Day of Deceit : The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor

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Summary: Marshall warned both Admiral Kimmel and General Short
Review: It is well known that ten days before the attack on Pearl Harbor took place that Marshall sent a message to both Kimmel and Short warning them to prepare for an attack.Unfortunately,both Kimmel and Short interpreted this to mean that a sabotage attack by potential infiltrators was eminent.Kimmel's response was to send the carriers out of Pearl Harbor while simultaneously grouping all of the battleships as close as possible so as to guard them against a sabotage attack.Short did precisely the same thing with respect to his air force.All the planes were placed wing tip to wing tip so as to guard them against a sabotage attack.I guess that both Kimmel and Short had forgotten General Billy Mitchell's prediction made back in 1931 that the Japanese would one day attack Pearl Harbor using carrier based torpedo bombers at 7:00 A M on a Sunday morning.This book is very incomplete and should never have been published with out extensive revisions.

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Summary: Stinnett believes his theories; he's just simply wrong.
Review: ...In reading most of the previous reviews, I see two levels of misunderstanding by several reviewers: (1) there are those who have read little else about the Pearl Harbor attack and assume that this is an authoritative reference, and (2) there are those who give it a glowing 5-star rating, proclaiming "see, Roosevelt DID want war with Japan!"
...To the first group, I'd strongly advise you to get a much broader education on this subject. Taking Stinnett's book as a prime source of information on Pearl Harbor makes as much sense as asking your local Ford dealer for his recommendation on which brand of car to buy. If you really want to know the full story on the cryptologic aspects of the Pearl Harbor story, read "And I Was There," by Edwin Layton. Layton WAS there, and he has the facts that Stinnett doesn't want to believe.
...To the second group, you're missing the point. There's no argument that FDR expected, perhaps even wanted war with Japan. The question is, did he KNOW that an attack was coming upon Hawaii? The answer is no--he and all of his advisors expected it in the Phillipines, or perhaps Malaya. His war plans chief, Admiral Turner, even predicted an initial attack against the USSR! To be sure, hindsight provides evidence that the U.S. should have been able to predict a specific threat to Pearl Harbor, but (as Layton effectively explains), our leadership was unable to see the forest with all those trees in the way. Ineffective intelligence handling and analysis? Certainly. But a deliberate conspiracy? A resounding no.
...In October 2004, the History Channel did a one-hour special on this book, allotting about half the time to Stinnett and an associate, and the rest to a number of distinguished historians and scholars who thoroughly picked Stinnett's theories to pieces. As one of them eloquently stated at the end of the program, "it's clear that Mr. Stinnett actually believes his theories; he's just simply wrong."

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Summary: The more things change, the more they stay the same...
Review: Most Americans alive today will view this book as ancient history. They were not alive then, and so what Franklin Roosevelt knew, did, and the devious measures he employed to drag the United States kicking and screaming into a foreign war, against its will, and despite his promises to avoid such an entanglement, will evoke mostly indifference, yawns, and "so what?"

But, for those of us who were alive then and, even then, suspected the President's motives and his statements and assurances, this is a fascinating document. And, for many of us, it vindicates our suspicions that President Roosevelt purposely pushed the Japanese into attacking us at Pearl Harbor in order to draw us into the war against the Axis powers, who then dominated the continent of Europe, including the Balkans, much of North Africa, and were threatening to overrun Asia.

The majority of the American people were dead-set against being drawn into Europe's war, and were little concerned with the fate of China. Our cities were not directly threatened. despite the fact that the Nazis had friends in Argentina, and if England fell, would no doubt end up with clout in Canada and Mexico, the former being, after all, part of the Commonwealth of the British Empire.

The world was in flames, and Roosevelt knew that to get America off its collective duff and help put out the fire, it would be necessary to get in the war.

So, he drove Japan over the brink with a bellicose policy that deprived them of oil, raw materials, and scrap iron, and sailed our submarines and cruisers into their home waters. He denied them fishing rights in waters historically available to them. He drove them to the edge, and then pushed them over it.

This book, through documents formerly classified and now available through the Freedom of Information Act, six decades after the fact, irrefutably demonstrates that FDR knew, through access to broken Japanese codes and other sources, that the Japanese were going to strike us in a surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, knew their fleet was underway to do so, and denied the commanders on the scene, General Short and Admiral Kimmel, the intelligence resources to protect themselves. Then, he fired them for their failure. He expected the attack. It was part of his plan to achieve a Cause Celebre that would motivate the American people to get in the war.

It took this author 17 years to document this book: to access all of the documents and interview the multi-thousands of people involved. It represents no small effort, in the interest of historical truth.

