President FDR always had a style of accommodating to himself. It was his way or no way! Everything had to be to his advantage and he didn't care who he hurt in the process. He was a master manipulator and positively loved lying to the people; it was like he had no conscience. The most important, was the promise he had made to the citizens of the U.S., solemnly given and repeated, not to send their sons into foreign war unless attacked! He did not mind violating that pledge. The only thing FDR feared was the political effect it would bring. Morton Kaplan never believed him in 1940 when he said he wanted to keep the United States out of war. On February 11,1941, FDR proposed sacrificing two carriers and six cruisers at Manila to get into the war (Mother of All Conspiracies). "U.S. Admiral Bloch testified, 'The Japanese only destroyed a lot of old hardware. In a sense they did us a favor.' This was obviously FDR's view as well, because on 7 December at 2:15, minutes after hearing of the attack and before any damage reports were in, FDR called Lord Halifax at the British Embassy and told him 'Most of the fleet was at sea…none of their newer ships were in the harbour'" (Mother of All Conspiracies). FDR was a traitor for maneuvering Japan into war with us and for sacrificing American lives!
FDR practically forced Japan into war, because he felt certain that, it the US fleet in Pearl Harbor were made to appear the victims of a cruel attack, the American public would then back him in his choice, to enter the war. On June 23, 1941, "Advisor Harold Ickes wrote FDR a memo the day after Germany invaded the Soviet Union, 'There might develop from the embargoing of oil to Japan such a situation as would make it not only possible but easy to get into this war in an effective way. And if we should thus indirectly be brought in, we would avoid the criticism that we had gone in as an ally of communistic Russia.' FDR was pleased with Admiral Richmond Turner's report read July 22: 'It is generally believed that shutting off the American supply of petroleum will lead promptly to the invasion of Netherlands East Indies… it seems certain that she would also include military action against the Philippine Islands, which would immediately involve us in a Pacific war.' On July 24 FDR told the Volunteer Participation Committee, 'If we cut off the oil, they probably would have gone down to the Dutch East Indies a year ago, and you would have had war.' The next day FDR froze all Japanese assets in US cutting off their man supply of oil and forcing them into war with the US Intelligence information was withheld from Hawaii from this point forward" (Mother of All Conspiracies).
FDR wanted war, he provoked the attack, he knew about the attack in advanced and covered up his failure to warn the Hawaiian commanders. The president needed the attack on Pearl Harbor to sucker Hitler to declare war, since the Congress and the public were overwhelmingly against entering the war in Europe. Why did FDR want war? It wasn't for moral reasons, or to defend America, because we were totally secure, it wasn't to defend European democracies, because they were flattened years before, and not to defend Britain, because FDR was anti-British and didn't want to get into war until long after they were safe. It was "because FDR became deranged, hysterical, and white-hot for war in May 1941, when the Laftwaffe was transferred to the eastern front. FDR was so distraught that he not only lost total control of his emotions but also control of his bodily functions- he was bedridden for a month. FDR declared a national emergency and put the country on a war footing. In May, he ordered a 25,000 man Expeditionary Force to be ready to fight anywhere it to survive" (Why FDR Wanted War).
Roosevelt set up the commanders, at Pearl Harbor. He wanted someone to take the fall and to take the blame off of him. The president was guilty of denying intelligence to Hawaii and on November 27, misleading the commanders into thinking negotiations with Japan was continuing, to prevent them from realizing the war was on. FDR also sent false information to Hawaii about the location of the Japanese carrier fleet. In 1940 FDR ordered the fleet transferred from the West Coast to it's exposed position in Hawaii and ordered the fleet to remain stationed at Pearl Harbor over complaints by it's commander Admiral Richardson that there were inadequate protection from air attack and no protection from torpedo attack. Richardson felt strongly that he twice disobeyed orders to berth his fleet there and he raised the issue personally with FDR and in October he was replaced, with Admiral Kimmel. Captain Kirk was also replaced because he insisted on warning Hawaii. General Short and Admiral Kimmel were made to be the 'fall guys'. Why then, did FDR not want Hawaii to know they were going to be attacked? It was his backdrop to war.
The United States had broken all the Japanese coeds, both military and political, leading up to the Pearl Harbor bombing. In 1940 American cryptographers cracked the Japanese diplomatic code, Code Purple, and started reading the messages that were being sent. As early as July 31, 1941, that is roughly four months before the attack, we discovered that the foreign minister was telling Washington, "there is more reason than ever before for us to arm ourselves to the teeth for all out war" (Mathews). 'Station M' intercepted Japan's 'Winds Code Set-up,' an alert to Japanese embassies and consults abroad. If the weather report said, East Wind Rain, that was war with the United States. If it was to say North Wind Cloudy, that was war with Russia. West Wind Clear meant war with Britain, including attack on Malaya, Dutch Indies, and Thailand. If these wind codes were spoken back to back it meant to burn all codes and secret papers. Around midnight of December 4, 1941, Ralf Briggs, a station M operative, caught the message Higashi no Kazeame (East Wind Rain). He then notified downtown Washington; the next day he received a 'well done.' FDR had to have been notified of the message, because someone of his statue would not have been left in the dark. He knew the pot was going to boil; he clearly knew the Japanese was reading an attack. Why wasn't the message relayed to Hawaii? The only answer was to make it look like Japan struck us without notice. Remember, he wanted the American people to feel sorry for Pearl Harbor, so they would then get outraged and back Roosevelt in his own personal wanting: to get into war.
