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Pearl Harbor 2.0
Time ^ | 07 Dec 2012 | John Koster

Posted on 12/07/2012 6:18:42 PM PST by Theoria

The “infamy” of December 7, 1941, is deeper than most Americans have ever imagined. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was almost certainly the result of a Soviet plot—“Operation Snow”—carried out by Harry Dexter White, a figure of enormous influence in the Roosevelt administration and a known Soviet spy.

Americans remember Pearl Harbor as the work of a Japanese military machine hell-bent on a war of conquest. The truth is more complicated.

The imperial regime had faced severe political shocks throughout the 1930s. Two attempts on the life of Emperor Hirohito—one by a Japanese communist whose father was a member of parliament, another by a Korean patriot—were followed by the assassinations of prominent bankers and cabinet members.

After Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai was murdered in 1932 for his failure to cope with the Great Depression and to curb foreign influence, 110,000 Japanese petitioned for clemency for his assassins. Four years later, in a sensational coup attempt, young military officers cornered Prime Minister Kesisuke Okada in his own bathroom, slew his look-alike brother-in-law, and nearly wiped out the cabinet.

The emperor feared assassination by his own officers if he knuckled under to American or Russian threats to Japan’s economic and military interests, especially access to American oil.

The Russians, meanwhile, knew that they could not simultaneously repel an expected German invasion from the west and respond to the Japanese threat from the east. A series of skirmishes with the Japanese at Nomonhan in 1939 had revealed serious weaknesses in the Soviet military.

The NKVD, predecessor of the KGB, knew that a war with the United States would divert Japan from its ambitions in Mongolia and Siberia—threats that tied up 25% of the Red Army—and allow Russia to deploy its full military power against the Germans.

(Excerpt) Read more at nation.time.com ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: 1932; 1936; 1939; assassinationplots; assassinations; communist; communists; greatdepression; hirohito; imperialjapan; inukai; japan; japanese; johnkoster; kgb; mongolia; nkvd; nomonhan; oil; oilembargo; operationsnow; opsnow; pearlharbor; siberia; ussr; ww2; wwii
John Koster is the author of the recently-published Operation Snow: How a Soviet Mole in FDR’s White House Triggered Pearl Harbor. An Army veteran, he lives in New Jersey.


1 posted on 12/07/2012 6:18:46 PM PST by Theoria
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To: Theoria
WWII revisionism? In Time??
2 posted on 12/07/2012 6:31:41 PM PST by danielmryan
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To: Theoria

That’s right always good to have more revisionist crap floating around so we can blame anyone other than the Japanese for their siding with Hitler and bombing the US. Let’s all just pretend that in all of history EVERYTHING is the fault of the US government..... that way we don’t have to deal with difficult truths


3 posted on 12/07/2012 6:44:41 PM PST by Nifster
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To: Theoria
Related thread:

Who instigated the attack on Pearl Harbor? (TruNews Broadcast)

40 min audio interview with the author, John Koster

4 posted on 12/07/2012 6:55:28 PM PST by thouworm (.)
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To: Nifster

God bless the U.S.A.


5 posted on 12/07/2012 7:01:47 PM PST by District13 (Obama scares me)
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To: danielmryan

And about FDR!! Why don’t they do some homework on obamao and WHO IS RUNNING HIM? The facts are all around them and us.

Willing to let an ambassador die to cover an arms deal to al qaeda in Syria. Willing to let Syria kill off everybody with Saddam’s Sarin gas (the WMD that the dems said was never in Iraq) everybody— good or bad in Syria and all the alqaeda witnesses to the arms deal for the brotherhood. WHO would be supportive of ALL these things? Saudis, Riady’s Indonesian muslims— the Clinton connex. Stay tuned.


6 posted on 12/07/2012 7:06:55 PM PST by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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To: Theoria

Published by Regnery history, which gives the book credibility.


7 posted on 12/07/2012 7:13:20 PM PST by Ciexyz
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To: Nifster

Indeed there is NO mention about the close friendship of Hitler with Japan’s ambassador to Germany— one Hiroshi Oshima. He became a font of intel for the US through the Jap codebreaking.

This writer neglects to remember the fact that the Japanese signed a major agreement with the Soviet Union in April 1941— the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Act. But once Germany invaded the soviets in June 41, the Germans tried to get Japan to do the same. Japan said no, they would not.

So a lot of this “credit” to Harry Dexter White who WAS Stalin’s man in FDRs sphere (shown later at Yalta and Tehran meetings esp as regards the A bomb)comes from his former control agent- the Pavlov dude, who was obviously tooting his horn.

