[colorado tanker]

I did not know FDR secretly committed to defend the British and Dutch territories. Obviously, we did not have anywhere near the capability to do that.

I wonder if he was underestimating the Japanese as many (foolish) Japanese underestimated us?

[jamaksin]

You might consider visiting www.archive.org and searching for Pearl Harbor Attack.

Many of the Congressional Pearl Harbor Hearings reports -multi-volumes - can be found there (note that many are tens of mega-bytes in size, but as these are PDF files they are conveniently searchable).

There is also an index into these volumes from the Greenwood Press - often helpful.

I suggest that you might begin with the Minority Report.

And no, the capacity of the IJN was not underestimated; the amount of damage at Pearl Harbor was by FDR and his War Cabinet, particularly Knox. The IJN ability to sustain losses and yet maintain a fighting spirit was greatly underestimated - a cultural thingy.