are many, many more subtle reasons as to why the "Pearl Harbor conspiracy" is a load of bullshit, but I don't really feel like going into those at this time. The two above should more than convince anyone who doesn't think Elvis is still alive and Marilyn was killed by the Kennedy administration. And, if not, I'm sorry you'd rather darken an already dark world.

Have a nice day... and vote for Clint Eastwood (an Army veteran).