John Steck wrote:
> Here's an old family story: Long long ago, Roosevelt > (bless his heart -- the only one of the allies who gave > a [EMAIL PROTECTED] about China) issued an ultimatum to Japan. An > uncle of mine, who was very smart but slightly cracked > and who would have fitted in perfectly on Vortex, called > my father, who was also a close friend of his. He said > to my dad, "Did you see the paper? Did you read what > Roosevelt did?? Japan's got no choice -- they're going > to hit us, within the next two weeks!" He wasn't > clairvoyant, though; he told my dad that the thought > Japan would hit us in the Phillipines, while they > actually hit Hawaii. But his timing was dead-on: they > bombed Pearl Harbor a week later.
I learned Japanese language and history from World War II vets on both sides. (I mean Japanese vets as well as Americans). My professors and the people I knew were in the intelligence business, translating from Japanese into English. So I am quite familiar with the history of these events. Many absurd myths have grown up but the facts are quite clear:
1. OF COURSE Roosevelt knew an attack was coming. He told his Cabinet that, and he ordered the military to be prepared. Anyone reading the newspapers in the US or Japan in November 1941 knew that an attack was inevitable.
2. The commanding officers in Hawaii and the Philippines did prepare for an attack, but they did a lousy job. The commanders in Hawaii were vilified & sacked, while the guy in charge in the Philippines (what WAS his name?) went on to become the most celebrated commander of the Pacific war and the only American-born Shogun/demigod in Japanese history. Life isn't fair.
3. Nobody in the administration or the US military had the slightest idea the target was Pearl Harbor. If they had suspected an attack was coming, they would have sortied the fleet and met the Japanese on the high seas. That would have been a disaster. They would have lost 6,000 men or more, and every ship that sank would have been lost for good. (Most of the ships that sank in the harbor were salvaged.) As one admiral put it, it was God's mercy that they were surprised.
The movie "Tora, Tora, Tora" is a remarkably accurate portrayal of the attack and the events leading up to it. Much of the dialog in the movie is taken verbatim from eyewitness written accounts, testimony at the congressional investigations and other original sources.
- Jed