We lost much of our Pacific Fleet at Learl Harbor on December 7, 1941. We lost upward of 2,500 American Lives. The goal of the American President, achieved at such a high cost, was the motivation of the American people. Monstrous? Perhaps, but in his defense, one must remember the stakes. Almost inevitably, without our active entry into the war, Britain would have fallen to Hitler. China would have fallen to Japan, and a Greater East-Asia Co-Proserity Sphere would have resulted, allied with a Europe completely dominated by the Nazis, and allied with Japan and Italy.

Already inroads were being made into South America, and the Nazis shortly would have dominated Canadian politics as well.

We would have been a country isolated, and doomed.

Those were the stakes. So, perhaps Roosevelt does not look quite so much the monster, after all. For, we DID survive, didn't we?

Joseph (Joe) Pierre, USN (Ret)
(...)

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Summary: Slow boat to Hawaii
Review: Robert Stinnett's book was published in 1999 but is especially relevant today at a time when the whys and wherefores of America's entry into war and specifically the veracity of the representations made to us by our leaders to induce us to go to war are a front-and-center issue.

If there is one conspiracy theory with "legs", it might be "Pearl Harbor", as Stinnett seems to have found a large number of memoranda, logs, and coded messages (supplemented by interviews with still-living cryptographers) evidencing a far-reaching effort on the part of the Roosevelt administration to antagonize Japan into making precisely the sort of attack on U.S. naval bases in Hawaii that it would end up making on December 7, 1941.

More disturbing is the implication that naval personnel at Pearl Harbor were deliberately kept ignorant of the pending Japanese attack. If there were a plot to provoke an attack that would bring America into the war, would not the attack itself have served the interests of the plotters without need for the loss of life that resulted from unpreparedness on December 7?

Were Roosevelt and his commanders really so indifferent to human life as to allow naval personnel to die needlessly in order to "gild the lily" that the attack itself otherwise would have provided?

It looks as though the Left needs to clean its own house. It looks like they have their own "911" because Stinnett's evidence in the form of broken Japanese codes, tracking of warships, and government warnings that somehow never quite made it to the "intended" recipients at Pearl Harbor suggests that the Roosevelt administration was indeed so indifferent.

But the "smoking gun" drama that Stinnett's revelations should invoke is muted in a hodge-podge of footnotes and appendices that make this book very difficult to read or evaluate. A number of characters strut and fret their way upon the historical stage that Stinnett lights without making a firm impression as to either their identities or to the role that they play on this stage. There is certainly enough information here, however, for others to examine and perhaps to present in more readable format.

Actually, it really isn't even necessary to discuss Pearl Harbor when considering the issue of FDR's indifference to human life. The internment of thousands of American citizens of Japanese descent in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, pursuant to Roosevelt's executive order, is not a disputed factual issue at all and itself illustrates this indifference.

Although there are yet living survivors of Pearl Harbor and of the internment, the incidents that took place over sixty years ago almost themselves fade before the issue of why Roosevelt's historical reputation is scarcely affected by what has always been known about the internment and by ongoing revelations about Pearl Harbor, just as JFK's historical reputation scarcely suffers in the eyes of historians or the general public from what is now KNOWN about his connections with the Mob.

Orwell once wrote that he who controls the past controls the future, and our past seems to be controlled by liberal/Left academics that censor and rewrite history in order to maintain a liberal/Left consensus.

Orwell also wrote that the prospect that the ruling classes might convince their subjects that two plus two equals something other than four frightened him more than bombs. The fact that liberal leaders with deeply-ingrained, sometimes criminal flaws, are STILL being portrayed by "history" as examples of moral uplift is an example of liberal/Left academics and weak sisters among the general public decreeing that two plus two equals five whenever it's necessary.

Perhaps after 60 years, our emphasis should shift away somewhat from the possibility of government conspiracies from bygone days and should focus on the active conspiracies to control the past that are actively and openly taking place in the halls of academia.

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Summary: Strong evidence, but not the smoking gun
Review: Stinnett constructs a strong but circumstantial case that FDR knew in advance of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Copious footnotes refer back to the extensive research underlying his claims -- I don't know why another reviewer claimed the book is based on "discredited sources" when 90% of the footnotes are to declassified military documents obtained via FOIA.

The book does have a couple of weaknesses. First, the evidence as to FDR's knowledge is circumstantial. Clearly, Navy officers knew or had every reason to know that Pearl Harbor was to be attacked, and for whatever reason the Navy failed to warn Adm. Kimmel and in fact actively discouraged him from shoring up his defenses. Clearly, FDR's intention as of 1940 (at the latest) was to provoke Japan into attacking the US, giving him the excuse he needed to enter the war. What is not as clear is whether Roosevelt knew specifically of Pearl Harbor in advance. Stinnett builds a strong circumstantial case that FDR knew, but it's not a smoking gun.