A far more cogent historical basis is through the famous soviet agent Richard Sorge in Japan. Sorge transmitted information toward the end of September 1941 that Japan was not going to attack the Soviet Union in the East. And THIS information resulted in the soviets transferring many divisions to the German front— though not a majority of them because the Jap Kwantung army in Manchuria was still at their borders.

This book is a nice read, but Dexter White did not accomplish getting us into the war for the Soviets— the issue was the oil fields in Dutch East Indies. We embargoed the Japs from oil from any source— and that is why they attacked us— that and the British not keeping us in the loop on a lot of things, so we’d be dragged yet again into their stupid empire crumbling. Like today, picking up pieces of their idiotic management (Afghanistan, Iraq etc.)


8 posted on 12/07/2012 7:27:25 PM PST by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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To: John S Mosby
The Brits were hardly the first to mismanage Afghanistan and Iraq.

Actually, most of our more serious problems in those parts of the world arose during the reign of Alexander the Great, and things have been running downhill ever since!

9 posted on 12/07/2012 7:48:32 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: danielmryan
If it's in Time, I'm at least deeply skeptical of it.
10 posted on 12/07/2012 8:04:58 PM PST by Standing Wolf
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To: Standing Wolf
If it's in Time, I'm at least deeply skeptical of it.

What surprised me about it is that WW2 revisionism is outré even here. Time ain't exactly Taki's Top Drawer.

11 posted on 12/07/2012 8:11:28 PM PST by danielmryan
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To: John S Mosby

The synopsis fails to acknowledge the strategic significance of the Japanese(Nipponese) empire at the end of Dec’41.

Pearl Harbor was only one of a seven pronged attack by the Japanese. It is arguable that their attacks on the British Empire, Dutch, and other colonials exceeded their attacks upon the US at Pearl Harbor.

Prior to WWII, the British ruled the seas and Japan seized control of over 1/2 of the Earth’s surface when she launched her offensive, which gave her an unopposed domain from India to the Western coast of the US.

There wasn’t any certainty that the US would succeed in defending our shores immediately after Pearl Harbor, which is partly why the American public became fully dedicated to Total War.


12 posted on 12/07/2012 8:26:01 PM PST by Cvengr (Adversity in life and death is inevitable. Thru faith in Christ, stress is optional.)
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To: danielmryan

right and fdr and chuirchill knew about the attack and let it happen. and the tooth fairy is real.
the japanese got their butts kicked at nomonhan in ‘39 and they were overextended in china even to the end of the war. the lsoses in manchuria gave the navy an up in the government and they had a southern strategy. plus, with the passing of the 2 ocean navy bill, the japanese knew they had 2 years until they were completely out matched. so they rolled the dice.


13 posted on 12/07/2012 8:28:56 PM PST by bravo whiskey
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To: Theoria

BS..it been well documented the Japanese Soviet skirmishes on the Chinese border in 39 left the Japanese with a blood nose and may them leery of engaging the Soviet..


14 posted on 12/07/2012 8:39:25 PM PST by tophat9000 (American is Barack Oaken)
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To: bravo whiskey

Not to burst the bubble of supposedly “correct” history but:

My father was a commander in the carrier group(the Enterprise, with support cruisers Chester, Northampton,Salt Lake City and nine destroyers and undisclosed submarine pickets-one my dad’s). Subs left Oct. 31 for Midway and back. 6 hours out of Pearl when message came in— “this is no drill”.

War patrol orders were issued at sea— and they were live war loads, and “Weapons Free” ordered against ANY hostile or other Japanese vessels. We had NOT declared war, and the attack had not happened.

My father to his dying day said “The Brits knew where the Jap fleet was. They delayed telling us, and when we finally knew, our people, knowing what was wanted from the “executive” sat on it” “There was no excuse for the
“surprise”— all indications and battle readiness was (what he called) “soft soaped” and the surprise was intentional. FDR knew and so did Marshall and Nimitz. Anyone with a brain and security clearance could see it coming and then could not talk about it out of fear. A real sweet set up that got our people killed needlessly.”

A considerable amount of recent scholarly work backs this up by the way. Not that it will change anyone’s sacred cow memory of the “leadership”. It won’t. Thoroughly reviewed in Proceedings— US Naval Institute publication.

He also said the RAPID condemnation of Kimmel and Short (who directly followed orders from command authority) was a complete political cover for FDR to deflect blame. He had total disgust with the “gimp in chief with the wandering weiner, a stiff cigarette holder... and an overbearing sense of himself”.

Through his whole career and private sector, Dad always valued the abilities and worth of individual sailors and workers, and their dignity. Something he always felt demonrats NEVER did— the politicians anyway,and yankee union democrats specifically- who were always a problem to him and in quality control for our military needs. Sort of like today, really.


15 posted on 12/08/2012 11:53:35 AM PST by John S Mosby (Sic Semper Tyrannis)
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