On October 7, 1940, Navy IQ analyst McCollum wrote an eight- point memo on how to force Japan into war with us. Why was the memo written in the first place? As soon as Roosevelt read the eight-point memo, he loved the idea. He had to, because the very next day he began to put them into effect and all eight were eventually carried out. Why were they put into effect, if Roosevelt wanted to stay out of the war in Europe? Once again the only answer is, we wanted war.
On September 24, 1941, the 'bomb plot' message in J-19 was sent. It was requesting grid of the exact location of ships. It was for the benefit of the bombardiers and torpedo pilots. At no other times did the Japanese ask for a similar bomb plot. There was no reason for the Japanese to know the exact location of ships in harbor, unless to attack them. It was a dead giveaway. FDR knew the Japanese pilots' targets as soon as they knew them, because he received the bomb plot the same time they did. He had their specific targets, ship by ship, in his hands at the White House. Chief of War Plans and Naval Operations repeatedly kept it and all other warnings from being passed to Hawaii. Why would FDR not pass the message?
U.S. intelligence officials knew of a Hawaii- based Japanese spy who was transmitting maps of bombing targets to Japan. Why was nothing done about the spy? The spy was giving out American information and the president knew. On November 25, 1941 "Secretary of War Stimson noted in his diary, 'FDR stated we were likely to be attacked perhaps as soon as next Monday.' FDR asked: 'the question was how we should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot without too much danger to ourselves. In spite of the risk involved, however, in letting the Japanese fire the first shot, we realized that in order to have the full support of the American people it was desirable to make sure that the Japanese be the ones to do this so that there should remain no doubt in anyone's mind as to who were the aggressors'" (Mother of All Conspiracies). He had the whole thing figured out. In November, FDR ordered the Red Cross Disaster Relief director to secretly prepare for massive casualties at Pearl Harbor because he was going to let it be attacked. Why would the President of the United States let Japan attack and brutally kill thousands of Americans? The only answer is he didn't care; he was getting what he wanted. It had to be his way or no way!
FDR knew of the attack, the exact location and the exact time. On November 23, 1941, Washington knew of the exact time of the attack- 8:00 A.M.- Honolulu time. Then on the 29, "the FBI embassy tap made an intercept of an uncoded plain-text Japanese telephone conversation in which an Embassy functionary (Kurusu) asked 'tell me, what zero hour is. Otherwise, I won't be able to carry on diplomacy.' The voice from Tokyo (K. Yamamoto) said softly, 'Well then. I will tell you. Zero hour is Dec. 8 (Tokyo time, Dec. 7 US time) at Pearl Harbor'" (Mother of All Conspiracies). After FDR knew the exact time and location Pearl Harbor was still not warned! FDR withheld the information deliberately!
December 6, 1941, FDR returned to his 34-dinner guest and said, "The war starts tomorrow" (Mother of All Conspiracies). What kind of President would not relay a message to Pearl Harbor, to at least warn them? Pearl Harbor could have had a fighting chance at surviving, but FDR took that away from them.
FDR couldn't pull the conspiracy off by himself; he had help. He needed help covering up his knowledge. Most of the conspirators were military men, all of FDR's own choice, of course. Men who only followed orders and FDR were great about giving orders. He loved his men because he knew they would never question his authority and if they did, they were easily replaced. Generals Marshall and Bendell Smith and Admiral Earnest King were among the conspirators. General Marshall was horseback riding on the morning of the attack. Making him unavailable, it was his way of assuring that Pearl Harbor would not be warned in time. FDR had help and it was help that he could control with no questions asked.
"'Most of the Pearl Harbor survivors believe in the theories of conspiracy,' said Daniel Martinez, a historian with the National Park Service at the USS Arizona Memorial. 'They blame FDR. The majority of them feel they were sacrificed, even in the term they use, 'Pearl Harbor Survivors'" (Sullivan).
Conspiracists find it suspicious that the nation's aircraft carriers- the most valuable of the Pacific fleet- at the time of the attack were not in the harbor. They also point to radar operators who detected the Japanese fleet out at sea and the knowledge of breaking all the Japanese codes. If we had all this knowledge, why wasn't Pearl Harbor notified? FDR murdered thousands of young innocent Americans. The Air Corps in the Philippines and the Navy at Pearl Harbor were FDR's bait, the oil embargo was his stick, the end of negotiations was the tripwire in FDR's game of shame- a game of death for so many.
Sources Cited
Kaplan, Morton. "Why Roosevelt Wanted Japan to Attack Pearl Harbor." World and I Oct. 200: v.15 p.288.
La Forte, Robert, and Ronald E. Marcello. Remembering Pearl Harbor. Washington: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1991.
Lord, Walter. Day of Infamy. United States of America, 1957.
Mathews, Tom, et al. "Remembering Pearl Harbor." Newsweek 25 Nov.1991: p.30.
"Pearl Harbor Mother of All Conspiracies" <http://www.goecities.com/Pentagon/6315/pearl.html>.
Sullivan, Laura. "Pearl Harbor Doubts Persist." The Sun 07 Dec.2000: p.1A.
"Why Did FDR Want War" <http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/6315/fdr.html>.