Second, Stinnett lays out reams of documentary evidence, but he often fails to satisfactorily explain and interconnect the evidence to the reader. Compounding that problem is Stinnett's failure to tie all the evidence together in a closing chapter. Having read the book, I feel as if I were a juror who sat through 6 months of detailed testimony about a murder, but was denied hearing a closing argument from the prosecutor to "connect the dots". I know he's guilty, but I'm not exactly sure why.

Despite these weaknesses, Stinnett's work is a valuable contribution and gives enough evidence to justify the commonly-held belief that FDR, for better or worse, is responsible more than any other party for getting the US into WWII.

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Summary: It's All There!
Review: The magnitude of what this book has revealed is unspeakably great to anyone who researches on wartime history of Japan and to any Japanese who is desperately trying to debunk terrible false accusations Japan received from the victorious Allied Powers in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, a.k.a. Tokyo Trial after the World War 2 ended.

The McCollumfs Eight Action Proposal to gprovoke Japan to commit overt act of warh suggested so-called gABCD Encirclementh: Economic encirclement of Japan by America, Britain, China and Dutch.

In May 1951, General Douglas MacArthur stated before the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate; gThere is practically nothing indigenous to Japan except the silk worm. They lack cotton, they lack wool, they lack petroleum products, they lack tin, they lack rubber, they lack a great many other things, all of which was in the Asiatic basin.h And most of those were being imported from abovementioned four countries. Then MacArthur concludes; gThey feared that if those supplies were cut off, there would be 10 to 12 million people unoccupied in Japan. Their purpose, therefore, in going to war was largely dictated by security.h

At the court of the Tokyo Trial, the Prosecutors actually failed to prove Japanfs evil intention to go for the war with China, the U.S.A. and the British and other Allied countries, let alone to gconquer the worldh. They had to admit that the world famous forged document; Tanaka Memorial, which allegedly announced Japanfs cunning plan of conquest of the world, was in fact a forgery.

As for Japanfs starting war against China, the defense counsels almost succeeded to prove Japan had been provoked and harassed by the Chinese Communists with Red Russia behind them, if the trialfs final judgments of guilty verdicts on all defendants had been already fixed from the first. Japan was not Aggressor there, either.

According to some judges who presented dissentient judgments to the trial, like Judge Radhabinod Pal of India and Judge Bert V.A. Roling of Holland, all the verdicts of guilty charges, including Death by Hanging to seven men, was gpresumed guiltyh being against the decent law practice. With no perjury applied to the prosecutorfs side, the trial accepted all evidences presented by the prosecutors even though most of them were in fact groundless hearsay or even mere rumors, while the evidences that would work in favour of the defendants were plainly dismissed altogether.
The trial was just a gvictorfs justiceh.

I have no intention to jump to the conclusion that Japan was pure innocent with all those warfare in the past, but, having seen those undeniable evidences of provocation of Japan by the U.S.A. that Stinnett has revealed before us, I think it is sensible for us all to, at least to say, re-examine whole issue of the war in the light of truly decent International Laws of War and history studies. This is about Calumny made against Japan by the Allied Powers under the name of the gInternational justiceh. Does the International community recognise the responsibility towards the defamation on a country for half a century long? At least, I think, the false accusations on the Japanese individuals should be recognised and in that light true history should be re-studied to see if any other gtrueh aggressors have been overlooked for the sake of the worldfs peace seeking.

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Summary: Claims Long Proven PHONY. A Deceitful Book
Review: The reviewer from Southern California on 26 Sept 2001 make an interesting statement that FDR knew from intercepted dipomatic message that Germany will declared war on US when Japan attacked the United States. Funny that I didn't see that in the book anywhere and for sure, its not in the index. I wondered where that reviewer got his information since I never heard of it. If such thing were true, then FDR may had a case for covering up and allowing the Japanese to attacked.

But since I haven't seen it on paper yet, I have to go along with the fact that if FDR wanted a war with Germany, Japan would be the last source. Did FDR knew that Germany would declared war on US? Did FDR knew that Hitler would make such a stupid blunder that will caused Germany repeat the mistakes of 1917 and if so, how come no one has written about such foresight? Becuase if all the answers to these questions are "NO", then this book don't have a purpose despite of all the nice writing and evidences provided by the author. Without war with Germany, there was no sense in having war with Japan, in fact that would be the exact opposite of what FDR wanted!! Japan's alliance with Germany did not gurantee Germany's declaration since such alliance was of a defensive nature. Why would anyone think that FDR wanted a war with Japan without Germany? If there is an evidence of prior knowledge that Germany will entered the war against the United States with Japan, I would like to know about it. That would be a real conspiracy worth reading about. But I doubt that the Japanese dipomatic corps knew anything about Pearl Harbor planning while Germany was still kind of hoping that Japan would help them against the Russians. But this book does not show such revealing evidence and in the end, its all second guessing, hindsight analysis and conjectures based on very good research but pointless without the real prize.

