historian said:KaiBear said:Roosevelt simply decided China was more important than American lives.whiterock said:So we were obligated to sell Japan the means to continue its war on Manchuria?KaiBear said:FLBear5630 said:Of course, Germany would have preferred the US to stay neutral or take the Axis side, but by the time the US Navy got involved or the lend-lease started Germany had invaded pretty much all of Europe and the Japanese had joined them. Roosevelt did not need any manipulated scenarios in 1941 pre-Pearl Harbor. He ended Nuetrality in Jan 1941 with Lend-Lease. The US Navy attacked Germany in April 1941 and the Germans attacked the US in September. There was no need to orchestrate.KaiBear said:FLBear5630 said:KaiBear said:Absolutely correctSam Lowry said:On the contrary. Our strategy was to maneuver them into firing the first shot, and that's exactly what we did.historian said:
That's a silly myth. There is no evidence that FDR or anyone else in the US government wanted an attack on Pearl Harbor.
Roosevelt cut off all US oil exports to Japan thereby forcing the Japanese to get their oil from the Dutch East
Indies.
Knowing full well such an invasion would result in a declaration of war from the Dutch and Great Britain.
Realizing the British and Dutch militaries were mired in Europe against Germany, Japanese military planners correctly determined that only the US Pacific Fleet could stop them.
So the Japanese determined upon the risky attack on Pearl Harbor. A horrible blunder as the US carriers were not in port and the Japanese pilots failed to attack the huge oil tanks nearby on shore. If those oil tanks had been destroyed the US fleet would have been forced to withdraw to the West Coast.
In the case of Germany, Roosevelt had authorized the US Navy to ATTACK German submarines months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt was providing a huge amount of supplies to Great Britain. Even to the point of giving the British 50 American destroyers. Vital in Britains war against German submarines.
Once again, this is cherry picking information in hindsight to fit a theory.
The chain of events is accurate, implying motivation or more that it was a strategy to get the US into the war in the Pacific is pure speculation. Pearl Harbor was a awful big price to pay and one FDR had no control over the outcome. As you say, the Japanese pilots go one mile inland and destroy the oil tanks game over.
Japan has already fired such a shot before Pearl Harbor joining with Germany and Italy in 1939. They invaded IndoChina in 40. If FDR wanted to enter a war, Japan gave him several opportunities without sacrificing Pearl Harbor! No one thought Hawaii was the target, they thought Philippines, which happened at same time. I disagree FDR let Pearl Harbor happen to enter the war. That was a surprise. As for Germany, they invaded all of Europe before we did a thing! Churchill was begging FDR to help. You guys are rewriting history to fit your pre-conceived biases. We are not that smart, no one is
Never said or implied that Roosevelt KNEW in advance of Japanese intentions to attack Pearl Harbor.
He didn't.
All US intelligence officers believed the Japanese would begin the war with an attack on the US military installations in the Philippines. No one from Roosevelt, down to Admiral Kimmel or General Short believed the Japanese had the capability to reach and attack Pearl Harbor. The Philippines were attacked as well however ; approximately 24 hours after Pearl Harbor.
However there can be little doubt that Roosevelt manipulated Japan into attacking the US first in order to provoke a totally unwilling American public to enter the war.
He simply thought the war would begin in the Philippines.
Roosevelt's provocation against nazi Germany was even more blatant. By the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor ; Hitler had come to the conclusion that the United States Navy had already been at war against them for several months and might as well declare war and get everything out in the open.
Silly rebuttal.
Whether or not you believe there was a ' need ' Roosevelt 's action of cutting all US oil exports to Japan absolutely forced them to invade the Dutch East Indies in order to replace that oil.
As Japan did not produce any oil on their home islands . And without oil the entire Japanese military would have been unable to function in its war in China.
So to prevent war, we have to facilitate it?
So after hundreds of thousands of US dead.........
China become communist.
So how can any rational individual believe Roosevelt made the right choice ?
Sorry, but that's a silly statement. It was about doing the right thing and, more importantly, stopping Japanese expansion. The more they grew, the more they would threaten American possessions: the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, etc.
Also, in the 1930s & 1940-41 no one knew that China would become communist in 1949. That was the result of a 20+ year civil war put on hold by the Japanese and only resumed after their defeat.
There are other issues to complicate these things but they don't alter the basic realities. The pony is that the US is not to blame in the least.
Yeah
The US took the Philippines as part of the White Man's Burden, yet Japan couldn't do the same in Manchuria.
Strange rational.
And thousands of Americans died enforcing the hypocrisy.