The Secret Knowledge of the Bombing of Pearl Harbor

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Knowledge of the Bombing of Pearl the Secret Harbor Titans clashed in Europe...a struggle for power between the Axis(Germany, Italy, and Japan), and the Allies (France, England, and Russia), waged on. Many people died. There were famines, diseases, split up families, hardships unimaginable to people in our time. Yet one country prospered. Isolated in its own wealth and prosperity, The United States of America had no interest in the war. At least until one infamous day, December 7, 19411, the bombing of Pearl Harbor. On this day, Germany’s ally, Japan, led a surprise attack on the US Naval station in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Or was it a surprise? Did Franklin Delano Roosevelt, then president of the United States of America, know about the attack? Was he secretly hiding the information in order to enter World War II? The answer is yes. And not only did he know about the attack, he encouraged it. He used precise tactics in doing so, all the while abusing his presidential power and not helping save innocent American lives. Yet this tragedy has been overlooked for many years, and will go unnoticed for many more. It was a “Day of Infamy”2, indeed. It was December7, 1941, the soldiers on naval base Pearl Harbor in Oahu were just waking up. Suddenly bombs began to drop, 7 ships were sunk, 2897 people were killed almost instantly, 879 were wounded3, millions of lives changed. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had wanted to enter the war for a long time. However, the United States’ public opinion was against going to war due to the stable and booming economy. The only problem was that he had to make Japan make the first move. He had to make them do this because the American people did not want to enter the war. He had to find a way. He found it in Lieutenant Commander Arthur H. McCollum. McCollum provided Roosevelt with a detailed, 8-step procedure for making Japan make the first overt move into war: A. Make an arrangement with Britain for the use of British bases in the Pacific, particularly Singapore. B. Make an arrangement with Holland for the use of base facilities and acquisition of supplies in the Dutch East Indies(now Indonesia). C. Give all possible aid to the Chinese government of Chiang Kai-shek. D. Send a division of long-range heavy cruisers to the Orient, Philippines, or Singapore. E. Send two divisions of submarines to the Orient. F. Keep the main strength of th... ... middle of paper ... ...and against evil, for the surprise attack (on Pearl Harbor) made Americans sympathetic for our striped men and women, causing more help from the mass majority of Americans, eventually leading to victory in World War II. Had Nazi Germany won, no one knows the extent of evil that would have been caused. So even though Franklin Delano Roosevelt did many wrong things, his reasoning was good, and we were victorious. 1 http://www.execpc.com/~dschaaf/theday.html 2 FDR’s famous speech after the bombing 3 ftp://ftp.purdue.edu/pub/Liberal-Arts/History/pha/pearl.harbor/misc/army_1.txt 4 Stinnet, Robert; Day of Deceit, page 8 5 Stinnet, Robert; Day of Deceit, page 9 6 Stinnet, Robert; Day of Deceit, page 9 7 Stinnet, Robert; Day of Deceit, page 11 8 Stinnet, Robert; Day of Deceit, page 11 9 Stinnet, Robert; Day of Deceit, page 11 Bibliography Websites: 1. ftp://ftp.purdue.edu/pub/Liberal-Arts/History/pha/pearl.harbor/misc/army_1.txt 2. http://bcn.boulder.co.us/government/national/speeches/spch2.html Book: 3. Day of Deceit, Stinnet, Robert,The Free Press, New York, New York Encyclopedia: 3. World Book, 1989 edition, World Book Inc., Newspaper: 4. New York Times, Dec 8, 1941 edition.

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