Did FDR Provoke Pearl Harbor?

Townhall.com ^ | December 6, 2011 | Pat Buchanan

[SunTzuWu]

Just like Poland provoked Hitler.

[La Enchiladita]

Not this **** again.
Someone tell Buchanan we’ve been hearing this **** for over 50 years.

[dfwgator]

I supposed not handing over Hawaii to the Japanese could have been considered to be a “provocation” in some people’s eyes.

[OldNavyVet]

My father, a Navy veteran of Veracruz and WW-I, was called back to active duty in the US Navy in April 1941. Our nation was most definitely preparing for war eight months before Pearl Harbor.

[GeronL]

The US refused to concede the Pacific to the Japanese, so of course we started it. lol.

Stupid isolationists

[Mears]

bfl

[dfwgator]

I’ll spare posting the pictures from the “Rape of Nanking” and “Unit 731”. But you get my point.

[Tallguy]

Interesting. But I wonder how much of this was deliberate on FDR’s part. There was no doubt that FDR was fixated by the threat from Hitler’s Germany. Also, there was a strong “China Lobby” within the US State Department. Perhaps it was a case of US policy toward Japan “being on autopilot”.

[GeronL]

The whole Pacific, not just Hawaii

[dfwgator]

The whole Pacific, not just Hawaii

Including California.

[Lou Budvis]

I don’t know how peace was possible given that Japan was committing crimes against humanity in China. FDR’s problem, however, was that he engaged in a series of provacative actions against Japan, yet did not prepare for war. As a result, the Japanese thought America was so weak, they felt confident enought to sail halfway across the Pacific and try to blow up our Navy. Had they gone back for a successful 3rd strike on Dec. 7, one wonders how the war would’ve turned out.

[BillGunn]

years ago read the book A Republic, Not an Empire by Pat Buchanan. He was under the opinion that FDR antagonized the Japanese

[dfwgator]

Remember also, Japan was targeting Britain’s Asian colonies, as well.

I think they figured, Hitler was so mired with Russia, he couldn’t help Japan, and therefore, Japan wasn’t as much of a threat.

[SkyDancer]

I still don’t know why Lithuania provoked the Germans to bomb Pearl Harbor.

[Larry Lucido]

The RMS Lithuania was sunk by an Australian submarine in 1915, wasn’t it?

[ReveBM]

Maybe we *were* preparing for war with Japan, but how do you separate normal preparation and escalation between increasingly hostile countries with deliberate provocation?

By this logic, we are preparing for war with China now. Within our government I am pretty sure Obama and the democrats do not want war with China. If there is anyone deep inside the Pentagon that wants war, it’s because we want to fight them now before we get relatively weaker, but it is probably not a significant number.

This whole argument does not recognize the axiom “if you want peace, prepare for war”.

[tanknetter]

years ago read the book A Republic, Not an Empire by Pat Buchanan. He was under the opinion that FDR antagonized the Japanese

He's right, FDR did "antagonize" the Japanese.

He's wrong, however, in his belief that FDR shouldn't have done it. Quite frankly it was the "America First" Pat Buchanans of the era who impeded FDR's efforts and almost lost the West to Fascism and Japanese militarism.

[blueunicorn6]

Probably, and FDR was probably a jackass, but the jackass did good in kicking the Japanese in their behinds.

[old curmudgeon]

Explain this:

“At a Nov. 25 meeting of FDR’s war council, Secretary of War Henry Stimson’s notes speak of the prevailing consensus: “The question was how we should maneuver them (the Japanese) into ... firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to ourselves.””