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Summary: What Did They Know and When Did They Know It?
Review: To the many uninformed, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was a devastating surprise. To those knowledgeable, it was not. The author claims that the US Government carefully orchestrated a series of moves to create this attack. Historians learned that some knowledge or warnings of this were known in advance. Dusko Popov's 1972 book tells how he and Ian Fleming visited J. Edgar Hoover in July 1941 to tell of Axis interest in the defenses of Pearl Harbor. The author served in the Navy under Lieutenant George Bush, and earned ten battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation. After he retired as a photographer and journalist in 1986, he devoted his time to research and writing this book.

Appendix A has Lieutenant Commander Arthur McCollum's proposed eight actions of October 7, 1940 designed to provoke Japan into attacking. Allying with Britain, Holland, and China; sending heavy cruisers and submarines to the Orient; keeping the fleet in Hawaii; refuse selling oil to Japan; and a trade embargo with Japan. Stinnett does not question America's entry into the war, or even the manipulation to force the Japanese attack. He just wanted to reveal what actually happened; a scoop by a reporter. During 1941 a Japanese spy surveyed Pearl Harbor as a target. His last message on December 6 said it was ready for a surprise attack (p.85). All the time he was watched by Naval Intelligence! The FBI wiretapped the telephones of the Japanese consulate (p.86). But Admiral Kimmel was not informed (p.95). In August 1941 this spy established grid coordinates to prepare for the attack. Their transmissions were intercepted and decoded (p.99). Yet Admiral Kimmel and General Short were not informed (p.107). Did a Rear Admiral leave his ship Saturday to be safe at home Sunday (p.111)?

In early November 1941 Ambassador Joseph Grew warned that Japan decided on war with America (pp.143-4). After Admiral Kimmel ordered a search for Japanese forces north of Hawaii, the White House countermanded his order (p.145). This book is so rich in details that is can't be easily summarized here. Except to note that if Kimmel and Short were kept in the loop, the attack on Pearl Harbor would not have been a surprise. The imperialist conflicts between Japan and Britain, China, and Holland spread like a forest fire. But "the United States desires that Japan commit the first overt act" (p.282). The 'Epilogue' summarizes this book.

"The Wrath To Come" is the title of an E. Phillips Oppenheim novel written in the mid 1920s. Reflecting the politics of that time, this novel suggested a plan for a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and attacks by Germany and Russia along the Atlantic seaboard.




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Summary: This changes everything
Review: Whether or not you accept all Stinnett's conclusions, there's no question his research has opened important new doors. And for that, he deserves our thanks.

'The heart of this book,' Stinnett writes on page 258, is the assertion 'that a systematic plan had been in place long before Pearl Harbor that would climax with the attack.' As soon as the smoking ruins of the Pacific Fleet were extinguished in December, 1941, and ever since, many observers (Beard, Russett, Toland, etc.) have questioned whether FDR deliberately adopted a stance designed to provoke Japan into making the first 'overt act of war.' This aspect of Stinnett's argument is nothing new.

What *is* new is Stinnett's discovery of a memorandum by Arthur McCollum, a Navy lieutenant commander and Japan expert, outlining an eight-point scheme to back the Japanese into a corner and provoke an attack. Stinnet tracks the memo from McCollum to a naval strategist in the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) named Knox. From there, the trail goes cold, although Stinnett has circumstantial evidence that it traveled from Knox to ONI chief Captain Walter Anderson, USN, and thence to FDR himself.

Stinnett's argument is that FDR adopted McCollum's policy recommendations, thus setting America on the road to war with Japan. He can't prove this irrefutably, but you don't need the smoking gun to know there's a trout in the milk (to cruelly mix metaphors). Whether he needed McCollum to outline them for him or not, FDR unquestionably adopted policies, most significantly an embargo on trade with Japan, that any knowledgeable person should have seen would dramatically increase the likelihood of war. I wonder, therefore, whether McCollum's memo is as significant as Stinnett believes it is.

What is unquestionably significant, however, is the enormous volume of intercepted Japanese message traffic that Stinnett reports. For one reason or another (declassification of previously classified files, incomplete research, military cover-ups, etc.), much of the signal intelligence information in this book was previously unreported. And it is this mass of information that will have to be addressed, pro or con, by every serious writer on Pearl Harbor from now on.

Prior to 'Day of Deceit,' it was possible to argue that Roosevelt wanted to provoke Japan into striking the first blow, but that even he was surprised by the sudden, ferocious attack on Pearl Harbor. That position is much less tenable today. Accepting this fact does not require you to believe that American participation in the war was therefore unjustified. But it should lead us to a much more clear-eyed view of American foreign policy in the months and years leading up to the Day of Infamy.