64 Years ago, Yesterday... (Warning some graphic material), page 4

reply to post by silo13

FDR provoked the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

Whether or not FDR knew about the Japanese plans to attack Pearl Harbor actually misses the larger and more important issue, which is the fact that the Japanese were provoked into attacking America at Pearl Harbor. The majority of Americans, and even service men, were unaware of what was going on behind the scenes, but not all were. FDR had been charged in public with agitating for war since 1939. FDR had to push the Japanese into attacking the United States because the overwhelming majority of Americans opposed getting involved in the war and Japan itself had no intentions of attacking the United States, their interest was Asia. Without FDR's antagonisms towards the Japanese, Congress and the American people never would have allowed FDR to declare war on Japan or Germany; FDR knew this, and he also knew how important it really was that America join in the war against fascism and imperialism.

The most direct evidence of antagonisms toward Japan is the McCollum Memo written October 7th 1940 (declassified in 1994) that was given to FDR as well as the actions that were later taken by the administration.

Source : rationalRevolution.net

Furthermore, unintentionally in support of this, according to Bailey and Ryan, in their book, Hitler vs. Roosevelt, The Undeclared Naval War, state the following

The dropping oil guage and the ticking time-bomb finally drove the Japanese warlords to the madness of Pearl Harbor. The U. S. Pacific Fleet was crippled by a diabolically clever tactical stroke that succeeded beyond all reasonable expectations, although at that critical time the three priceless aircraft carrier happened to be absent on operational missions.

- Hitler vs. Roosevelt, The Undeclared Naval War, p. 234, private copy, emphasis mine

I know if I were the Japanese immediately prior to WWII, I could only conclude one thing if an antagonistic world power like the United States had stationed not one, but three ( !! ) aircraft carriers in the middle of the Pacific, more than half-way to their doorstep : "Destroy them before they destroy us !"

Anyways, with all the evidence nowadays that Japan was strongly provoked into attacking Pearl Harbor, it just makes America's eventual use of atomic weapons on two of their major production centers all that much worse ...

And to think - I used to be proud of my country ...