I did a search of both Cecil and this MB and could not come up with a thread discussing this - if there is one, I would be in debt to whomever points it out to me. Did Franklin Delanor Roosevelt know that the Japanese were going to bomb Pearl Harbor before it happened ?
I was under the impression that this was an UL, but then I saw an interesting docu on the History Channel and now I am not so sure.
This may belong in GD (I did a fruitless search there too).
The issue has been treated fairly thoroughly in the links that Spiny Norman provided.
The short answer is that FDR certainly knew that we would be at war with Japan before the summer of 1942, (the embargo on steel and oil pretty much guaranteed it), but that no one in the U.S. expected the raid on Pearl Harbor.
Something to keep in mind when looking at Pearl Harbor conspiracy theories: granted, FDR desperately wanted the US in the war against Nazi Germany. How did he know, if he supposedly let the Pearl Harbor attack take place, that Hitler would do him the favor of declaring war on the US after the US declared war on Japan? Without that, FDR would have been stuck–the US public would have been fervent about defeating Japan, and it would have been even MORE difficult to turn sentiment towards diverting the war effort against Nazi Germany.
How did FDR know that Germany would declare war on us? He couldn’t know for sure, but Germany and Japan had a treaty that either nation would declare war on any country that declares war on the other. Hitler did not want us in the war and was hesitant to declare war. He was quite angry at Japan. Nonetheless, as unscrupulous as he was, he did so, in honor of the treaty, although he had no honor. That has always been a sticking point with me. Why did he honor the treaty? I guess it was the lesser of two evils.
Given that Hitler had already violated his non-aggression pact with the Soviets, even the most wild-eyed conspiracy theorist can not validly argue that treaties meant a damn thing.
And don’t forget that Britain immediately declared war on Japan after Pearl Harbour. It would have been a little tricky for the US not to declare war on the Germans at this point. As to whether this was all a giant conspiracy is another matter all together
This subject comes up here on a regular basis, and I always make the same reply:
I have no doubt that Franklin Roosevelt WANTED to go to war against Japan and Germany, and he was certainly hoping the Japanese would give him some excuse, ANY Excuse to declare war on them. He proibably wanted a “Tonkin Gulf Incident” of sorts. He’d have been delighted with some minor skirmish that justified war with Japan.
But… Roosevelt didn’t just want to ENTER the war, he wanted to WIN it. Pearl Harbor was not a minor skirmish, it was a major disaster! It nearly put the Pacific fleeet out of commission, and nearly rendered our navy unable to fight the Japanese. Even if FDR were the most devious, sneaky bastard who ever lived, you think he wanted our best ships at the bottom of the ocean?
Britain’s declaration of war had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor. Japan attacked British possesions in Asia at the same time the bombs were falling over Hawaii.
Under the terms of the Tripartite Pact, Germany was not obliged to come to Japan’s defense unless Japan were attacked. Japan having initiated hostilities against the U.S., Germany was not obliged to declare war on the U.S.
Why did Hitler declare war? My guess is 1) his foreign minister (Ribbentrop) had been begging the Japanese to attack the U.S. and had promised to join in the war in order to get them to do it, and 2) he was sick of our destroyers tracking and killing his submarines in the Atlantic without his subs being able to fire back.
I think it was highly possible that FDR was trying to arrange a monor skirmish with the Japanese (to justfy U.S. entry into the war) but he got more than he was hoping for. In other words, he knew there was going to be an attack, but he thought it would be a small one. I’m sure he wasn’t expecting the huge we-will-crush-your-Pacific-Fleet-in-one-fell-swoop attack that occurred at Pearl Harbor.