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Mustn't Miss This
War
J. V. Mitchell
It was a chilly, but sunny, day in Nashville on December 7, 1941. The news which
poured from our radio, just before noon, electrified the entire
population. The Japanese had launched a sneak attack and sunk a major
portion of our Pacific fleet, which was at anchor at the Pearl Harbor naval
base.
On the following day, President Roosevelt went before Congress to denounce the
treachery of the Japanese government and to ask for a declaration of war on
Japan. The American people were galvanized into action by this treacherous
surprise attack.
But was it actually a surprise? My father had been working for Vultee
Aircraft, in
Nashville,
for a year building dive bombers. Boeing had been
building B-17 "Flying Fortress" heavy bombers for 3 years. Several authors have
dug deeply into the musty records of the US government, and what they discovered
shows that not only was the attack expected, but the President knew precisely
when and where it would fall.
Not only that, but President Roosevelt had deliberately set up conditions
which were calculated to induce the attack. Strong accusation! Robert
Stinnett has written book, well documented with 67 pages of foot notes,
titled "Day of Deceit", which clearly shows the duplicity of our national
government.
"Originating in the Office of Naval Intelligence and addressed to two of FDR's
most trusted advisors, it [ a memorandum] suggested a shocking new
American foreign policy. It called for provoking Japan into an overt act of
war against the
United States."
(1) This memo, written in October of 1940,
laid out an eight point plan which was calculated to induce the Japanese
attack on US forces. One of the eight points called for a concentration of
the U.S. Pacific fleet at
Pearl Harbor.
When fleet admiral James Richardson
heard of the plan, he protested vehemently to the President. He warned that
the senior Naval officers lacked confidence in the national leadership to
fight a war. He further protested "FDR's willingness to sacrifice a ship of
the Navy in order to provoke what he called a Japanese 'mistake'."(2) The
admiral was subsequently relieved of his command.
The U.S.
had several "listening stations" which were monitoring Japanese
military communications. Naval personnel had broken both the Japanese
"purple code", which was used by their diplomatic service and their naval
code. Our government was well aware of Japanese war plans. We knew of the
assembly of a Japanese task force and of the progress of their attack
schedule. It's interesting to note that Admiral Husband Kimmel and General
Walter Short, who were in command of U.S. forces Hawaii, were not informed of
the specific Japanese plans. There were only warned to stay alert to hostile
intentions. Apparently they were pre-chosen to be the fall guys for the
anticipated disaster.
While the Japanese Navy was preparing its strike force, their diplomatic
service was trying to persuade the U.S. to relax its petroleum embargo on
Japan.
Japan got most of its oil from us, and their inventory started
declining when the President stopped the shipments to them, another one of
the eight points in the plan.
When the Japanese ambassador approached the U.S. secretary of state, to
attempt to negotiate a relaxation of tensions, he was soundly rebuffed. The
Secretary had already received a translation of the ambassador's instructions
and had time to prepare a refusal to his requests. There were several such
futile conferences.
The eight point plan moved smoothly forward.
In subsequent congressional investigations, it was stated that the Japanese
fleet maintained radio silence during their approach to Hawaii. This is
incorrect -- 129 radio broadcasts, from the fleet to their home base and to
various ships in the fleet, were recorded and translated. Admiral Kimmel
never saw these translations.
On the evening of December 6, Navy Lieutenant Lester Schulz took the latest
Japanese message intercept to the President. "Schulz remembered that FCR
finished the last page of the memorandum, turned to [Harry] Hopkins, and
pronounced the famous utterance: 'this means war'."(3)
But he didn't bother to immediately notify Kimmel or Short.
In all fairness to President Roosevelt, we must consider the World
situation. Hitler was on an unbroken winning streak in Europe. Prime
minister Winston Churchill had warned
Roosevelt
that if England fell, the US would follow. Japan was an ally of Germany and FDR
was faced with a nation whose citizens had no intention of intervening. The
Pearl Harbor attack served his purpose. The nation was demanding a war,
overnight. Incidently, the war preparations ended the depression overnight and
FDR retained his stature as a national leader of historical dimensions.
Further information on this plan may be found in Day Of Deceipt, by R.
Stinnent and The Rising Sun by J. Toland.
(1) Day of Deceit, Stinnent. P-6
(2) op. cit. P10
(3) op. cit. P230
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