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“If… Japan
could be lead to commit an overt act of war, so much the better.” - Navy IQ
Analyst A. H. McCollum
After
witnessing the horrors of World War I, many Americans wished to protect
their children from such an experience, beginning a long period in which
a largely isolationist sentiment endured. However, the rise of Hitler and
his  path of conquest spurred Franklin
Delano Roosevelt into seeking ways to arouse his people to supporting a
war. When siding with Britain
failed to provoke a declaration of war from Hitler, it was only natural
that he turn to Hitler’s Japanese allies. This
coupled with human error and communication blunders lead remorselessly not
only to our entrance into World War II, but the destruction of a large part
of our Pacific fleet and the loss of 2403 American lives, the greatest
tragedy of that fateful morning.
However, this horrendous loss of life did not occur without forewarning.
Decoded messages and more subtle indications pointed to an attack. Why would the
Japanese government request a map of Pearl Harbor with the exact locations
of the ships, if not to attack it? Why would there be a sudde n spike in communications between
Japanese embassies and the government if not in preparation for some major
act? Whether or not Roosevelt willingly
chose to ignore warnings such as these and even a few
more direct ones from outside sources is
irrelevant. Simply the fact that they were ignored may have lead to the
attack. However, there is significant evidence that they were purposely
ignored. In communications that consisted largely of memorandums between
various top-ranking officials (including the President), it was blatantly
suggested multiple times that “Japan commit the first overt
act of war.”
What is perhaps one of the most
significant documents in the controversy surrounding the attack is a
lengthy memorandum sent by Japan stating the reasons bilateral negotiations
were to be terminated. It was sent largely because many Japanese, including
the mastermind of the attack, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, believed that it
was important to alert the United
States that negotiations would no longer
proceed. However, due to  the length of the document, it
had to be sent to the Japanese embassy in 14 separate telegrams. Due to a lack of decoding machines (most
had been destroyed on previous instructions) and the
poor skill of Japanese typists, it was not delivered to Secretary of State
Cordell Hull until an hour after it had instructed. By that time, Japanese
bombs had already ripped through the harbor and numerous American lives. However,
what is of even
greater interest is that top leaders in Washington already knew the contents of
the final message. It had been intercepted and decoded at 5:30 AM that
morning and received by Roosevelt at 9. He
is said to have remarked, “This means war.” It raises the inevitable
question – why was nothing done to alert military leaders in the Pacific? Not
only Hawaii
specifically, but other places where they suspected there might be an
attack? Since the Japanese attack would still have been considered
treacherous enough to incense the public (there was no formal declaration
of war preceding it), what necessitated the loss of so many lives?
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