Roosevelt knew that the Japanese were intending to attack. There's no evidence that he knew that they were intending to attack Pearl Harbor -- in fact, the reason the aircraft carriers weren't in port that day was because they were shuttling aircraft to Wake Island, which was presumed to be the first thing east of the Philippines that the Japanese would attack. It wasn't an accident that the carriers weren't in port that day, they were on their way back from Wake Island -- without any fighter aircraft on board (they'd all been left on Wake Island), meaning that they were utterly defenseless if a Japanese patrol submarine or aircraft had spotted them. So much for the myth that the carriers were deliberately sent out of port so they'd be gone when Pearl Harbor was attacked (they wouldn't have been left defenseless if that were the case)... not to mention we're only talking two aircraft carriers (the Lexington and the Enterprise), of which the Enterprise was the only modern one (the Lexington was a converted battle cruiser that dated back to the 1920's), it would have been a major loss if either had been sunk at Pearl Harbor (especially if the Enterprise had been sunk) but not utter disaster.
The reason the battleships were all in Pearl Harbor was because the U.S. war plan called for the fully-fueled battleships to immediately steam out of port after the Japanese attacked Wake Island and, with cover and patrols from the aircraft carriers, attempt to locate and engage the Japanese fleet. If the battleships had been outside of Pearl Harbor steaming around they would have had to wait to be refueled from fuel colliers before they could take off after the Japanese. Remember that these were all WW1-vintage battleships thus had limited speed and fuel capacity, the only two modern battleships that had been built thus far at the time (the two North Carolina class battleships) were still in the Atlantic doing shakedown cruises and getting the last glitches out of their designs. So this was what the U.S. had available, and the war plan had to take into consideration their limitations.
In other words: Yes, Roosevelt knew that the Japanese intended to attack. But if there had been any indication that they were planning to attack Pearl Harbor rather than Wake Island and the Philippines (where the U.S. expected attacks and was ferrying aircraft and supplies to counter such an attack), U.S. defenses would have been on alert that day, instead of asleep at the wheel, and the torpedo nets would have been deployed instead of furled. There was no political advantage to Roosevelt in allowing the majority of the Pacific Fleet to be sunk in Pearl Harbor that day -- it would have been war with Japan regardless of whether the Japanese attack had succeeded in sinking the battleships or not.
"...The road to Pearl Harbor was built on American as well as Japanese miscalculations, most of them mired in mutual cultural ignorance and racial arrogance..." http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB905.pdf
Jul 26, 1941: United States freezes Japanese assets http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/united-states-freezes-japanese-assets
Roosevelt knew that the Japanese were intending to attack. There's no evidence that he knew that they were intending to attack Pearl Harbor -- in fact, the reason the aircraft carriers weren't in port that day was because they were shuttling aircraft to Wake Island, which was presumed to be the first thing east of the Philippines that the Japanese would attack. It wasn't an accident that the carriers weren't in port that day, they were on their way back from Wake Island -- without any fighter aircraft on board (they'd all been left on Wake Island), meaning that they were utterly defenseless if a Japanese patrol submarine or aircraft had spotted them. So much for the myth that the carriers were deliberately sent out of port so they'd be gone when Pearl Harbor was attacked (they wouldn't have been left defenseless if that were the case)... not to mention we're only talking two aircraft carriers (the Lexington and the Enterprise), of which the Enterprise was the only modern one (the Lexington was a converted battle cruiser that dated back to the 1920's), it would have been a major loss if either had been sunk at Pearl Harbor (especially if the Enterprise had been sunk) but not utter disaster.
ReplyDeleteThe reason the battleships were all in Pearl Harbor was because the U.S. war plan called for the fully-fueled battleships to immediately steam out of port after the Japanese attacked Wake Island and, with cover and patrols from the aircraft carriers, attempt to locate and engage the Japanese fleet. If the battleships had been outside of Pearl Harbor steaming around they would have had to wait to be refueled from fuel colliers before they could take off after the Japanese. Remember that these were all WW1-vintage battleships thus had limited speed and fuel capacity, the only two modern battleships that had been built thus far at the time (the two North Carolina class battleships) were still in the Atlantic doing shakedown cruises and getting the last glitches out of their designs. So this was what the U.S. had available, and the war plan had to take into consideration their limitations.
In other words: Yes, Roosevelt knew that the Japanese intended to attack. But if there had been any indication that they were planning to attack Pearl Harbor rather than Wake Island and the Philippines (where the U.S. expected attacks and was ferrying aircraft and supplies to counter such an attack), U.S. defenses would have been on alert that day, instead of asleep at the wheel, and the torpedo nets would have been deployed instead of furled. There was no political advantage to Roosevelt in allowing the majority of the Pacific Fleet to be sunk in Pearl Harbor that day -- it would have been war with Japan regardless of whether the Japanese attack had succeeded in sinking the battleships or not.
Puhleeeeze. Roosevelt antagonized the Japanese into attacking.
ReplyDelete"...The road to Pearl Harbor was built on American as well as Japanese miscalculations, most of them mired in mutual cultural ignorance and racial arrogance..."
Deletehttp://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB905.pdf
Jul 26, 1941:
United States freezes Japanese assets
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/united-states-freezes-japanese-assets