FDR, Pearl Harbor, The “Great Man” Myth And The True Historical Record…

The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred more than eighty years ago and generations of Americans have been formally taught in government schools that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor constituted an unprovoked act of Japanese aggression that caught the United States and the Roosevelt administration entirely by surprise. Yet any objective analysis of the documents contained in the official Congressional inquiry into the security failures that led to the “surprise” attack on Pearl Harbor reveal that this narrative offers a profoundly distorted interpretation of the historical record.

The evidence presented in the official inquiry into Pearl Harbor reveals without question that President Roosevelt and Secretary of War Henry Stimson already knew by December 1, 1941 that Japan considered war with the United States imminent, based on intercepted messages and intelligence about Japanese military movements. Despite this, Roosevelt Administration told the American people that negotiations were ongoing and allowed Congress to adjourn without being warned of the approaching danger.

The Roosevelt Administration then shamelessly allowed the blame for the Pearl Harbor attack to be placed upon General Walter Short and Admiral Husband Kimmel, while brazenly exonerating all the top advisors in the Administration itself. Senators Homer Ferguson and Owen Brewster offered the following comments in the minority report:

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On December 1, 1941, it was known to the Secretary of War and to the President and his close advisors that Japan had informed Hitler on December 1 that war was imminent. They knew this by intercepting the following message from Tokyo to Berlin:

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“….our Empire faces a grave situation and must act with determination. Will Your Honor, therefore, immediately interview Chancellor HITLER and Foreign Minister RIBBENTROP and confidentially communicate to them a summary of the developments. Say to them that lately England and the United States have taken a provocative attitude, both of them. Say that they are planning to move military forces into various places in East Asia and that we will inevitably have to counter by also moving troops. Say very secretly to them that there is extreme danger that war may suddenly break out between the Anglo-Saxon nations and Japan through some clash of arms and add that the time of the breaking out of this war may come quicker than anyone dreams…”

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The Secretary of War, the President and his advisors also were fully aware that Japanese military movements were under way and that these movements would involve the United States in war. Notwithstanding this intimate knowledge of the imminence of war, the Secretary of War told the American people as late as December 5 that the negotiations with Japan were still in progress. Also, despite the extreme gravity of the situation, known fully to the War Cabinet, the President permitted the Senate and the House of Representatives to adjourn on December 4 and 5 respectively until noon of December 8 without having informed them of the impending danger to the country…

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So despite intercepting a secret communique from the Japanese high command informing Germany of an imminent attack on Anglo-American military forces, the Roosevelt Administration failed to notify the military command of the escalating situation? If this omission was not a deliberate act of military sabotage, it most certainly constitutes a severe case of gross criminal negligence.

Percy L. Greaves was the primary Republican counsel of this Joint Congressional Committee. In Pearl Harbor: The Seeds And Fruits Of Infamy, Greaves offered the following analysis of the facts revealed in the official inquiry:

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…It was obvious that Japan was directly responsible for the attack. However, it is not so easy to determine responsibility for the extent of the Pearl Harbor disaster — the element of surprise, the tragic loss of life, and the catastrophic devastation of ships, planes, etc. The Pearl Harbor commanders, Admiral Kimmel and General Short, were held responsible and publicly blamed for the disaster.

However, it is now apparent that in the final analysis it was President Roosevelt himself, who was truly responsible for Pearl Harbor’s lack of preparedness. It was he who determined U.S. policy and who directed the Secretaries of State, War, and Navy how to implement that policy. The top Washington officials also contributed to the extent of the disaster by not adequately warning Pearl Harbor in a timely manner. Their contributions, however, were sins of omission rather than sins of commission.

An Administration “cover-up,” under the guidance of FDR and with the support of his loyal lieutenants, was apparently aimed at keeping the public from learning of the Administration’s role in failing to keep the Pearl Harbor commanders adequately equipped and informed of the imminence of war with Japan, and of the likelihood that Pearl Harbor could be a target.

Upon a review of the events that took place over the months preceding the attack — as revealed in the several investigations — the top Washington officials had ample reason to expect that a Japanese attack on U.S. territory was imminent. Yet they did not relay that sense of urgency to Kimmel and Short.

It is now evident that the stage was set for a Japanese attack on U.S. territory by President Roosevelt’s decisions and actions. He was responsible for squeezing the Japanese economically until they were forced to try to use force to seize the resources they needed and to prevent the U.S. Fleet from trying to stop them. It was thanks to Roosevelt’s decisions and actions that an unwarned, ill-equipped, and poorly prepared Fleet remained stationed far from the shores of continental United States, at a base recognized by his military advisers as indefensible and vulnerable to attack.

Given that situation, it is not strange that the Fleet was surprised by the attack of Japanese torpedo planes and bombers that fateful Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. And then when the extent of the damage was known, it was Roosevelt who orchestrated a cover-up to make Admiral Kimmel and General Short scapegoats and to conceal any negligence on the part of the administration…

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In short, the Roosevelt Administration deceptively told the public that FDR had endeavored to sustain peace with Japan when in truth the Roosevelt administration was debating how to provoke Japan. The Roosevelt Administration further identified scapegoats who could be held responsible for their own failure to alert the military command of the high probability of an impending Japanese attack.

It was a rank act of political cowardice whose primary aim was to cultivate a favorable public perception irrespective of the Roosevelt Administration’s own failures and deceit. To call the Roosevelt narrative we were all taught in high school history class sanitized is a great misnomer; the “Great Man” narrative slavishly bequeathed upon FDR is instead a bastardized and gross distortion of the actual historical record.