Posted on 12/07/2011 6:00:35 PM PST by presidio9
OK...forgive me...I’m going to take a step off of “stuck on stupid” train of thought...country “A” is going about their business...country “B” comes in and drops bombs on Country “A”...lots of people in Country “A” are killed...Country “A” goes after Country “B” and 4 years later Country “B” experiences bigger bombs being dropped by Country “A” and gives up...Now what part of “Stupid move on country “B”” don’t you comprehend?
My thoughts exactly.
>> The usual scapegoats were identified and ruined, but for decades...
So it was the Germans after all...
It’s been so long since high school that I forgot if it was the Germans or Mussolini’s Italians who bombed Pearl Harbor.
Thanks for the remainder.
Both Japanese and Americans underestimated each other. Americans didn't believe Japanese could be good pilots because they had bad eyesight (from the slanty eyes), and that they were small, bucktoothed midgets....
The Japanese thought Americans were morally and mentally weak , and would only be brave just to show off, and cared more for staying alive than risking their lives to fight for their country. The war planners in Tokyo really thought they'd make America cower in a corner because they were attacked, and we'd sue for peace.
Needless to say, both sides were in for a rude awakening.
So glad to see Pearl Harbor getting the attention it deserves today, as compared to the last 20 years when it rated ten secs on the eve news.
This is a poorly titled article. Like most people have commented, we know that Japan was to blame for bombing Pearl Harbor.
That being said, it is a fact that American intelligence was “reading” Japanese encrypted mail long before the bombing. There was plenty in their “mail” which told of the oncoming attack. Now the question remains as to who knew and who told whom what.
Personally, I think if the President did know and made a calculated risk, in hind sight, I think he made the right choice. I wasn’t there, so I can’t judge him.
Of course there were events leading up to the attack. But no action or inaction by Roosevelt or anyone else pulled the bomb release. That responsibility is the pilot's, and his commander's, and his commander's above him. That's what chain of command means. Pretending otherwise is the arena of fantasists and fools.
Who exactly do we owe a big apology to about dropping a few thermonuclear bombs on Japan, if we don't know who to blame for Pearl Harbor?
If Nagumo had listened to Fuchida and Genda, the attack on Pearl Harbor would have probably had a much different ending. Leaving the flattops unaccounted for and the repair facilities and oil storage facilities intact was error that would haunt them at Midway.
Nagumo was haunted by all the wargames that showed the Americans retaliating successfully and sinking one or more of the Jap flattops that were needed in the coming naval ops and invasion of the Phillipines. So rather than launch a third, fourth, or how ever many strikes it took to smash the American fleet, he withdrew.
They could have also committed more of their submarine assets to the attack. The I class subs were the largest fleet boats in the world and could have stayed on station for a long time.
The Americans did not believe the attack would come as it did and did not pay heed to the British torpedo attacks against Italian battlewagons at Taranto, which had the same shallow waters as Pearl.
Bold attack marred by the flattops not being in port, the lack of follow through, and the fleet not being at it’s alternate anchorage of Lahaina Roads, which is unsalvageably deep.
The Japanese government was to blame, FDR was their enabler, my Daddy was their nightmare.
Aleutian Islands; battle of Attu and Kiska. Two Purple Hearts.
R.I.P. Pops. 1918-1985
Amen to that smurf.
Thomas Fleming is editor of the American monthly, Chronicles: a Magazine of American Culture. He has written several books on ethics (The Morality of Everyday Life) and politics (Socialism, The Politics of Human Nature) and contributed to newspapers, magazines, and academic journals on both sides of the Atlantic. In an earlier life he received a Ph.D. in classics and professed Greek and Latin at several universities."
He's an overeducated IDIOT.
He eventually was converted to Christianity and did much evangalization later on his life.
FDR knew of the attack before hand and had the Navy remove the aircraft carriers out to sea out of harms way.
I saw a documentary saying the Japanese Naval Aviation School was training pilots on a Pearl Harbor mock-up for a decade before the actual attack!!
Well...not exactly. Adm Kimmel and Gen Short took the hits from several investigations.
That was after Japan was already occupying a major chunk of China and had humiliated Russia and colonized Korea decades earlier. I think your take is a little simplistic.
Did FDR know it was coming on Dec 7th? Probably not.
Did the US expect that there might be an attack? Yes. Many books talk about the fact that having sanctions against Japan was seen as risking war. The US military had some training games based around it. However, it is also pretty clear they didn’t view Japan as a major threat, or war as likely.
If you read books about Patton and others, they expected that there would be war against Japan, but many figured the Phillipians would be the first place attacked.
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