Being that today is a day of remembrance for Pearl Harbor, I have a question concerning just that. Do you think that the U.S. government (or specifically President Roosevelt) had any prior knowledge whatsoever that Japan was going to attack Pearl Harbor before it actually occurred on December 7th,1941?

Some historians will say that the US provoked the attack on Pearl Harbor (and don’t forget that the Japs attacked Manila, Singapore, Port Moresby and other sites in the South Pacific that week).

I have read (but could not give you a cite) that the Japanese government saw war with the US as inevitable going back as far as the time of the Russo-Japanese war in 1905..

Did the US Fleet in the Pacific know something was up? Yes.
Did they have anything specific to act upon except for some radio transmissions that were intercepted within hours of the start of the attack, No. well maybe no.

Just one opinion.

SRM

Yes, I believe it was an expected and provoked attack which provided the US and excuse to join the money wagon of WW2.
Please don’t ask me for sources, because I will provide them, instead of going to bed as I should.

it was proven that we knew. It was leaked.

I don’t think I’ve heard anyone say “the Japs” and mean it since my grandfather (who was in WWII) died.

@macbean,

No offense intended, but growing up in the 50’s, when your father and those of your friends, spent years in places like the Philippines, Guam, Iwo Jima, or even the Bronx, that was a very commonly heard and used term.

Of course I heard the same term used to describe female baby-boomers from Great Neck and Manhasset when I was in college but that is a different line of thinking.

SRM

Whether we knew or not. It was something that had to happen.

If Japan didn’t attack us when they did, we wouldn’t have gotten involved in WW2 until later. By then the Nazis would have taken over all of Europe. So it would have been all of Europe vs. the USA. We would have gotten destroyed and the Nazis would have taken over most of the world.

In the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! the Japanese warned the US that an attack was imminent but the warning was never passed to the proper people. Check out this link. It’s not difinitive, but interesting. This one too.

If you want a to see another film where you can learn a lot of facts about Pearl Harbor. I recommend seeing the Micheal Bay movie “Pearl Harbor”. It really catches on what the people involved really went though—-

Ohhhhh…

Wait….

Nevermind.

michael bay…why does that man exist ?

Pearl Harbor Sucks Just A Little Bit More Than I Love You

@simone: Really wasn’t sggesting that Tora was fact based, simply making reference to what was in the movie. That’s kinda why I supplied the links.

There was indeed information that could have warned the US of the attack, but red tape tied things up until it was too late. The US knew that Japanese diplomats were beginning to destroy certain documents and files as early as December 1st. However, a second arm of the Japanese diplomatic corps was still talking peace in Washington at the time of the attack so American optimism probably helped delay the realization of the “message.”

There wasn’t, however, an actual coded message sent and intercepted that would have warned us if we had paid attention. See today’s New York Times article ( http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/us/07pearl.html?em ) for details of the recently released report.

The US knew that war with Japan was coming and had known for some time, but the possible timing of the potential attack was only laid out in November 1941, where Roosevelt et al realized that Japan couldn’t wait much longer to attack.

But we hoped and assumed it would be the Philippines that would be the target. There was in fact an attempt to trigger the attack there involving a civilian yacht that was sent to “spy” on Japan. This was in part to solve the “Philippines problem” (ie, how to give them their independence since we had gained them from the Spanish-American War) and in part to prevent any damage to the Pacific fleet.

I don’t recall off-hand all my sources for this but I did a report on this for American History and used several compilations of government reports and communiques for the basis of this information.

NO! If FDR had known, dozens of others would have had to know since the president himself would not be monitoring Japanese communications, intercepting and translating from code>Japanese>English. If dozens knew before Pearl Harbor, then 1000’s would know 50 years later and someone would publish the truth. All we have seen is undocumented and unwitnessed speculation.

File under history repeats itself. Here’s your question with one modification:

Do you think that the U.S. government (or specifically President Bush) had any prior knowledge whatsoever that Saudi Arabia Al Qaeda was going to attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon before it actually occurred on September 11, 2001?

Either our government knows a lot more than it will ever tell us, or the American people love a good conspiracy it’s probably a little of both.

I attended the university of arizona as an undergrad and majored in poli sci and east asian studies. I had to write a 20 page research paper on whether or not the us knew pearl harbor was going to be attacked and did nothing to draw the us into the war. UofAZ has tons of material on pearl harbor due to the uss arizona. I read all of the original telegraph messages and did extensive reading. We knew something was going to happen due to increased message tracking to Japan but like 9/11 it wasn’t thought anyone would have the audacity to attack US soil. this was not a conspiracy just some very bad communication in various federal departments because messages were going everywhere and not painting a clear picture. also messages were passed on slowly. poor communication not conspiracy.

I’ve heard this conjecture all my life. What I do know is that radar installed near Pearl Harbor picked up the attack as it was imminent, but the readings weren’t interpreted correctly until the bombs started to fall.

U.S. strategic losses at Pearl Harbor were significant. In the Philippines, they were even worse. I think U.S. intelligence about Japanese intentions could have been a lot better, but no, I don’t think Roosevelt knew when and where it was coming and withheld the information in order to bring us into the war.